Chess Openings

Chess Openings PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 09:50:30 UTC Contents Articles Overview 1 Chess opening 1 e4 Openings 25 King's Pawn Game 25 Open Game 29 Semi-Open Game 32 e4 Openings – King's Knight Openings 36 King's Knight Opening 36 Ruy Lopez 38 Ruy Lopez, Exchange Variation 57 Italian Game 60 Hungarian Defense 63 Two Knights Defense 65 Fried Liver Attack 71 Giuoco Piano 73 Evans Gambit 78 Italian Gambit 82 Irish Gambit 83 Jerome Gambit 85 Blackburne Shilling Gambit 88 Scotch Game 90 Ponziani Opening 96 Inverted Hungarian Opening 102 Konstantinopolsky Opening 104 Three Knights Opening 105 Four Knights Game 107 Halloween Gambit 111 Philidor Defence 115 Elephant Gambit 119 Damiano Defence 122 Greco Defence 125 Gunderam Defense 127 Latvian Gambit 129 Rousseau Gambit 133 Petrov's Defence 136 e4 Openings – Sicilian Defence 140 Sicilian Defence 140 Sicilian Defence, Alapin Variation 159 Sicilian Defence, Dragon Variation 163 Sicilian Defence, Accelerated Dragon 169 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav attack, 9.Bc4 172 Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation 175 Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen Variation 181 Chekhover Sicilian 185 Wing Gambit 187 Smith-Morra Gambit 189 e4 Openings – Other variations 192 Bishop's Opening 192 Portuguese Opening 198 King's Gambit 200 Fischer Defense 206 Falkbeer Countergambit 208 Rice Gambit 210 Center Game 212 Danish Gambit 214 Lopez Opening 218 Napoleon Opening 219 Parham Attack 221 Vienna Game 224 Frankenstein-Dracula Variation 228 Alapin's Opening 231 French Defence 232 Caro-Kann Defence 245 Pirc Defence 256 Pirc Defence, Austrian Attack 261 Balogh Defense 263 Scandinavian Defense 265 Nimzowitsch Defence 269 Alekhine's Defence 271 Modern Defense 279 Monkey's Bum 282 Owen's Defence 285 St. George Defence 290 d4 Openings 292 Queen's Pawn Game 292 Closed Game 295 Semi-Closed Game 298 d4 Openings – Queen's Gambit Openings 301 Queen's Gambit 301 Queen's Gambit Accepted 304 Queen's Gambit Declined 308 Cambridge Springs Defense 312 Tarrasch Defense 315 Marshall Defense 318 Baltic Defense 320 Slav Defense 322 Semi-Slav Defense 329 Symmetrical Defense 333 Chigorin Defense 334 Albin Countergambit 337 d4 Openings – Indian Defence 340 Indian Defence 340 Trompowsky Attack 346 King's Indian Defence 349 King's Indian Defence, Four Pawns Attack 356 East Indian Defence 360 Grünfeld Defence 362 Grünfeld Defence, Nadanian Variation 368 Queen's Indian Defense 372 Neo-Indian Attack 375 Torre Attack 377 Nimzo-Indian Defence 380 Bogo-Indian Defence 392 Old Indian Defense 394 Budapest Gambit 396 Black Knights' Tango 424 d4 Openings – Other variations 428 Catalan Opening 428 Blackmar-Diemer Gambit 431 Alapin-Diemer Gambit 438 Diemer-Duhm Gambit 450 London System 451 Richter-Veresov Attack 453 Benoni Defense 455 Benko Gambit 460 Blumenfeld Gambit 463 English Defence 465 Keres Defence 467 Dutch Defence 469 Staunton Gambit 472 Queen's Knight Defense 474 Englund Gambit 476 Polish Defense 480 Wade Defence 482 Flank openings 484 Flank opening 484 Larsen's Opening 487 English Opening 490 Bird's Opening 496 Benko's Opening 500 Zukertort Opening 503 Réti Opening 505 Irregular Openings 509 Irregular chess opening 509 Anderssen's Opening 511 Ware Opening 513 Sokolsky Opening 515 Saragossa Opening 517 Mieses Opening 519 Van 't Kruijs Opening 521 Barnes Opening 523 Grob's Attack 525 Clemenz Opening 528 Desprez Opening 530 Durkin Opening 532 Dunst Opening 534 Amar Opening 539 Traps 541 Fool's mate 541 Scholar's mate 544 Elephant Trap 546 Halosar Trap 548 Kieninger Trap 550 Lasker Trap 551 Légal Trap 553 Magnus Smith Trap 556 Marshall Trap 558 Monticelli Trap 559 Mortimer Trap 561 Noah's Ark Trap 563 Rubinstein Trap 564 Siberian Trap 566 Tarrasch Trap 567 Würzburger Trap 569 References Article Sources and Contributors 571 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 578 Article Licenses License 579 1 Overview Chess opening For a list of openings as classified by the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, see List of chess openings. 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 The starting position of chess A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of initial moves are referred to as openings by White, or defenses by Black, but opening is also used as the general term. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants. These vary widely in character from quiet positional play to wild tactical play. In addition to referring to specific move sequences, the opening is the first phase of a chess game, the other phases being the middlegame and the endgame. A sequence of opening moves that is considered standard (often cataloged in a reference work such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings) is referred to as "the book moves", or simply "book". These reference works often present these move sequences in simple algebraic notation, opening trees, or theory tables. When a game begins to deviate from known opening theory, the players are said to be "out of book". In some opening lines, the moves considered best for both sides have been worked out for twenty to twenty-five moves or more. Some analysis goes to thirty or thirty-five moves, as in the classical King's Indian Defense and in the Sveshnikov and Najdorf variations of the Sicilian Defense.[1] Professional chess players spend years studying openings, and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve. Players at the club level also study openings but the importance of the opening phase is smaller there since games are rarely decided in the opening. The study of openings can become unbalanced if it is to the exclusion of tactical training and middlegame and endgame strategy. A new sequence of moves in the opening is referred to as a theoretical novelty. When kept secret until used in a competitive game it is often known as a prepared variation, a powerful weapon in top-class competition. Chess opening 2 Aims of the opening Common aims in opening play Irrespective of whether they are trying to gain the upper hand as White and equalize as Black or to create dynamic imbalances, players generally devote a lot of attention in the opening stages to: 1. Development: One of the main aims of the opening is to mobilize the pieces on useful squares where they will have impact on the game. To this end, knights are usually developed to f3, c3, f6 and c6 (or sometimes e2, d2, e7 or d7), and both players' king and queen pawns are moved so the bishops can be developed (alternatively, the bishops may be fianchettoed with a manoeuvre such as g3 and Bg2). Rapid mobilization is the key. The queen, and to a lesser extent the rooks, are not usually played to a central position until later in the game, when many minor pieces and pawns are no longer present. 2. Control of the center: At the start of the game, it is not clear on which part of the board the pieces will be needed. However, control of the central squares allows pieces to be moved to any part of the board relatively easily, and can also have a cramping effect on the opponent. The classical view is that central control is best effected by placing pawns there, ideally establishing pawns on d4 and e4 (or d5 and e5 for Black). However, the hypermodern school showed that it was not always necessary or even desirable to occupy the center in this way, and that too broad a pawn front could be attacked and destroyed, leaving its architect vulnerable; an impressive-looking pawn center is worth little unless it can be maintained. The hypermoderns instead advocated controlling the center from a distance with pieces, breaking down one's opponent's center, and only taking over the center oneself later in the game. This leads to openings such as Alekhine's Defense – in a line like 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4 (the Four Pawns Attack), White has a formidable pawn center for the moment, but Black hopes to undermine it later in the game, leaving White's position exposed. 3. King safety: The king is somewhat exposed in the middle of the board. Measures must be taken to reduce his vulnerability. It is therefore common for both players either to castle in the opening (simultaneously developing one of the rooks) or to otherwise bring the king to the side of the board via artificial castling. 4. Prevention of pawn weakness: Most openings strive to avoid the creation of pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled and backward pawns, pawn islands, etc. Some openings sacrifice endgame considerations for a quick attack on the opponent's position. Some unbalanced openings for Black, in particular, make use of this idea, such as the Dutch and the Sicilian. Other openings, such as the Alekhine and the Benoni, invite the opponent to overextend and form pawn weaknesses. Specific openings accept pawn weaknesses in exchange for compensation in the form of dynamic play. (See Pawn structure.) 5. Piece coordination: As the players mobilize their pieces, they both seek to ensure that they are working harmoniously towards the control of key squares. 6. Create positions in which the player is more comfortable than the opponent: Transposition is one common way of doing this. Apart from these ideas, other strategies used in the middlegame may also be carried out in the opening.

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