Ruy Lopez

The Ruy Lopez, also called the "Spanish Opening", is an old chess opening. It is named after the Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura. He may have invented the opening. These are the opening moves:
The Ruy Lopez is one of the most common and well-liked openings. There are many ways to play it. It has always been popular in master chess. White's idea is to try and undermine the center by attacking the knight with his bishop. However, White will not be always able to win a pawn immediately:
For this reason White usually plays a longer-term strategy, starting with:
Here, Black has two main options. Black can either play with an open center, with 5... Nxe4 or play a closed, positional game with 5... Be7. These openings are called the Open Ruy Lopez and the Closed Ruy Lopez. 
Closed Variation.
The closed variation of the Ruy Lopez comes after these moves:
This line leads to a closed . White's idea will be to break open the center with d4. Play typically continues:
These are the main moves for White. However, White can also play 7. h3 or 7. a4. These moves are played in order to avoid the Marshall Variation.