Chess opening

The first moves of a chess game are the "opening moves," collectively referred to as "the opening." Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings or defenses, and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian Defense, and Queen's Gambit Declined. There are dozens of different openings, which vary widely in character from quiet positional play (e.g. the Réti Opening and some lines of the Queen's Gambit Declined) to wild tactical play (e.g. the Latvian Gambit and Two Knights Defense, particularly the Wilkes-Barre Variation).

Opening nomenclature

Early in the history of chess the lack of an adequate or widely used system of chess notation

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made it very cumbersome to describe the opening moves of a game.

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It was natural to assign names to sequences of opening moves to make them easier to discuss.

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Opening theory began being studied more scientifically from the 1840s on, and many opening variations were discovered and named in this period and later.

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Unfortunately opening nomenclature developed haphazardly, and most names are more historical accidents than based on any systematic principles.

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The oldest openings tend to be named for geographic places and people. Many openings are named after nationalities, for example English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Scotch, Russian, Italian, Scandinavian, and Sicilian. Cities are also used, such as Vienna, Berlin, and Wilkes-Barre. The Catalan System is named after the Catalonia region of Spain.

Related Topics:
Catalan System - Catalonia - Spain

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Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names.

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The name given to an opening is not always that of the first player to adopt it; often an opening is named for the player who was the first to popularize it or to publish analysis of it.

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Eponymic openings include the Ruy Lopez, Alekhine Defense, Morphy Defense, and the Réti System.

Related Topics:
Ruy Lopez - Alekhine - Morphy - Réti

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Some opening names honor two people, such as with the Caro-Kann.

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A few opening names are descriptive, such as Giuoco Piano (Italian: "quiet game").

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More prosaic descriptions include Two Knights and Four Knights. Descriptive names are less common than openings named for places and people.

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Some openings have been given fanciful names, often names of animals. This practice became more common in the 20th century. By then, most of the more common and traditional sequences of opening moves had already been named, so these tend to be unusual or recently developed openings like the Orangutan, Hippopotamus, Elephant, and Hedgehog.

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Many terms are used for the opening as well. In addition to Opening, common terms include Game, Defense, Gambit, and Variation;

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less common terms are System, Attack, Counterattack, Countergambit, Reversed, and Inverted.

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To make matters more confusing, these terms are used very inconsistently.

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Consider some of the openings named for nationalities: Scotch Game, English Opening, French Defense, and Russian Game — the Scotch Game and the English Opening are both White openings, the French is indeed a defense but so is the Russian Game.

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Although these don't have precise definitions, here are some general observations about how they are used.

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; Game : Used only for some of the oldest openings, for example Scotch Game, Vienna Game, and Four Knights Game.

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; Opening : Along with Variation, this is the most common term.

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; Variation : Usually used to describe a line within a more general opening, for example the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.

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; Defense : Always refers to an opening chosen by Black, such as Two Knights Defense or Kings Indian Defense.

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; Gambit : An opening that involves the sacrifice of material, usually one or more pawns. Gambits can be played by White (e.g., King's Gambit) or Black (e.g., Latvian Gambit). The full name often includes Accepted or Declined depending on whether the opponent took the offered material, as in the Queen's Gambit Accepted and Queen's Gambit Declined. In some cases, the sacrifice of material is only temporary. For example, after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 (the Queen's Gambit Accepted), White can regain the pawn immediately by 3.Qa4+ if he wishes.

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; Countergambit : A gambit offered in response to an opponent's gambit; or, any gambit played by Black. Examples of this include the Falkbeer Countergambit to the King's Gambit and the Greco Counter Gambit (an old-fashioned name for the Latvian Gambit).

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; System : A method of development that can be used against many different setups by the opponent. Examples include Réti System, Barcza System, and Hedgehog System.

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; Attack : Sometimes used to describe an aggressive or provocative variation such as the Albin-Chatard Attack (or Chatard-Alekhine Attack), the Fried Liver Attack in the Two Knights Defense, and the Grob Attack. In other cases it refers to a defensive system by Black when adopted by White, as in King's Indian Attack. In still other cases the name seems to be used ironically, as with the fairly inoffensive Durkin's Attack (also called the Durkin Opening).

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; Reversed, Inverted : A Black opening played by White, or more rarely a White opening played by Black. Examples include Sicilian Reversed (from the English Opening), and the Inverted Hungarian.

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Rarely the prefix Anti- is applied before an opening's name. This refers to an opening intended to avoid a particular line otherwise available to one's opponent, for example the Anti-Marshall (against the Marshall (Counter) Attack in the Ruy Lopez) and the Anti-Meran Gambit (against the Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav Defense).

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