Ruy Lopez

Continued from Ruy Lopez.

Black’s first move most likely would be either kings’ pawn to either e5 or e6 followed by black kings knight to f6 to support the black pawn and to avoid ceding control of center board. Once the white knight is posted to b5 black must respond defensively to protect the black king. Black cannot move black queen pawn as he cannot move into check so that leaves only two options for black. First, Black could move black queens’ knight to c6. If the knight is chosen to block the white pawn, white can leave the bishop in this menacing position or trade his bishop for the black knight. If White selects the trade option, White will have created a doubled pawn file for Black, making the second ineffective. The doubled pawns would be sitting on c7 and c6. The second blocking option Black could chose would be to move queen bishops pawn to c6. If a pawn block is chosen, White would retreat his bishop to a4. Black often decides to continue driving the white bishop back and could move queens knight pawn to b5 forcing the white bishop to retreat to b3. If Black decides to block with the pawns, the white bishop will sitting on an attack angle threatening a black castle on black kings side as a queen side castle is impossible with two pawns off the pawn row; a very strong position. Examine the board position; White is developing at center board while black is split with pieces in play on both sides of the board. The game is far too early for Black to be playing both sides of the board. Black has also extended his pawns with no support from the major pieces.

An additional opportunity for White is to win the black pawn that may be sitting on e5. Black does not have an effective response to attack the white pawn at e4 as his attention has been devoted the driving off the white bishop. If White elects to avoid the black pawn capture, the next move could be a castle followed by advancing the white queens, bishop and knight pawns to bring more pressure to center board. These other options for White occur after the bishop threat is temporarily neutralized, but offer many attacking options for White generated from the Ruy Lopez. The White opportunities and variations from the Ruy Lopez opening are numerous making the Ruy Lopez a must-learn.

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