Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Nf3/2...Nc6/3. Bb5/3...f5/4. Nc3/4...fxe4/5. Nxe4/5...Nf6/6. Nxf6/6...Qxf6/7. Qe2/7...Be7/8. Bxc6/8...bxc6

Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defence

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Common moves:
9. Nxe5 - Main Line
9. Qxe5 - Draw Variation
9. d4 - Berg-Shirov Variation

• 9. Nxe5 is the main line. White simply captures the free pawn with the nearest piece to hand.
• 9. Qxe5 has been played by Michael Adams, because being a pawn up and taking the queens off is usually what you want to do, but in this case simplifying hurts White's winning percentage as well as Black's. The queen enjoys being the most mobile piece on the board; if you exchange her off then that title would pass to the Black bishops, and there are two of them.
• 9. d4 is a fun idea of Swedish GM Emanuel Berg's, taken up by Alexei Shirov. It's not a gambit in that if Black grabs the pawn with 9...exd4, White shoves the queen away with 10.Bg5 and grabs it back. It's a pseudo-gambit in that White had the chance of going 1 pawn up and instead decided to be 0 pawns up.