The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory. The other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences, known as openings, have standard names such as "Sicilian Defense". The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants, and there are many others with varying degrees of common usage.
A gambit is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices material with the aim of achieving a subsequent positional advantage.
The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
In chess, the Smith–Morra Gambit is an opening gambit against the Sicilian Defence distinguished by the moves:
The Queen's Indian Defense (QID) is a chess opening defined by the moves:
The English Opening is a chess opening that begins with the move:
The Caro–Kann Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
The Benoni Defense, or simply the Benoni, is a chess opening characterized by an early reply of ...c5 against White's opening move 1.d4.
The Modern Benoni is a chess opening that begins with the moves 1.d4Nf6 2.c4c5 3.d5e6. It is classified under the ECO codes A60–A79. After the initial moves, Black proceeds to capture on d5, creating a majority of black pawns on the queenside. To support their advance, the king's bishop is usually fianchettoed on g7. These two features differentiate Black's setup from the other Benoni defences and the King's Indian Defence, although transpositions between these openings are common.
The Queen's Pawn Game is any chess opening starting with the move 1.d4, which is the second-most popular opening move after 1.e4.
The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Queen's Gambit Declined is a chess opening in which Black declines a pawn offered by White in the Queen's Gambit:
In the game of chess, Indian Defence or Indian Game is a broad term for a group of openings characterised by the moves:
In chess, the Maróczy Bind is a term alternately used to refer to an opening or its associated pawn structure, named for the Hungarian grandmaster Géza Maróczy. When the Bind is discussed as an opening, it is defined as 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4. The Maróczy Bind opening is a continuation of the Sicilian Defence, Accelerated Dragon, where 5.c4 is the characteristic move.
A Steinitz Variation is any of several chess openings introduced and practiced, or adopted and advocated by Wilhelm Steinitz, the first officially recognized World Chess Champion.
