Ruy Lopez: Closed, Center Attack
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d4
The Ruy Lopez: Closed, Center Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO C84, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d4. It is a line of the Ruy Lopez. Black is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 139 times by this move order. White won 54%, 2% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 6… exd4 (45% of games).
Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 58; best line 6… O-O 7. dxe5 Nxe4 8. Bf4 Nc5 9. Nc3)
- ECO
- C84
- Moves
- 11 plies
- FEN
r1bqk2r/1pppbppp/p1n2n2/4p3/B2PP3/5N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQ1RK1 b kq - 0 6- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 13 | |
| 1500-1999 | 51 | |
| 2000+ | 75 | |
| All | 139 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 6… exd4 | 62 (45%) | |
| 6… b5 | 51 (37%) | |
| 6… Nxe4 | 10 (7%) | |
| 6… Nxd4 | 7 (5%) | |
| 6… O-O | 6 (4%) | |
| 6… d6 | 3 (2%) |
Master games
230 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 38%, draw 28%, Black 34%). The strongest:
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2736) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2859) 1/2-1/2 · chess.com SpeedChess 2022 · 2022-12-16
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2780) – GM Liren Ding (2801) 1-0 · 11th London Classic 2019 · 2019-12-08
- GM Richard Rapport (2763) – GM Sergey Karjakin (2743) 1/2-1/2 · 7th Gashimov Mem Blitz · 2021-12-23
- GM Andrey Esipenko (2698) – GM Bassem Amin (2622) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 24th Mar 2026 · 2026-03-24
- GM Christopher Woojin Yoo (2606) – GM V Pranav (2608) 1-0 · chess.com Junior Speed · 2023-06-13
Search all games of the Ruy Lopez: Closed, Center Attack and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- yeti806 (2535) – IM Alex_lucky (2591) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 2s
- yeti806 (2530) – Carcelario85 (2472) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 2s
- yeti806 (2533) – MKS2020 (2461) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
Ruy Lopez: Closed (5. O-O Be7) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7
Continuations
- Ruy Lopez: Closed, Basque Gambit C84 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d4 exd4 7. e5 Ne4 8. c3
More Ruy Lopez lines (all)
- Ruy Lopez C60
- Ruy Lopez: Alapin Defense C60
- Ruy Lopez: Alapin Defense, Alapin Gambit C60
- Ruy Lopez: Brentano Gambit C60
- Ruy Lopez: Bulgarian Variation C60
- Ruy Lopez: Cozio Defense C60
- Ruy Lopez: Cozio Defense, Paulsen Variation C60
- Ruy Lopez: Cozio Defense, Tartakower Gambit C60
- Ruy Lopez: Fianchetto Defense C60
- Ruy Lopez: Fianchetto Defense, Kevitz Gambit C60
- Ruy Lopez: Lucena Variation C60
- Ruy Lopez: Nürnberg Variation C60
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.