How to Spot a King/Pawn Opening in a Chess Game

Video Transcript

"Now, the way I intend to do this is to show you, initially, some of the king-pawn openings, and then some of the queen-pawn openings. The great bulk of openings do fall within one of those two categories. For the obvious reasons that bringing out the king or queen-pawn is the way of attacking into the center immediately. So, let's start with a king-pawn opening. A very popular one is the so-called Ruy Lopez, or Ruy Lopez. It is now being referred to as the Spanish game. But, anyway, it's the same opening, and it goes like this: straight into the center, obvious response, and the knight. I told you this was a very good square for the knight. The black pawn is now under attack. He's defended by this black knight here, the queen's bishop knight. And the Ruy Lopez, this is the significant move, is the attack on the knight. Many different options for black at this point. Probably the most common one is the pawn to queen's rook three move, which forces the bishop back. And, at this point, again, many options. Probably the most common at the moment is this one, bringing out the other knight and attacking the white pawn."