Lopez Opening Lopez Opening The Lopez Opening (or MacLeod Attack) is a chess opening characterized by the moves: The opening was played frequently by 19th century Scottish–Canadian chess master Nicholas MacLeod but has otherwise arisen rarely in tournament play. White's second move prepares to push a pawn to d4, establishing a strong center. Play can potentially transpose to other openings, most likely the Ponziani Opening or the Göring Gambit in the Scotch Game. However, Eric Schiller states in "Unorthodox Chess Openings" that the opening is too slow; that Black can respond vigorously with 2...d5! to eliminate transpositional possibilities and solve all of
Ruy Lopez a significant advantage against it in the 18th game. It is solid but slightly passive. Confusingly 9...Nd7 is also called the Chigorin Variation so there are two variations of the Ruy Lopez with that name, but 9...Na5 is the move more commonly associated with Chigorin. This defense is also known as the Keres Variation, after Paul Keres. The Kholmov Variation, 9...Be6, was popular in the 1980s but is now rarely played. The main line runs 10.d4 Bxb3 11.axb3 (11.Qxb3 is another option) exd4 12.cxd4 d5 13.e5 Ne4 14.Nc3 f5 15.exf6 Bxf6 16.Nxe4 dxe4 17.Rxe4 Qd5 18.Rg4, when it has been