All Ruy Lopez Variations

Hi! I made a list of all the Ruy Lopez variations and I wanted to share it with you, hopefully someone finds it useful. I gathered information about the variations from Wikipedia and organized it into an easier-to-read format. I also sorted the variations according to how popular they are in the chess.com opening database. This was my today's project when I was bored. Let me know if you know more variations!

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bb5

3. ... Nf6 The Berlin Defense

3. ... f5 The Schliemann Defense

3. ... Bc5 The Classical Variation

3. ... g6 The Fianchetto Defense

3. ... Nge7 The Cozio Defense

3. ... Nd4 The Bird's Defense

3. ... d6 The Old Steinitz Defense

3. ... Bb4 The Alapin Defense

3. ... Qe7 The Vinogradov Variation

3. ... Be7 The Lucena Variation

3. ... f6 The Nurnberg Variation

3. ... a5 The Bulgarian Variation

3. ... b6 The Rotary-Albany Gambit

3. ... g5 The Brentano Gambit

3. ... Na5 The Pollock Defense

3. ... d5 The Spanish Countergambit

3. ... a6 The Morphy Defense

4. Bxc6 The Exchange Variation

4. Ba4

4. ... d6 The Modern Steinitz Defense

4. ... Nge7 The Cozio Defense Deferred

4. ... b5

4. Bb3

5. ... Na5 The Norwegian Variation

5. ... Bc5 The Graz Variation

5. ... Bb7 The Caro Variation

4. ... g6 The Fianchetto Defense Deferred

4. ... Bc5 The Classical Defense Deferred

4. ... f5 The Schliemann Defense Deferred

4. ... Nf6

5. d3 The Anderssen Variation

5. Qe2 The Wormald Attack

5. d4 The Mackenzie Variation

5. 0-0

5. ... b5

6. Bb3

6. ... Bb7 The Arkhangelsk Defense

6. ... Bc5 The Modern Arkhangelsk Defense

5. ... Nxe4 The Open Defense

5. ... Bc5 The Möller Defense

5. ... d6 The Steinitz Defense Deferred

5. ... Be7 The Closed Defense

6. d3 The Martinez Variation

6. Bxc6 The Delayed Exchange Variation

6. Qe2 The Worral Attack

6. d4 The Centre Attack

6. Re1

6. ... d6 The Averbakh Variation

6. ... b5

7. Bb3

7. ... 0-0

8. c3 d5 The Marshall Attack

8. a4 The Anti-Marshall Variation

7. ... Bb7 The Trajkovic Counterattack

7. ... d6

8. c3 0-0

9. d4 The Yates Variation

9. ... Bg4 The Bogoljubov Variation

10. a4 The Yates / Bogoljubov Variation, The Short Attack

9. d3 The Pilnik Variation

9. a3 The Suetin Variation

9. Bc2 The Lutikov Variation

9. h3

9. ... Na5 The Chigorin Variation

9. ... Nb8 The Breyer Variation

9. ... Bb7 The Zaitsev Variation

9. ... Nd7 The Karpov Variation

9. ... h6 The Smyslov Variation

9. ... Be6 The Kholomov Variation

9. ... a5 The Keres Variation

This was a very good list, more detailed than the ECO codes from C60-C99. This post should be upvoted.

The Sicilian is just so rich in variety that more than 20 people came up with their own variations of it.

you missed one

Chessable has a nice course on almost all the Ruy Lopez variations. Really great stuff you can find here.

No idea what it is called, but I know Zaitsev players have played 9...Qd7 and 9...Re8, the former being covered in a Black Repertoire book on the Zaitsev by Gambit in 2007.

But those are 2 you missed.

"What is in a name?" - Shakespeare
"You should keep in mind no names, nor numbers, nor isolated incidents, not even results, but only methods. The method produces numerous results; a few of these will remain in our memory, and as long as they remain few, they are useful to illustrate and to keep alive the rules which order a thousand results." - Lasker

This I believe this is the Semi-Duras Variation:

12Knaves wrote:

The Ruy Lopez, Berlin, Beverwijk Variation. 

This I believe this is the Semi-Duras Variation:

 

Boards arent showing on my end for some reason. Weird.

Edit then repost. That should do the trick.

Nice one, cheers Marcy. 

Glad it worked

Apparently, that bug with the diagrams not showing up on the first post has been around for quite a while. Wonder when its gonna get fixed.

Very helpful, thanks

Never!  There's chess.com for ya!  All they care about is taking your money and then muting you because a hyper-sensative snowflake complains about something frivolous you said!

Fix bugs?  What's that?  No idea!  Let's just keep on collecting people's money!

👍👍

You are missing the Gunderdam variation (3 Bb5 Qf6)

you forgot the Jaenisch gambit

omg i did not realize that there were so many variations of my fav opening