Learn the Ruy Lopez opening

The Ruy Lopez (also known as the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game) is one of the oldest and most analyzed openings in chess history. Most of the world's top players have adopted this rich opening as part of their repertoire, and many of them play it with both colors. 

This is the starting position of the Ruy Lopez

The opening is named after the 16th-century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del Ajedrez, written in 1561. Although it bears his name, this particular opening was included in the Göttingen manuscript, which dates from c. 1490. 

The - old and successful Soviet school of chess knew how to develop chess talent. They advised all aspiring chess players early in their careers to play the Ruy Lopez with both colours as they would then be exposed to almost every kind of position - closed, semi-closed and open and with all kind of pawn-formations. In his monumental work in his predecessors Kasparov also likes to stress this point. In the 5th book he quotes Capablanca, who said that the Ruy Lopez is touchstone understanding positional play. 

Here are couple of Ruy Lopez games