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.Whether they are trying to gain the upper hand as White, or to equalize as Black or to create dynamic imbalances, players generally devote a lot of attention in the opening stages to the following strategies: Īims of the opening Common aims in opening play When kept secret until used in a competitive game, it is often known as a prepared variation, a powerful weapon in top-class competition. Ī new sequence of moves in the opening is referred to as a theoretical novelty. The study of openings can become unbalanced if it is to the exclusion of tactical training and middlegame and endgame strategy. 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. Professional chess players spend years studying openings, and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve. In some openings, 'book' lines have been worked out for over 30 moves, as in the classical King's Indian Defense and in the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense. When a game begins to deviate from known opening theory, the players are said to be 'out of book'. Opening moves that are considered standard are referred to as 'book moves', or simply 'book'. The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants, and there are many others with varying degrees of common usage. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the ' Sicilian Defense'. It usually consists of established theory the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game.

Scandinavian in modern chess openings