Tree path 5 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Ruy Lopez › Bird Variation
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Normal Variation C44
- Ruy Lopez C60
- Bird Variation C61 you are here
Ruy Lopez: Bird Variation
Overview
Ruy Lopez: Bird Variation is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C61.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
Play reaches this position via 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4, after 6 plies of opening development.
It is a variation of Ruy Lopez, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It continues primarily into one named line, Paulsen 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.
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
2,854,407 games · White 51.6% / Draw 4.2% / Black 44.2%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Nxd4 | 2,387,413 | |
| Bc4 | 245,422 | |
| Ba4 | 96,806 | |
| Nc3 | 48,922 | |
| Nxe5 | 22,666 | |
| Be2 | 12,909 | |
| Bd3 | 8,829 | |
| O-O | 7,206 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:27:58
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