The Ruy Lopez, considered the most common of the
chess openings, begins with both black and white
kings' pawns advancing. Then white brings out the
king's knight which
puts pressure on black's advanced king pawn. Black brings out the
queen's
knight to defend its pawn. What makes this a Ruy Lopez is that white brings
out the
king's bishop to attack the
black knight. The
contested square
in this is the black's king's pawn (e5). With this opening white has pressure
on e5 from the
king's knight and a
pin on the black knight that is
defending the square from the
king's bishop. It is also known as the
Spanish Torture. This is widely viewed as the most powerful of the openings for white and is the most studied of all the openings, some books will say the Ruy Lopez has been studied more than all other openings combined. It's definitely a nice way to use white's one free
tempo to slowly strangle black.
The battle for the center begins.
Here is the notation:
1. e4-e5
2. Nf3-Nc6
3. Bb5
see also Morphy's Defense, The Worrall Attack, The Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation and
The Noah's Ark trap
chess openings
endgames in chess