The Berlin Defence is a common opening often played at grandmaster level. The move 3...Nf6 attacks the center and threatens the pawn on e4. The Berlin Defence also gets Black ready to castle quicker than in the Morphy's Defence. When playing the Berlin Defence, Black must keep in mind the threat on his c6 Knight. Therefore Black must soon consider a way of negating the threat and defending e5 as the game transitions into the middle game.

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6

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Wikipedia has related information at Ruy Lopez

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