Ruy Lopez

This venerable opening (also known as the Spanish opening) is so rich in strategic ideas that it has remained popular for around 150 years. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 White places pressure on c6 (which can easily translate to pressure against e5, since the c6-Knight is the main defender of that pawn) and tells Black that any move of the d7-pawn will result in the c6-Knight being pinned.