Ruy Lopez
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 · you play white
2 chapters, 8 moves deep. That is all of it at your level.
Course progress
0 of 189 decisions
0 still learning · 189 not asked yet
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At your level
Level
Improving
Depth
16 plies of this opening
Chapters
2
Decisions
189
0/189
How this goes wrong at your level
Counted from 4,500,000 games by players in your band. These are moves that get played often and then lose — no engine was asked for an opinion.
What you are most likely to fall for
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6
Nxe5 — played 21% of the time here.
You score 43% after it, against 54% for everything else played from this position, over 1,341 games.
Instead:
h3
56%
O-O
55%
Nc3
53%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.O-O Bg4
h3 — played 49% of the time here.
You score 32% after it, against 56% for everything else played from this position, over 131 games.
Instead:
d3
55%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.O-O Qg5
d3 — played 20% of the time here.
You score 30% after it, against 60% for everything else played from this position, over 54 games.
Instead:
Bc4
61%
Be2
56%
What your opponents fall for
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Bc5 5.c3
d6 — played 27% of the time here.
They score 32% after it, against 45% for everything else played from this position, over 338 games.
They should play:
a6
50%
Nxe4
45%
O-O
42%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nxe5 Qd4 6.Nxf7
Kxf7 — played 50% of the time here.
They score 54% after it, against 86% for everything else played from this position, over 61 games.
They should play:
Qxe4+
86%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.Re1
d5 — played 12% of the time here.
They score 30% after it, against 53% for everything else played from this position, over 80 games.
They should play:
Nd6
55%
Nf6
39%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Bc5 6.c3 d6 7.d3
b5 — played 31% of the time here.
They score 11% after it, against 58% for everything else played from this position, over 32 games.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.O-O Bd6 6.d4 Bg4 7.dxe5
Bxe5 — played 28% of the time here.
They score 8% after it, against 48% for everything else played from this position, over 36 games.
They should play:
Bxf3
47%
Found by testing 94,688 decisions in your band’s games and keeping only those where the drop in score is more than four standard errors below the alternatives. About 3.17 of these would be expected by chance alone.
Your moves are chosen by the engine and checked against 3,439,091 games (Lichess Elite (2500+ vs 2300+), 2024-12 → 2025-11); their replies are what people actually play. Evaluations from Lichess Stockfish evaluations (database.lichess.org) (CC0 1.0 Universal), covering 86% of this course.