Opening guide

Ruy Lopez (C60) — win rates at club level

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, playing as white — data from 25,576,017 Lichess blitz & rapid games at 1600-1800.

The position

Position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5. Open this line on Lichess → · Ruy Lopez on Lichess

How it scores at your rating

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Win/draw/loss rate by rating band
Rating bandGamesWhite / draw / BlackScore for white
1600-1800 25,576,017 51.5% / 4.4% / 44.1% 53.7%
1400-1600 27,833,799 51.2% / 4.2% / 44.5% 53.3%
1800-2000 18,863,464 51.5% / 4.9% / 43.6% 53.9%
2000+ 13,954,477 49.8% / 6.3% / 43.9% 52.9%

What black actually plays next

Top replies at 1600-1800:

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Most common replies at 1600-1800
MoveGamesPlayedWin / draw / loss
d6 (Ruy Lopez: Steinitz Defense) 7,069,360 27.6% 42.9% / 4.9% / 52.1%
a6 (Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense) 6,076,870 23.8% 44.8% / 4.6% / 50.6%
Nf6 (Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense) 4,032,845 15.8% 43.3% / 4.3% / 52.4%
Bc5 (Ruy Lopez: Classical Variation) 3,211,653 12.6% 46.0% / 4.0% / 50.1%
Nge7 (Ruy Lopez: Cozio Defense) 1,563,000 6.1% 44.2% / 4.3% / 51.5%
Nd4 (Ruy Lopez: Bird Variation) 1,462,382 5.7% 45.1% / 3.9% / 51.0%

Common mistakes at 1600-1800

Model games

Real games from the Lichess masters database.

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Master games in this line
WhiteBlackResultYearGame
Carlsen, M. (2882) Caruana, F. (2818) ½-½ 2019 View game
Caruana, F. (2818) Carlsen, M. (2882) 1-0 2019 View game
Caruana, Fabiano (2835) Carlsen, Magnus (2863) ½-½ 2020 View game
Caruana, Fabiano (2835) Carlsen, Magnus (2863) ½-½ 2020 View game
Caruana, F. (2819) Carlsen, M. (2875) ½-½ 2019 View game

Recent club games in this line

Recent rated games at 1600-1800 — not model games, just what actually happens at that rating.

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Recent games in this line
WhiteBlackResultYearGame
alejandrogonzalezbv (1655) karthimayan (1621) 0-1 2026 View game
Ggino (1792) MaksimMalakhov (1783) 1-0 2026 View game
tarek1979x (1621) ken4849 (1694) 0-1 2026 View game
termotermik (1654) Monney1967 (1718) 1-0 2026 View game

Build a repertoire from here

See the full move tree for players in your rating band: 1600-1800 repertoire explorer (white) →

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