why is the ruy lopez so popular

Around here, I've never seen it play so much in my online chess tournaments. Why can't chess players play something different other than transposing into the ruy lopez I understand queens pawns openings/english

openings would be pretty good cause no one actually studies any queen pawn opening or know that type of the queen pawn openings. Trust me I do miss the ruy lopez, but I only did that as a beginner when I was just learning certain openings.

It seems your question should be .. why does not everybody play d4 ?

Against e4/e5 the Ruy Lopez is the best white try to gain advantage. This is because of 2 main reasons:

• It keeps the tension in the center for a longer period of time. If you release the tension (as in for example the Scottish) black does not have to take the various liquidations of the center into account and can choose a optimal play against whites current center.

• Second it is stronger than the Italian game. In both systems the white bishop goes to the a2-g8 diagonal (the weak spot in blacks camp is f7). However in the Ruy Lopez it ends up on b3 (after a6/b5) while in the Italian is goes directly to c4. b3 is a much better square for the white bishop than c4 because it allows white to create a broad center with e4/d4 when white plays d4 in the italian game black can often counter with d5(after exd4) attacking both e4 pawn and bishop on c4. It allows black to liquidate whites strong center. In the Ruy lopez this is not possible because d5 can be answered with e5 (the bischop is not attacked). Giving white a strong attack.

first of all you are still a beginner.  Second of all the reason is the same you want to play queen pawn openings/ english...because they want to.  

Don't take the comment as an insult though.  I am only considered an intermediate player and am still in the top 5-10% of players on this site(haven't looked in a long time but, i am sure that is whre I land)

Grandmaster roman is a really good grandmaster

-kenpo- wrote:

there are some very strong grandmasters who have also questioned the ruy lopez. the reason being because it seemingly violates opening principle. you develop the kings side bishop to b5 and then either chop on c6 or spend some time re-directing it. I have heard some contend not that long ago that certain variations of the italian game, Bc4 instead of Bb5, may objectively speaking be slightly stronger than the ruy and promise white a slightly larger advantage with best play from both sides. it may be the case that not many grandmasters or professionals have really put in the time/work analyzing Bc4 instead of Bb5 in any kind of exhaustive manner because the ruy lopez is so thoroughly entrenched in theory and leads to such rich complex games.

GM Roman Dzindzichasvili has done some research on this. he has a dvd entitled "rybka's quest to replace the ruy lopez". he knows way more about chess than me and most people. 

Grandmasters put time in the italian game for 2 reasons

1) Avoid very well analyzed lines in the Ruy Lopez

2) As a means to avoid the petroff defence

There is very little doubt that the ruy lopez is slightly stronger than the italian game (the bishop is better places on b3 and blacks queen side can be attacked easier)

The Ruy Lopez threatens to trade the bishop for the knight, which would open the black pawn to being captured. There are numerous other subtleties with this opening, but this is the most obvious idea to me.

You are correct!

The only subtlety worth mentioning is White can’t capture the Knight + e5 pawn right away due to a Tactic Black can play.

White threat to take Knight isn’t live till White defends e4 pawn.

When White defends the e4 pawn, White can unleash the threat as Black Tactic is no longer playable.

When White threat is fixing to be unleashed, Black needs to break or resolve the pressure.

At which point, depending on how Black resolves the pressure, White will create a new threat.

The New threat will have its own idea with it.

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The Ruy Lopez is very positional line in nature.

Most of the threats are around capturing pawns or squares.

It can be very difficult to play.