The Sicilian Defense is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: 1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White’s first move 1.e4. 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for White due to the high success rate of the Sicilian defense against 1.e4. New In Chess stated […]
The King’s Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. f4 White offers a pawn to divert the black e-pawn. If Black accepts the gambit, White has two main plans. The first is to play d4 and Bxf4, regaining the gambit pawn with central domination. The alternative plan is […]
The Queen’s Gambit is a chess opening that starts with the moves: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 The Queen’s Gambit is one of the oldest known chess openings. It was mentioned in the Göttingen manuscript of 1490 and was later analyzed by masters such as Gioachino Greco in the 17th century. In the 18th century, […]
The Danish Gambit, known as the Nordisches Gambit (Nordic Gambit) in German, and the Noors Gambiet (Norwegian Gambit) in Dutch, is a chess opening that begins with the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 White will sacrifice one or two pawns for the sake of rapid development and the attack. However, with […]
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterized by the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 The Ruy Lopez is named after 16th-century Spanish bishop Ruy López de Segura. It is one of the most popular openings, with such a vast number of variations […]
The Latvian Gambit (or Greco Countergambit) is a chess opening characterized by the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5?! It is one of the oldest chess openings, having been analyzed in the 17th century by Gioachino Greco, after whom it is sometimes named. The opening has the appearance of a King’s Gambit with colors […]
The Fried Liver Attack, also called the Fegatello Attack (named after an Italian idiom meaning “dead as a piece of liver”), is a chess opening. This opening is a variation of the Two Knights Defense in which White sacrifices a knight for an attack on Black’s king. The opening begins with the moves: 1. e4 […]
The London System is a chess opening that usually arises after 1.d4 and 2.Bf4 or 2.Nf3 & 3.Bf4. It is a “system” opening that can be used against virtually any black defense and thus comprises a smaller body of opening theory than many other openings. The London System is one of the Queen’s Pawn Game […]
The Vienna Game is an opening in chess that begins with the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 White’s second move is less common than 2.Nf3, and is also more recent. A book reviewer wrote in the New York Times in 1888 that “since Morphy only one new opening has been introduced, the ‘Vienna’.” The […]
The Albin Countergambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 and the usual continuation is: 3. dxe5 d4 The opening is an uncommon defense to the Queen’s Gambit. In exchange for the gambit pawn, Black has a central wedge at d4 and gets some chances for an […]
The Budapest Gambit (or Budapest Defence) is a chess opening that begins with the moves: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 Despite an early debut in 1896, the Budapest Gambit received attention from leading players only after a win as Black by Grandmaster Milan Vidmar over Akiba Rubinstein in 1918. It enjoyed a rise in […]
The Halloween Gambit (also known as the Müller–Schulze Gambit or Leipzig Gambit) is an aggressive chess opening gambit in which White sacrifices a knight early on for a single pawn. The opening is an offshoot of the normally staid Four Knights Game and is defined by the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. […]
The Semi-Slav Defense is a variation of the Queen’s Gambit chess opening defined by the position reached after the moves: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 The position may readily be reached by a number of different move orders. With Black advancing pawns to both e6 and c6, the […]
Bird’s Opening (or the Dutch Attack) is a chess opening characterized by the move: 1. f4 Bird’s is a standard flank opening. White’s strategic ideas involve control of the e5-square, offering good attacking potential at the expense of slightly weakening his kingside. Black may challenge White’s plan to control e5 immediately by playing From’s Gambit […]
The Giuoco Piano (Italian: “Quiet Game”; pronounced [dʒwɔːko ˈpjaːno]) is a chess opening beginning with the moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 Common alternatives to 3…Bc5 include 3…Nf6 (the Two Knights Defense) and 3…Be7 (the Hungarian Defense). Much less common are 3…d6 (the Semi-Italian Opening), 3…g6, 3…Nd4 (the Blackburne Shilling Gambit), […]
Alekhine’s Defence is a chess opening which begins with the moves: 1. e4 Nf6 Black tempts White’s pawns forward to form a broad pawn center, with plans to undermine and attack the white structure later in the spirit of hypermodern defence. White’s imposing mass of pawns in the centre often includes pawns on c4, d4, […]
The King’s Indian is a hypermodern opening, where Black deliberately allows White control of the center with his pawns, with the view to subsequently challenge it with the moves …e5 or …c5. Until the mid-1930s, it was generally regarded as highly suspect, but the analysis and play of three strong Soviet players in particular—Alexander Konstantinopolsky, […]
