The Ruy Lopez

HEELLLOOO Chess.com, It is I, BESTMOM, with yet another fantastic topic. Get ready for a test of strength, will, mental strength, and knowledge. How many of you have heard of the legendary chess opening called the Ruy Lopez? I will tell you this. It is a well known opening now yet it is not used in tournaments very often which is an asset to some players who use it, such as myself. It is one of my favorite openings to use and I have one countless games in tournaments and in longterm games on here and in clubs outside of the website. Tell me chess players, how many of you have heard of this opening? How many of you have used it? Do you use it at all? Leave comments please about this opening and if you find any puzzles on it, please don't hesitate to post them. Post notations or even games you have played or even seen. Winning games, losing games, doesn't matter. There is only chess and chess chooses those who trust themselves. So, do you trust yourselves players of chess.com? :)! I will be waiting. Happy playing :).

Also known as "The Spanish" and is played by anyone who wants to improve. I took the cheap way out and avoided it for a long time, stunting my chess development for some time.

How many of you have heard of the legendary chess opening called the Ruy Lopez? 

http://www.chess.com/forum/search?keyword=ruy+lopez

I play it as Black...and it's not as rare as you think!

The only time I play it as Black is transposing in from the London system... that always seems to confuse my opponents.

It's like some kind of Veresov, but in reverse.

That would be a good opening!

Now I know it is not a rare opening. What I meant was that it is not really seen in tournaments these days. You don't really find it being used in them. It seems to always be the Kings Gambit Accepted or Declined. Or the Queens Gambit or the Nimzo Indian, Sicilian Defense, Caro Kann, or any of those ones. And when using it as black. It seems to go much better for black than white sometimes.

blueemo, that is a very good point there. It is cool that you use it that way. Anything that you use that can confuse your opponent can be used to achieve certain victory in tournaments. However, not every chess player is the same.

The Ruy Lopez is much more common in tournaments than any King's Gambit or the Caro-Kann.

I will have to look back at my games that I played in my tournaments. Only three of my players used it against me even when I used it. I will have to keep a look out. Anyway. Thanks for the input :). Although. You do find a lot of players use the gambits though and the caro kann. Especially in the major tournaments.

The Ruy Lopez is the most popular 1.e4 e5 opening by far, and 1...e5 is much more popular than 1...c6. This is using statistics from major tournaments. The King's Gambit is played in less than 1 in 100 grandmaster games.

Now that I can relate with. I have noticed that many of my opponentes use e5 against me when I play e4. It always seems like a natural reaction. Same as when I played Alex Lenderman in chess. I believe he used e5 against me. As well as some other masters.

Again though. Thank you for your knowledge of this opening.

from TWIC 961 Caro 54 games, Kings Gambit 5 games and the Ruy 45 games.

edit: 1.e4 e5 130 games. Out of 1,461 games.

Ok. The majority of the games are mainly Ruy Lopez and Caro Kann. Those two openings are used most of the time. Thank you kco for your input. I guess that statistics for gambits are not that high after all.

Here's the London System => Ruy Lopez transposition that I was referring to above:

It starts off as a Queen's Pawn opening... but transposes to an e4/e5 Ruy Lopez Breyer variation, with Black (me) about four tempos up over the book line.

Its very interesting and very effective. Although white had the attacking advantage early on in the game, black had strong defense and in the end with a lot of moving around and trading pieces, I can see why white resigned. Black would have promoted to a queen. I can see a little bit of a dutch variation in this game to though. Just a tad bit. Thanks again. This here chess.com is a player who knows what to do in a game. Thanks for the post blueemu :). Happy playing my friends.

The position after move 12 is a textbook type of Ruy Lopez Breyer vatiation position... except that White is missing about four moves. He would usually have played N(d2)-f1-g3, a2-a4 and B(b3)-c2 by now.

The reason that this transposition put me so many moves ahead is that, in the mainline Ruy Lopez Breyer, Black plays N(b8)-c6 and then later retreats it back to b8 and brings it out again on d7; and he plays B(f8)-e7 and then later retreats it back to f8 and brings it out again on g7. In the above game, I reached a typical Breyer position but was able to play Nd7 and Bg7 directly... putting myself four moves ahead of the book lines.

You have to admit though. Black had a strong defense and white was obviously gearinn up for an attack somewhere in that game. From what I saw when I played through it, the tension on the board was great until someone awoke the giant in it and started the actually battle around move 12. Very good game though. Black held his own the whole time and was strong in the endgame.