ruy lopez 3.nd4

white to move do i just take the knight and give black a strong pawn how can i punish him for moveing knight twice in a row

he may be punishing you for moving the bishop there now. it would've looked better on c4, still would. you have a few options but i don't think you can punish him. i think white lost a tempo, but can continue with development. you shouldn't exchange pieces though unless there's a good reason for it.

I would be tempted to go for

4. Nxe5    Nxb5
5. Nxf7     Kxf7
6. Qh5+    g6
7. Qxb5

You lose the bishop for two pawns, an exposed king and a strong claim in the center. A risky strategy with more analysis required i reckon.

Still, hope it helps :)

Nxd4, followed by O-O.

or  4. Ba4.......b5 !? 5. Ba3  Nxb3   6. axb3... the a-file is open for the rook...

whoops!! sorry Ninjalol, my mistake! shows how much i know

Thanks tonydal. i checked the game explorer... 4.Nxd4 is by far the most popular and successful continuation of the Bird variation amoung master games here. I'll have to give it a whirl!

I recently played a tournament in which my opponent tried this against me, and I moved 4. c4. Can anyone do an analysis on this for me? I went on to win quite easily, but this move definitely caught me off guard. Thank you.

I used to play this line as Black.  It's called Bird's Variation.

Here's how to play it:

I like taking on d4 followed by Bc4

Nxe5 followed by Qh5. If g6, Nxg6 followed by Qe5. If queen moves, c4 followed by Nc3 and Nd5. If knight moves you can start pushing pawns with strong attack and nice space. This is an example variation and wouldn't use if your playing a player over 1500.