Ruy Lopez strengthened when Simen Agdestein and some other Norwegian players adopted the variation. In 1995 Jonathan Tisdall published the article "Ruy Lopez. The Norwegian Variation" in New in Chess Yearbook 37. The Graz Defence, Classical Defence Deferred, and Møller Defence combine 3...a6 with the active move ...Bc5. For a century it was believed that it was safer for Black to place the bishop on e7, but it is much more active on c5. White can gain time after playing d4 as the black bishop will have to move, but this does not always seem to be as important as was once
World Chess Championship 2014 an easily drawn endgame. The ninth game was played on 20 November 2014. The opening was the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez. The game was drawn due to threefold repetition on the 20th move. This game included no original moves. The draw meant that Carlsen was closer to converting his 1-point lead to a match win, though Anand seemed satisfied to draw early and focus on his two remaining games with the white pieces. Although a short draw at 20 moves, this game is far from the shortest in match history; a pair of 10-move draws sealed Petrosian's match