Ruy Lopez / Spanish Opening
Ruy Lopez Opening
- http://www.chess.com/video/player/openings-for-beginners-the-ruy-lopez
- 1. e4 e5 2. f3 Nc6 3. Bb5
- This opening is a flexible slightly aggressive attack with strong tempo.
- It opens up the board for White and provides good lines of attack, pressuring Black from the start, whilst disrupting Black’s pawn structure.
- Unlike the Italian game (3.Bc4), this opening is not symmetrical, allowing White to pressure Black, putting Black on the defensive from the start. Thus allowing White create tempo in play.
Ruy Lopez - Playing as white
Aim:
- Primarily to open up the board for yourself in order to provide a strong structure defensive base with multiple opportunities to attack.
- Take advantage of any mistakes by black.
As White
- Bishop retreats to b3 eventually (unless you want to play the exchange variant).
- Looking to castle at some time.
- King Rook typically defends e4 pawn
- h3 is a strong preventative move
- d4 is a strong pressuring move
Ruy Lopez – Playing as black
Aim:
- Survive the opening with relative strength.
- Bait the traps is the opportunities arise.
As Black
- Feel free to push the bishop away with a6 and then b5 (Morphy Defense)
- Exchange variation: If white exchanges use d7 to recapture as it frees up your bishop lines.
- Two main responses
- 3…Nf6, which is the Berlin Defense
- 3…a6, which is Morphy Defense
- 3…d6, which is Steinitz Defense is less common, but also an option
Exchange Variation (4.Bxc6 dxc6)
- If White decides to take the undefended pawn on e5 (5.Nxe5), the trap has been triggered.
Berlin Defense (3…Nf6) – The Fishing Pole Trap
- Done before castling and done once they have castled
- Ng4 is the key move.
- If they try and drive it away with h3, h5 and get ready to sacrifice the Knight.
- If hxg4 then trap is almost sprung, or at this stage it is a severe problem for White.
- If they move the Knight, then trap is fully done as you will being your Queen over (Qh4) and threaten checkmate.
- http://en.lichess.org/video/Qac6OFDHdTs?tags=ruy+lopez
Modern Steinitz Defense (3…d6) – The Fishing Pole Trap II
- Done before castling and done once they have castled.
- Same as the Berlin version, except we are going to use the bishop (4…Bg4).
- As before, if White defends with 5.h3, we go h5. Opening the rook line up with our Queen ready to come over once he moves the Knight.
Modern Steinitz Defense (3…d6) – Noah’s Ark Trap
- The move we are looking for is d4 from White.
- Once that happens, break the pin on the Knight (a6 and b5)
- Exchange on d4 with the Knight and Pawn – this will leave your pawn hanging.
- If White takes the hanging pawn (d4), the trap has been triggered.
- c5 will force the Queen to move, our aim is to capture the Bishop by moving to c4.
- If the Queen moves right away we can go c4 and win a Bishop
- If the Queen goes to d5 we can use our Bishop to harass the Queen until we can safely move to c4.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KskXvXxlkCM
Berlin Defense (3…Nf6) – Mortimer Trap
- 4…Ne7 is the defining move of this trap, it invites White to take e5 (which is the trap)
- We can then push the Bishop away with c6, which opens up the line for our Queen to fork the King and the Knight.
- Be careful, if White moves the Knight away (Nc4) instead of the Bishop, we are one move away from checkmate ourselves.
- This move by White is also fine as we will trigger trap number two, by moving to d6.
- For white to save the Bishop they will go to Ba4 which leads us to another fork once we go to b5.
- http://en.lichess.org/video/wntv7HrF5vQ?tags=ruy+lopez
