White enters the Rossolimo Attack by developing the bishop to b5, attacking the knight, in similar fashion to the Ruy Lopez. However, unlike the Ruy Lopez, in the Rossolimo Attack, White often wants to grab the knight and damage Black's queenside structure, providing a positional advantage to White in an endgame.

There are several options for Black after this 3.Bb5 move.

3...g6 is most common, looking to fianchetto the king bishop similar to the Dragon. White can play either 4. Bxc6, damaging White's queenside structure; 4. O-O Bg7 5. c3 with ideas of d4 to expand in the center; or 4. c3 immediately to go for d4.

3...e6 is second-most common, looking to develop the king bishop on its natural diagonal and preparing 4...Nge7, connecting knights and thus removing the sting from a Bxc6 move by simply replacing the knight on c6. White plays 4. Bxc6 most often against this due to the threat of 4...Nge7 with followup ideas of b3 and d3, but White could also play 4. O-O and go for c3 and d4 to expand in the center, or play 4. c3 and d4 right away.

3...d5, the Ferguson's Cannon, is a rare and exciting option to immediately push for activity to spoil the Rossolimo player's plans.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5

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• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.