Tree path 8 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Ruy Lopez › Berlin Defense › Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense › Improved Steinitz Defense › Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Hedgehog Variation
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Normal Variation C44
- Ruy Lopez C60
- Berlin Defense C65
- Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense C65
- Improved Steinitz Defense C66
- Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Hedgehog Variation C66 you are here
Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Hedgehog Variation
Overview
Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Hedgehog Variation is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C66.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
It is reached after 12 plies of play, with the move sequence 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O d6 5. d4 Bd7 6. Nc3 Be7.
It is a variation of Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Improved Steinitz Defense, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 2 notable variations — Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Closed Bernstein Variation, Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Closed Showalter Variation.
Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.
- ECO code
- C66
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 12
- Direct variations
- 2
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Statistics from Lichess
58,276 games · White 56.7% / Draw 6.9% / Black 36.3%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Re1 | 21,201 | |
| dxe5 | 10,292 | |
| Bxc6 | 9,387 | |
| d5 | 7,375 | |
| Bg5 | 4,997 | |
| h3 | 2,426 | |
| Be3 | 1,028 | |
| b3 | 360 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 02:41:02
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