The ruy lopez

Hi everyone.
Can anybody help me understand the true main idea of 3.Bb5 in the ruy lopez? It is said that the purpose is to attack the defender of e5 in black's camp, but in most occasions white doesn't go for the exchange variation, and the attack is more of a threat which vaniches completely after the simple 3.Bb5. a6, 4.Ba4. b5 so what is it the purpose?
Some might say that white wants to put his bishop on b3, but that position can be reached in an italian game too without allowing black to expand on the queen side with tempo, like in boby fischer's signature move in the italian. So again, what is the true idea of the whole ruy lopez, and what would make it preferable to the italian game?

Regardez blitstream..(*&*)...&*)...

I don't think Fischer's signature was the Italian (correct me if I'm wrong), but he played bc4 against Sicilians a lot.

The biggest advantage of the Ruy Lopez is that you can go d2-d4 in one move (in the Italian if you do so you give up most of your advantage). Black expanding on the queenside isn't that scary, especially since you can threaten the pawns with an a4 move.

However, many people are playing the italian or a d3 ruy lopez to avoid the Berlin or Marshall, so things are changing. There are a lot of subtleties that like 100 people in the world understand fully.

I would suggest looking here for more youtu.be/2hriSNXPkIA

bB5 putsh pressure on e5. And in closed variation forces b5.Then in few moves it finds it home in c2 and you have bishop pair pointed to enemy king. Ans i thing typicalls b1 Kn is routed to king side giving good attackin chances.

I thing that there is variation of italian where tabiya looks similar to spanish exept w B is onc4 un protected and in spanish it on b3. so spanishline then puts same amount pressure to f7 just has more stable B

It‘s often very closed and it takes full mastery to understand the tons of subtleties. Ruy hopeless.

@Sarg0n good news is that the opponent of us weaklings wont know it either . So they just as theroretical :)

Also rare as very few players seem to answer with e5 anyway.

You know back in the day I use to play the lopez. Never had to ask this question. So I have a few questions of my own.

1. Why do you think the only object of the opening would be to pressure e5? (That's the real verbiage. Not attack e5. To pressure. )

2. Why are you not noticing what you get in exchange for losing some e5 pressure when black plays a6 and b5? It's not that the bishop goes to b3. It's something else.

3. How many master games have you looked at?

3 Bb5 or 3 Bc4 or 3 d4 or 3 Nc3 is a matter of fashion. They are probably all equally good and probably all lead to a draw with best play from both sides.
Young Fischer once asked Spassky why he played King's Gambit 2 f4 as it leads to sa draw at best. Spassky replied that the Ruy Lopez leads to a draw as well so he could just as well enjoy the King's Gambit.

The idea of the Ruy Lopez (like most other active openings) is to build a pawn duo e4 / d4. The Bb5 not only threatens the e5 square, it is also not a target of a black d7-d5 counterstrike which could destroy that pawn duo. Consider the following line:



here black can play 6...d5! with complex play.

If the Bishop is on b5 this is not possible.

There are also other aspects which the others have already mentioned.

Btw, d5 against a Bc4 is a topic of a lot of openings. For example that is the reason why the Bc4 Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Bc4?!) is considered harmless. Black can play e6 and d5 with tempo.