Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Norwegian Variation

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Na5

The Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Norwegian Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C70, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Na5. It is a line of the Ruy Lopez. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 590 times by this move order. White won 51%, 7% were drawn and Black won 42%. The most popular continuation is 6. O-O (21% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.47 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 6. O-O d6 7. d4 exd4 8. Re1 Nxb3)

ECO: C70
Moves: 10 plies
FEN: r1bqkbnr/2pp1ppp/p7/np2p3/4P3/1B3N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 2 6
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Na5

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	224	54%41%
1500-1999	251	55%41%
2000+	115	39%50%
All	590	51%42%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
6. O-O	125 (21%)	54%38%
6. Nxe5	125 (21%)	54%42%
6. c3	116 (20%)	49%47%
6. Bxf7+ Morphy Defense, Norwegian Variation, Nightingale Gambit	69 (12%)	43%51%
6. Bd5	56 (9%)	46%45%
6. d4	43 (7%)	53%12%35%
6. Nc3	22 (4%)	64%32%
6. d3	20 (3%)	50%45%

Master games

759 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 37%, draw 25%, Black 38%). The strongest:

GM Viswanathan Anand (2743) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2810) 1/2-1/2 · TechM GCL 2025 · 2025-12-22
GM Erigaisi Arjun (2797) – GM Praggnanandhaa R (2746) 1-0 · WR Chess Masters 2024 · 2024-10-16
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2760) – GM Alireza Firouzja (2759) 1-0 · GCT Rapid Paris 2021 · 2021-06-20
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2736) – GM Alireza Firouzja (2766) 1/2-1/2 · 12th Sinquefield Cup · 2025-08-18
GM Abhimanyu Puranik (2618) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2839) 1/2-1/2 · Qatar Masters Open 2023 · 2023-10-20

Search all games of the Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Norwegian Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Sunrise34 (2904) – Superstitions_Guy (2844) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
IM Kostik_Mostik (2882) – Superstitions_Guy (2764) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
kuhmft (2838) – Superstitions_Guy (2743) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Caro Variation 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 b5

Continuations

Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Norwegian Variation, Nightingale Gambit C70 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Na5 6. Bxf7+

More Ruy Lopez lines (all)

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.