Is there a name for this opening trap in Ruy Lopez? Comes up a lot in my games

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 4. c3 d6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Kf1!! and black loses his dark-squared bishop.

I'm very surprised how often this comes up in my games and unless you really know your theory 7. Nc3 seems so much more natural for white and is what I played until I really started studying my games with a computer engine and saw this beauty.

Is there a name for this? Have you all seen this much? Obviously black has not not know a lot of theory because 3... Bc5 is not a common move although it looks pretty natural developing the bishop outside the pawn chain.

3...Bc5 is a very normal move, played by many GMs.

In particular this sort of game is often reached via anti-Berlin move orders e.g. 3...Nf6 4.d3 Bc5

As for how to conceptualize the move 6...Bb4+ and 7.Kf1 the idea is (trying to keep it simple here) white has two threats... so black plays a check to try and gain time to wiggle out of it... but the bishop on b4 is trapped / not safe, so it doesn't work.

When your opponent has multiple threats playing checks, captures, and counter threats is the way to go, but in this particular position it doesn't work out for black.

As for your question about the name, this is a mix between a philidor (characterized by d6) and whatever the old line is called (the one with Bc5, not sure it has a name actually).

3...Bc5 is called the classical Ruy Lopez.

d6 is a mistake here.

3...Bc5 is often played by beginners or players who don't have a clue about how to answer Bb5. So they usually play bad after but 3...Bc5 is very difficult to play because black has to find something against c3-d4.

For example, possible that the best move after 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 is Sokolov's 4...f5, the main line being developing with Nf6, while there are other tries on move 4 (not so good), like Nge7, Qf6, Bb6...

Nice trap, though it would have been informative to give why black loses his DS bishop.

Great points. Yeah at my lower level there are so many ways that I have gone on to capture the DS bishop that I wasn't sure about posting just one line.

@poucin  I used to play the classical from time to time.  I never got the impression it was quite THAT bad though.  The only line that gave me a bit of trouble was

Any thoughts on this? Or best to avoid it all together?

It isn't a bad opening at all, IM poucin was just saying that often the people who try play it are inexperienced. This often happens with queen's gambit accepted for black for example.

Sometime ago Mark Morss wrote some nice articles on similar 3...Nf6 and 4...Bc5 line http://jfcampbell.us/CampbellReport/hard/h990517.htm

Thanks @TwoMove, I think it's a fun practical opening. I've also been waiting for Kramnik to dust it off like he did the ortho qgd and the berlin. Maybe in 10 years white players will fear 3...Bc5!

4.c3 f5! is surely enough the way to play as Black. White gets a small technical edge after 5.d4 fxe4 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Ne5 (I have toyed a bit with 7.Nfd2!? but Black has little to fear after 7...Bd6 8.dxe5 Be7) Bd6 8.Qh5+ g6 9.Qe2 Bf5, but Black is OK, albeit a bit clumsy due to the softness of the e4 pawn. With correct play, he should be able to equalize, though.

It's quite obvious that this was "some time ago".

I think white has the advantage after 5.Nxe5, and that 5...Nxe5 6.d4 c6 is better than the suggested 5...a6.

Morss misses in his analysis 14.c3, which is practically winning.

@pfren besides spassky I can't think of anyone who played the classical with any sort of frequency. What's stopping top players from seriously using this defense? 

Paco Vallejo, Mickey Adams, Erwin L'Ami and Ivan Sokolov have played it with some consistency.

It's unpopular because White can get a slight pull without taking some considerable risk after 4.c3.