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Chess Openings

The first few moves in the chess opening lays the foundation for every chess game. Most of the chess openings have been named and analyzed for hundreds of years. It is important if you want to be successful in chess to be familiar with some of the most popular openings and understand the theory behind the moves. In this section we cover everything you need to know about the most popular chess openings. The boards below will let you know if the opening is offensive or defensive. Once you find the opening you want, click to watch an in depth video and see some of the famous chess games that have been played using that opening.

Many beginners ask what they should study first. While it’s important to understand concepts more than memorizing moves of a particular opening there are a few specific openings that all chess players should start with because they are so widely played. For white, a player should first learn the King’s Gambit, Queen’s Gambit, Ruy Lopez and the English. For black, a player should first learn the Sicilian Defense, French Defense, Scandinavian, and the Slav.

It’s important for any chess player to figure out what type of strategy they like to play. Each opening has a very different play style. Once someone determines what type of game they like to play they can then learn other openings that lead to those type of games.

If you would like to filter the openings by a specific move you can click the move below:

Adelaide Counter Gambit
Albin Counter-Gambit
Alekhine Defense
Apocalypse Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Baltic Defense
MEMBERS ONLY
Belgrade Gambit
Benoni Defense
Bird’s Opening
Bishop’s Opening
Black Knights Tango
MEMBERS ONLY
Blackmar-Diemer Gambit
Bogo Indian Defense
Botvinnik English Chess
MEMBERS ONLY
Bowlder Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Budapest Gambit
Calabrese Countergambit
Caro-Kann
Catalan Opening
MEMBERS ONLY
Chigorin Defense
MEMBERS ONLY
Cochrane Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Colorado Gambit
Danish Gambit
Dutch Defense
Elephant Gambit
English Opening
Evans Gambit
Fajarowicz Gambit
Falkbeer Counter-Gambit
Four Knights Game
MEMBERS ONLY
French Defense
Fried Liver Attack
Gianutio Counter Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Giuoco Piano
Goring Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Grand Prix Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Grob Attack
Grunfeld Defense
Halloween Gambit
How to Counter Aggressive Openings – King’s Gambit
Hungarian Defense
MEMBERS ONLY
Icelandic Gambit
Italian Game
Jerome Gambit
King’s Gambit
Kings Indian Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Kings Indian Defense
Larsens Opening
Latvian Gambit
Locock Gambit
Lolli Attack
London System
Matinovsky Gambit
Max Lange Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Mieses Opening
MEMBERS ONLY
Muzio Gambit
Nakhmanson Gambit
Napoleon Opening
MEMBERS ONLY
Nimzo Indian Defense
Nimzowitsch Defense
MEMBERS ONLY
Petrov Defense
Philidor Defense
Pirc Defense
Ponziani Opening
Portuguese Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Queens Gambit
Queens Indian Defense
Relfsson Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Reti Gambit
Reti Opening
Rousseau Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Ruy Lopez
Scandinavian Defense
Schliemann Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Scotch Gambit
Scotch Game
Semi-Slav
Sicilian Defense
Slav Defense
Slav Geller Gambit
Smith Morra Gambit
Stafford Gambit
Staunton Gambit Accepted
MEMBERS ONLY
Steinitz Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Steinitz Lewis Trap
MEMBERS ONLY
Stonewall Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Tennison Gambit
The Alien Gambit Trap
The Three Knights Game
Three-Pawn Gambit
MEMBERS ONLY
Traxler Counter Attack
Trompowsky Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Urusov Gambit
Veresov Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Vienna Game
Wayward Queen Attack
MEMBERS ONLY
Wing Gambit