The opening variations in chess

King’s Indian, Caro-Kann, Sicilian, these are the names of known chess openings. Here we will show how they work. The main variations of the openings have been played for hundreds of years. However, there is something new every day. In grandmaster tournaments we are constantly seeing new moves, the so-called innovations, Players research and analyse such innovations in their preparation at home.

The openings are sub-divided into five rough groups defined by the first move played by White and by Black. Each of these sub-divisions is subject to fashion and invariably becomes outdated. Nevertheless the structure which follows has remained even if the weightings tend to represent the opening fashions of 100 years ago:

Züge	Gruppe	Eröffnungen
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.c3 e6 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3	Closed games	Orthodox Queen's Gambit Slav Defence Semi-Slav Queen's Pawn Games Queen's Gambit Accepted Catalan
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 1.e4 e5 2.f4 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6	Open Games	Italian The King's Gambit Petroff Ruy Lopez
1.e4 c5 1.e4 e6 1.e4 c6 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 1.e4 d5 1.e4 Nf6	Semi-open games	The Sicilian French Caro-Kann Pirc Scandinavian Alekhine Defence
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 1.d4 f5 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5	Semi-closed games	Nimzo-Indian Benoni Defence Queen''s Indian Defence Grünfeld Defence Dutch King's Indian Volga Gambit
1. f4 1.c4 1.b3 1. Nf3 d5 2.c4	Flank openings	Bird's English Larsen Réti