The Ruy Lopez by GM Prasad and GM Panchanathan

GM Prasad and GM Panchanathan have written an article on Chess.com that gives a basic overview of one of the most popular openings of all time. They analyze the game Karpov-Unzicker (1974) to illustrate the common strategy of the Ruy Lopez.

Here it is, the Ruy Lopez opening for white. Other than white's direct threat of capturing the Knight on c6 and taking the e5 pawn, white in the long term decides to keep his bishop on the queen side. Notice that keeping the bishop on the queenside does not mean that it has nothing to do with the king side. White's light squared bishop is used along the a2-g8 diagonal as well as the b1-h7 diagonal defending against black's future f5 ideas.

One of the basic traits of this opening is the possibility to play on both sides of the board, particularly when the center gets closed.

This is the second article in their weekly series. They have also done a similar article for the Sicilian Najdorf.

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