Caissa Codex
Tree path 13 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Ruy Lopez › Morphy Defense › Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense › Ruy Lopez: Closed › Ruy Lopez: Closed › Ruy Lopez: Closed › Ruy Lopez: Closed › Chigorin Defense › Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense › Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense
  1. Caissa Codex
  2. King's Pawn Game C20
  3. King's Knight Opening C40
  4. Normal Variation C44
  5. Ruy Lopez C60
  6. Morphy Defense C70
  7. Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense C78
  8. Ruy Lopez: Closed C84
  9. Ruy Lopez: Closed C88
  10. Ruy Lopez: Closed C90
  11. Ruy Lopez: Closed C92
  12. Chigorin Defense C97
  13. Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense C96
  14. Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense C96 you are here
C96

Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense

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Overview

Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C96.

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 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5, after 20 plies of opening development.

It is a variation of Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.

It branches into 3 notable variations — Ruy Lopez: Closed, Borisenko Variation, Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense, Ruy Lopez: Closed, Keres Defense.

In total, the branch covers 7 sub-variations across all depths.

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
C96
Group
Open Games (C)
Plies
20
Parent
Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense
Direct variations
3
Total in subtree
7

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

372,923 games · White 49.5% / Draw 6.0% / Black 44.6%

MovesGamesW / D / B
d4305,887
d340,852
a414,542
a34,368
b33,610
b43,427
Qe2114
Nh245

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 03:26:34

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Variations (3)

Related variations at the same level

Sister lines that share the same parent Ruy Lopez: Closed, Chigorin Defense:

Show all 7 sub-variations (full subtree)

https://chesscodex.org/openings/ruy-lopez-closed-chigorin-defense-3