Nearly half a millennium later, the Ruy remains one of the most popular chess openings. Chess experts have come up with numerous variations, and a wide variety of strategic plans are available to both white and black. The starting position of the Ruy Lopez is reached after the following moves: 1. e4, e5; 2. Nf3, Nc6; and 3. Bb5. Popular lines in the Ruy Lopez include but are not limited to the Morphy defense, Steinitz defense, and the Berlin defense. Each of these and several other variations lead to numerous sub-variations. It remained popular through the 19th century but today has been supplanted by the Ruy Lopez as white’s favorite choice on the third move. In this opening, Bc4 eyes black’s potentially weak f7 pawn, but over the years, improved defensive techniques have shown this to be less dangerous to black than Bb5. Still, the Italian game often leads to aggressive, open positions, which can be fun to play. This opening is still used at all levels and is quite popular among club players. Variations in the Italian game include the two knights defense and the Hungarian defense. There are many distinct variations in the Sicilian defense, each of which leads to different types of positions, they are the closed Sicilian, classical Sicilian, dragon variation, and Najdorf variation. After the most typical line of 2. d4, d5, white’s “e” pawn is immediately pressured, and white must decide how to deal with this. This leads to several variations including the exchange variation, advance variation, Tarrasch variation, Winawer variation, and classical variation. Popular variations in the Caro-Kann include the classical variation, advance variation, exchange variation, and Panov-Botvinnik attack. Some common variations of the Pirc defense include the classical system and Austrian attack. Black has several options: the queen’s gambit accepted, queen’s gambit declined, and the Slav defense. There are many popular lines arising after Nf6: the king’s Indian defense, Nimzo-Indian defense, queen’s Indian defense, and the Grunfeld defense. One well-known setup that can arise from the English opening is the Hedgehog defense. One possible formation for white is the king’s Indian attack.
