Ruy Lopez: Open, Main Line

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6

The Ruy Lopez: Open, Main Line is a chess opening classified as ECO C80, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6. It is a line of the Ruy Lopez. White is to move. 3 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 276 times by this move order. White won 48%, 9% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 9. c3 (51% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.22 (Stockfish, depth 53; best line 9. c3 Bc5 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Bc2 Nxf2)

ECO: C80
Moves: 16 plies
FEN: r2qkb1r/2p2ppp/p1n1b3/1p1pP3/4n3/1B3N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQ1RK1 w kq - 1 9
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	6	50%17%33%
1500-1999	75	41%49%
2000+	195	51%42%
All	276	48%43%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
9. c3 Open (8… Be6 9. c3)	142 (51%)	55%37%
9. Nbd2 Open, Bernstein Variation	65 (24%)	48%43%
9. Re1	18 (7%)	22%67%
9. Qe2 Open, Howell Attack (8… Be6 9. Qe2)	17 (6%)	29%65%
9. Be3	14 (5%)	50%43%
9. a4	9 (3%)	44%23%33%
9. Nc3	3 (1%)	100%
9. Bf4	3 (1%)	100%

Master games

560 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 41%, draw 34%, Black 25%). The strongest:

GM Fabiano Caruana (2806) – GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2782) 1-0 · Saint Louis Rapid 2021 · 2021-08-13
GM Fabiano Caruana (2819) – GM Viswanathan Anand (2767) 1/2-1/2 · 7th Norway Chess 2019 · 2019-06-12
GM Fabiano Caruana (2804) – GM Anish Giri (2782) 1/2-1/2 · GCT Rapid Paris 2016 · 2016-06-09
GM Anish Giri (2798) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2787) 1/2-1/2 · 78th Tata Steel GpA · 2016-01-19
GM Fabiano Caruana (2806) – GM Leinier Dominguez Perez (2758) 0-1 · Saint Louis Blitz 2021 · 2021-08-15

Search all games of the Ruy Lopez: Open, Main Line and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

calculus9001 (2578) – IM Ural_bogatyr (2587) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
TwilightX6M2200Magic (2556) – IM Ural_bogatyr (2595) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
FuriaEn64 (2623) – Byvshev22 (2459) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Ruy Lopez: Open (7… d5 8. dxe5) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5

Continuations

Ruy Lopez: Open (8… Be6 9. c3) C82 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. c3
Ruy Lopez: Open, Bernstein Variation C80 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Nbd2
Ruy Lopez: Open, Howell Attack (8… Be6 9. Qe2) C81 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Qe2

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.