A Simple Plan in the Ruy Lopez

The Ruy Lopez has been regarded as one of the most complicated openings in chess. Whether ranging from the theory to the actual back and forth attacks, this opening has the reputation to not be the most forgiving. That being said, the opening is quite fun to play. Whether we are grandmasters or not, many of us want to hop into a Ruy Lopez, and duke it out blow for blow. If only opening theory wasn't a problem.

Well, it doesn't have to be!

Within the Ruy Lopez, there are many options for both sides. The option I am going to show you today is the "theory-proof" option, that involves a simple plan. Rather than the mainline d4, this plan begins with d3. After this, here are the following steps to this plan:

1) Maneuver b1 knight to g3
2) Maneuver f3 knight to g4
3) Attack on h file

Here is a game that shows this idea to completion, just to drive the point home.



The study is attached here: lichess.org/study/7Homd59S

Now my execution of some of the ideas in the example game was not perfect. I made a few inaccuracies and miscalculations. In order to truly learn from this game, I encourage you all to go through the game, and try to find improvements for white (particularly during the attacking phase).

If you are interested in seeing more interesting articles like this, competing in simuls with strong players, and participating in tournament giveaways, join the club Chess Learners here: lichess.org/team/chess-learners

White won, so improvements should be found for black, not for white. 17...Qh4 seems much stronger than 17...Qd7.

@tpr White did indeed win, however, if you look at the computer evaluation, black was better at certain points because of mistakes white made. Just because your opponent doesn't catch your mistakes does not mean you shouldn't seek to find improvements.

Just to drive home how well in the plan works in a diverse range of Ruy Lopez variations, here is another game I just played using the exact same plan:



Even though I lost in the end due to a blunder, I had effectively used the plan to score a winning position. Try to find the winning combination instead of Nxg6??