The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterized by the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5

    The Ruy Lopez is one of the most popular openings, with such a vast number of variations that in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings all codes from C60 to C99 are assigned to them.

    At the most basic level, White's third move attacks the knight which defends the e5 pawn from the attack by the f3 knight.