Openings · C60–C99

Ruy López

Pressure on the knight that defends e5 — a squeeze rather than a threat.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5played as White

The idea

3.Bb5 attacks the defender of e5 rather than e5 itself. It does not win a pawn and is not trying to; it asks Black to spend moves on ...a6 and ...b5, and then White builds with c3, d4 and a knight rerouted to g3.

It is the most heavily analysed opening in chess, which cuts both ways: the plans are clear and well understood, and so are Black's. The Exchange Variation, 4.Bxc6, is a genuine alternative that plays for a structure rather than an attack.

Practise the line

You play White; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 30/3

1.e4e5
2.Nf3Nc6
3.Bb5

Your move. Drag a piece, or tap it and then its square.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Believing the pin wins the pawn

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 Qd4

The mistake: Taking on c6 and then grabbing e5.
Why it costs: 5…Qd4 hits the knight on e5 and the pawn on e4 at the same time; Black wins the material straight back and comes out with the two bishops for it.
Instead: 5.O-O. The Exchange Variation is about giving Black doubled pawns, not about winning one.

The Noah's Ark Trap

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.d4 b5 6.Bb3 Nxd4 7.Nxd4 exd4 8.Qxd4 c5

The mistake: Recapturing on d4 with the queen.
Why it costs: 8…c5 hits the queen, and …c4 next shuts the bishop in behind Black's own pawns on a6, b5 and c4. It is a trap old enough to have a name, and it still catches people because every move Black plays looks like an attack on something else.
Instead: 8.Bd5, hitting a8 and f7 at once, which is the known way out of the whole idea.

Walking into the Marshall

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5

The mistake: Reaching the main line against an opponent who has prepared the Marshall Attack.
Why it costs: Black gives a pawn for an attack that has been analysed for a hundred years. Defending it over the board, against someone who has looked at it and you have not, is not a fair fight — and the position is not the kind you can work out from general principles.
Instead: 8.a4 or 8.h3 first. Both are ordinary moves that decline the argument, and both are why they are called anti-Marshalls.

Where it fits

The lines out of it with pages of their own: Ruy López, Berlin Defence and Ruy López, Morphy Defence.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.