Tree path 7 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Ruy Lopez › Morphy Defense › Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense › Arkhangelsk Variation

C78

Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Arkhangelsk Variation

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Overview

Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, Arkhangelsk Variation is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C78.

The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.

The line arises from 12 plies — specifically the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bb7.

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

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: C78
Group: Open Games (C)
Plies: 12
Parent: Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense

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

156,843 games · White 48.7% / Draw 4.7% / Black 46.5%

Moves	Games	W / D / B
Re1	76,541
c3	29,139
d3	27,498
d4	10,604
Ng5	6,224
Nc3	2,440
a4	2,184
Qe2	846

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 02:41:24

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Overview

Statistics from Lichess

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