60 Fun Facts About Chess Openings

Which chess opening begins 1.e4 c5?

Deep Blue played it in game 1 of its 1996 match against Garry Kasparov; Fischer, Kasparov and Tal all relied on it.

Which opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, and is also known as the Spanish Game?

Some of its lines have been analysed well beyond move thirty, the deepest theory of any Open Game.

Which opening begins 1.d4 d5 2.c4?

It is only a gambit in name: Black cannot keep the c-pawn without ending up worse.

Which of these begins 1.e4 e6, and is known for a solid but cramped position with a 'bad' bishop on c8?

First world champion Wilhelm Steinitz called it 'the dullest of all openings' and claimed never to have played it.

Which opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.f4, with White offering a pawn to pull Black's e-pawn off the centre?

Bobby Fischer's 1960s article 'A Bust to the King's Gambit' argued the opening loses by force, after Spassky beat him with it in 1960.

Which opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4, placing the bishop on the diagonal that eyes f7?

Black's main replies are 3...Bc5, the Giuoco Piano, and 3...Nf6, the Two Knights Defense.

Which of these begins with the single move 1.c4?

Ding Liren used it to win the twelfth game of his 2024 world championship match against Gukesh.

Which opening favoured by Kasparov and Fischer begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6, ...Bg7 and ...d6?

It was considered highly suspect until the 1930s, when Soviet players such as Bronstein and Boleslavsky made it respectable.

Which of these begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4, pinning the knight to prevent e4?

It has been played by every world champion since Capablanca; White often plays 3.Nf3 or 3.g3 just to avoid it.

The defence 1.e4 c6 is named after Horatio Caro of England and Marcus Kann, who was from which country?

Kann had already scored a 24-move win with it against Jacques Mieses at the 1885 German Chess Congress in Hamburg.

Which defence, sometimes called the Center Counter, begins 1.e4 d5?

It is arguably the oldest recorded opening, appearing in a fictional game in a Catalan poem written around 1475.

Which hypermodern reply begins 1.e4 Nf6, inviting White's pawns forward so they can be attacked later?

Fischer used it twice against Spassky in their 1972 world championship match.

Which of these begins 1.d4 f5, and produces the lowest draw rate of any common reply to 1.d4?

In 1951 both world champion Botvinnik and his challenger Bronstein played it in their title match.

Which set-up has White play d4 and Bf4 regardless of Black's reply, usually with e3 and c3?

It takes its name from the very strong London tournament of 1922, where it appeared seven times.

Which knight-sacrifice line of the Two Knights Defense is named after an Italian dish?

The earliest known example was played by Giulio Cesare Polerio before 1606.

Which joke opening consists of 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2, and has been played online by Magnus Carlsen?

Its name is traced either to a Chess.com user called Lenny_Bongcloud or to the idea that you would need to be intoxicated to think it a good plan.

Which opening begins 1.g4 and rivals 1 h4 as 'White's worst first move'?

Swiss IM Henri Grob played hundreds of correspondence games with it and called it the Spike.

1.b4 is nicknamed after which animal?

It is also called the Sokolsky or Polish Opening; databases rank 1.b4 ninth in popularity among White's twenty first moves.

Savielly Tartakower gave 1.b4 its animal nickname after visiting which zoo the day before a 1924 game?

Tartakower insisted that Susan the ape had somehow indicated he should open with the b-pawn against Géza Maróczy at New York 1924.

The Evans Gambit is named after William Davies Evans, who was what by profession?

Reuben Fine was beaten by it in a friendly against Bobby Fischer in just 17 moves.

Which of these begins 1.f4, and can be met by the risky From Gambit 1...e5?

Henry Bird took it up in 1855 after a six-year break from chess left him unable to remember the usual openings, and played it for 40 years.

Which opening, revived by Kasparov in the late 20th century, begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4?

It got its name from an 1824 correspondence match between Edinburgh and London.

Which opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3, originally intended to prepare a delayed f4 thrust?

Weaver W. Adams famously claimed it led to a forced win for White; modern theory disagrees.

Which symmetrical reply, also called the Russian Game, begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6?

It has a drawish reputation and has been used by Smyslov, Petrosian, Karpov and Caruana.

Which reply, named after an 18th-century French master, begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6?

Philidor's original idea was to challenge the centre with the pawn thrust ...f7-f5; today it is seen as solid but passive.

Which dubious but wild line begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5, and is sometimes called the Greco Countergambit?

It looks like White's f-pawn gambit with colours reversed, and is named for Latvian analysts led by Kārlis Bētiņš.

Which unsound line, also called the Queen's Pawn Countergambit, begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5?

White can take either pawn with advantage, so it survives mainly as a trap-setting weapon.

Which line begins 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3, with White offering up to two pawns for rapid development?

Danish player Martin Severin From is usually credited with it after playing it at Paris 1867.

Which opening begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5, sidestepping the Indian defences?

It is named for one-time Brazilian champion Octávio Trompowsky, and has also been called the Zot.

Which pawn-sacrifice defence begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5?

Géza Maróczy introduced it in an off-hand game in 1896; it enjoyed a brief vogue in the early 1920s.

In the Benoni, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5, Black's pawn sacrifice 3...b5 is known as what?

The 3...e6 alternative leads to the Modern Benoni.

After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3, which hypermodern line arises from 3...d5?

Ernst Grünfeld introduced it in 1922 and beat future world champion Alekhine with it that same year; the earliest known game is from Calcutta in 1855.

Which of these, played by 11 of the first 13 world champions, answers 1.d4 d5 2.c4 with 2...c6?

It got an exhaustive test in the two Alekhine–Euwe world championship matches of 1935 and 1937.

Which chess opening (1.Nf3 d5 2.c4) is named after the Czechoslovak player who beat Capablanca at New York 1924?

Réti championed hypermodernism, dominating the centre from the wings; Gukesh used the opening to win game 11 of the 2024 world championship.

Which Danish grandmaster played 1.b3 so often that the opening carries his name alongside Nimzowitsch's?

English amateur John Owen was the earliest master-level exponent in the 1870s, essentially playing Owen's Defence with an extra move.

Which double-fianchetto chess set-up with pawns on d6 and e6 was named after Spassky used it against Petrosian in 1966?

Slovak IM Maximilian Ujtelky was the first master to experiment with the structure, and Spassky had faced it against him in 1964.

Which Open Sicilian line, defined by 5...a6, is called the 'Cadillac' or 'Rolls-Royce' of openings?

It is named for Polish-Argentine GM Miguel Najdorf, though he was not the first strong player to use it.

The Dragon Variation reportedly got its name from Black's pawns resembling which constellation?

Louis Paulsen originated the modern form of the line around 1880, and it won general acceptance around 1900 through Harry Nelson Pillsbury.

Who revived the Berlin Defence as a drawing weapon against Kasparov in the 2000 world championship?

Its early queen trade leads to the so-called Berlin endgame, viewed as equal or a shade better for White.

Which American master debuted the closed Spanish pawn sacrifice 8...d5 in a 1918 Manhattan Chess Club game?

Marshall lost the game, but the gambit stuck and Anti-Marshall systems are still played to dodge it today.

'Giuoco Piano', the traditional name for 3...Bc5 in the Italian, translates as what?

The term 'Italian Game' itself was not common in English until the late 20th century.

Ruy López de Segura, whose 1561 book Libro del Axedrez championed 3.Bb5, was what by vocation?

The opening itself is older, appearing in the Göttingen manuscript of around 1490.

The 1.d4 d5 2.c4 opening has been called the Aleppo Gambit after which 18th-century player?

It only became commonplace after an 1873 tournament, once Steinitz and Tarrasch had raised the profile of positional play.

In the 1927 Alekhine-Capablanca world championship, all but two of the 34 games opened with which defence?

The Orthodox line is a long fight over one tempo: Black waits to take on c4 until White's bishop has already moved to d3.

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, whose ECO codes classify openings, is published in which city?

Its language-independent coding system means players anywhere can read it without translation.

How many ECO opening codes are there in total?

The codes run from A00 to E99, with the A volume covering flank openings and the E volume Indian defences.

How many legal first moves does White have in chess?

Sixteen of them are pawn moves and four are knight moves.

Fool's mate, the fastest possible checkmate, is delivered by Black on which move?

It requires White to play f3 and g4, opening the diagonal for ...Qh4 mate; White needs an extra move to mate an equally careless Black.

Which beginner's checkmate lands the queen on f7 supported by a bishop on c4?

It was named and described in Francis Beale's 1656 text The Royall Game of Chesse-Play.

Kasparov blundered and lost the final game of the 1997 Deep Blue rematch in which opening?

That single loss decided the six-game rematch, the first time a computer had beaten a reigning world champion in a classical match.

In which Sicilian Dragon line does White castle queenside and pawn-storm with h4-h5 and g4?

The Dragon is regarded as one of the sharpest of all openings, with both kings under fire at once.

Which opening sees White play d4 and c4 and then fianchetto the king's bishop on g2?

Tartakower unveiled it at Barcelona 1929 after organisers asked him to create a variation honouring Catalonia's chess history.

The Pirc Defence, 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6, is named after a grandmaster from which country?

Vasja Pirc played it from the late 1940s onward; in Russia the same defence is often called the Ufimtsev Defence.

Which player introduced the Modern Benoni in 1927, only for it to be ignored for over 20 years?

Soviet players, above all Mikhail Tal, revived it in the 1950s, and Fischer and Kasparov later cemented its dynamic reputation.

Which English champion's name was long attached to the 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 opening?

Discussed in literature as early as 1497, it now bears Ponziani's name for his 1769 countergambit 3...f5.

The Bogo-Indian Defence, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+, is named after which grandmaster?

Databases suggest it is played about half as often as the Queen's Indian, the other main reply to 3.Nf3.

The Colle System is also named for which second player who developed it after Edgard Colle?

The set-up puts pawns on d4, e3 and c3 with the bishop on d3, all aimed at a well-timed e4 break.

The Blackmar–Diemer Gambit is partly named for an obscure 19th-century player from which city?

Armand Blackmar was the first to publish analysis of 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.f3; the modern version inserts 3.Nc3 first.

The Albin Countergambit, 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5, takes its name from Adolf Albin's 1893 game against whom?

Cavallotti had actually played it against Salvioli at Milan 1881; Alexander Morozevich used it with some success in the 2000s.

In the Tarrasch Defense, Black willingly accepts which structural weakness for active piece play?

Siegbert Tarrasch argued the extra mobility was worth it, even as followers of Steinitz rejected the line out of hand.