The Ruy Lopez has been White's most respected answer to 1...e5 for over a century, and the reason is a single idea: the bishop on b5 leans on the knight that defends Black's e5 pawn. Everything else in the opening grows out of that quiet pressure.
This lesson walks the classical closed main line to the position after Bb3, the tabiya thousands of master games start from. The moves come with their logic attached, because in the Lopez the move order matters less than understanding why the bishop keeps sliding along that diagonal.
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Move 1 of 14
e4
Center, bishop diagonal, tempo. Same first move, but this time you're heading somewhere more ambitious than the Italian.
Common deviations