Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Wing Attack
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. a4
The Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Wing Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO C78, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. a4. It is a line of the Ruy Lopez. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 40 times by this move order. White won 40%, 10% were drawn and Black won 50%. The most popular continuation is 7… Bb7 (43% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.29 (Stockfish, depth 38; best line 7… Bb7 8. d3 O-O 9. Re1 d6 10. Bd2)
- ECO
- C78
- Moves
- 13 plies
- FEN
r1bqk2r/2ppbppp/p1n2n2/1p2p3/P3P3/1B3N2/1PPP1PPP/RNBQ1RK1 b kq - 0 7- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. a4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 2 | |
| 1500-1999 | 17 | |
| 2000+ | 21 | |
| All | 40 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7… Bb7 | 17 (43%) | |
| 7… b4 | 10 (25%) | |
| 7… Rb8 | 10 (25%) | |
| 7… O-O | 1 (3%) | |
| 7… bxa4 | 1 (3%) | |
| 7… Na5 | 1 (3%) |
Master games
129 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 69%, draw 12%, Black 19%). The strongest:
- GM Sergei Zhigalko (2572) – GM Martyn Kravtsiv (2598) 0-1 · Titled Tue 27th Sep Early · 2022-09-27
- GM Yuriy Kryvoruchko (2675) – IM Petro Golubka (2479) 1-0 · 88th ch-UKR 2019 · 2019-12-17
- GM Julio E Granda Zuniga (2648) – IM Nino Batsiashvili (2480) 1-0 · chess.com IoM Masters · 2016-10-08
- GM Boris Savchenko (2581) – GM Vadim Moiseenko (2532) 1-0 · TCh-RUS Rapid 2019 · 2019-10-19
- GM Peter Acs (2589) – IM Miklos Nemeth (2487) 0-1 · TCh-HUN 2019-20 · 2019-11-17
Search all games of the Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Wing Attack and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- SouthWind06 (2558) – Normal_one (2696) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Barry_Lindon (2545) – anhbutk (2662) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- TaubenAnDieMacht (2405) – Hammurapi65 (2487) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 600 + 0s
Comes from
Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense (4… Nf6 5. O-O) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O
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.