Help understanding this opening (very common).
Sort:
I find the Spanish very confusing especially with the 10 move or so forced continuation during the Open Variation.
I dunno, then it keeps the possible pin going against the rook, and if Black wants to do b5, then he basically ruins any chance of him queenside castling.
This is the Ruy Lopez, while the line you show here is common, it's not the only one available. I play the Ruy Lopez often, and I usually play the exchange variation. 3.Bxc6.
hi there!Ba4 is there the other option aside from Bc6,which leads to the Ruy Lopez exchange variation,leading to endgame play where Black's trumps are his two bishops whilw White relies on his better pawn structure to give him a better game.actually, taking the knight Bc6 doesn't win a pawn because Blask replies dc6 ang if white plays Ne5, Qd4! forks the knight and the e-pawn.So Ba4 instead white is planning a complex middlegame with many pieces on the board.study Fischer's games with Ba4 and Bc6 variations to graps the subtleties of the opening.My Sixty Memorable Games...
Maintaining pressure on the knight hinders blacks development somewhat because if black pushs the queen pawn (...d4 or ...d5) he creates a pin on the knight with the king a long ways from castling out of it. Ba4 is simply a reasonable alternative to Bc4 or Be2 which appear to be backtracking somewhat. As long as equality is maintained, any series of moves (to a certian point) can be considered an opening.
So why Ba4? Why bring out a bishop and move it back again?