Portal:Chess/Selected article
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Ruy Lopez, generally called the Spanish Game outside of English speaking countries, is a chess opening characterised by the moves (in algebraic notation):
The Ruy Lopez is one of the most popular openings. It has such a vast number of variations that in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings all codes from C60 to C99 are assigned to them.
The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura. He made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del Ajedrez written in 1561 (which also included some unusual suggestions that some would consider unsporting, such as setting up the board so the sun shines in one's opponent's eyes). However, although it is named after him, this particular opening was known earlier; it is included in the Göttingen manuscript, which dates from 1490. Popular use of the Ruy Lopez opening did not develop, however, until the mid-1800s when Carl Jaenisch, a Russian theoretician, "rediscovered" its potential. The opening is still in active use as the double king's pawn opening most commonly used in master play; it has been adopted by almost all players at some point in their careers and many play it from both the white and black sides.
Read more about the Ruy Lopez...
