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143-683: The Marshall Gambit may refer to a number of chess openings named after the American chess master Frank Marshall . The Marshall Gambit in the Scandinavian Defense . 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 The Marshall Gambit in the Tarrasch Defense : 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.e4 The Marshall Gambit in the Semi-Slav Defense : 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Marshall Gambit in

286-528: A spatial advantage , while Black often maneuvers his pieces on the last two ranks of the board, but White "has to keep a constant eye on the possible liberating pawn thrusts ...b5 and ...d5." Watson remarks, "Black's goal is to remain elastic and flexible, with many options for his pieces, whereas White can become paralyzed at some point by the need to protect against various dynamic pawn breaks ." He also observes that, "White tends to be as much tied up by Black's latent activity as Black himself

429-628: A winning percentage between 52 and 56 percent. White's advantage is less significant in blitz games and games between lower-level players, and becomes greater as the level of play rises; however, raising the level of play also increases the percentage of draws . As the standard of play rises, all the way up to top engine level, the number of decisive games approaches zero, and the proportion of White wins among those decisive games approaches 100%. Some players, including world champions such as José Raúl Capablanca , Emanuel Lasker , Bobby Fischer , and Vladimir Kramnik , have expressed fears of

572-442: A knight odds for compensation 16-game rapid match (the compensation being either a pawn, castling rights, or Chess960 with the king and rooks on their normal squares; time control 15+10 with the engine always playing White) between GM Alex Lenderman and the engine Komodo in 2020, Lenderman won 9–7 (+5 −3 =8), demonstrating the difficulties involved. Komodo played a six-game match at full knight odds against GM David Smerdon at

715-417: A threefold repetition as quarter-points – shows by far the greatest reduction of draws among the options tested, and Fischer random chess (which obviates preparation by randomising the starting array) has obtained significant uptake at top level. Some writers have challenged the view that White has an inherent advantage. András Adorján wrote a series of books on the theme that "Black is OK!", arguing that

858-475: A "draw death" as chess becomes more deeply analyzed, and opening preparation becomes ever more important. To alleviate this danger, Capablanca, Fischer, and Kramnik proposed chess variants to revitalize the game, while Lasker suggested changing how draws and stalemates are scored. Several of these suggestions have been tested with engines: in particular, Larry Kaufman and Arno Nickel 's extension of Lasker's idea – scoring being stalemated, bare king, and causing

1001-408: A bishop). The oldest openings in chess follow 1.e4. Bobby Fischer rated 1.e4 as "Best by test." On the downside, 1.e4 places a pawn on an undefended square and weakens d4 and f4. If Black mirrors White's move and replies with 1...e5, the result is an open game. The most popular second move for White is 2.Nf3 attacking Black's king pawn, preparing for a kingside castle, and anticipating the advance of

1144-540: A bit, but they only address center control peripherally and are slower than the more popular openings. The eleven remaining possibilities are rarely played at the top levels of chess. Of these, the best are merely slow such as 1.c3, 1.d3, and 1.e3. Worse possibilities either ignore the center and development such as 1.a3, weaken White's position (for instance, 1.f3 and 1.g4), or place the knights on poor squares (1.Na3 and 1.Nh3). Black has twenty complementary responses to White's opening move. Many of these are mirror images of

1287-439: A black advantage", which is similar to the view offered by the 1786 Traité des Amateurs . In 2021, Kaufman wrote that "it appears that White is a long way off from having a forced win in chess", but also that "White is actually quite close to having enough to play for a win without risk at [3000+ Elo] level", and that "with powerful hardware and long time limits" Stockfish NNUE may already be "almost unbeatable", "even against

1430-410: A chess variant played on a larger 10×10 board and with additional pieces (the chancellor and archbishop , moving as rook – knight and bishop –knight combinations respectively in the same way the queen could be said to be a rook–bishop combination). (He later changed his proposal to a 10×8 board.) Other masters were not in agreement with Capablanca's proposal. In 1928, Max Euwe (who later became

1573-493: A complex and interesting fight if your opponent wants to play it safe. As soon as one side chooses a relatively sterile line of play, the opponent is forced to follow suit, leading to an unoriginal game and an inevitably drawish outcome." These problems could be addressed by playing rapid instead of classical, as draws become much less common and the higher error rate means that preparation is less important: Larry Kaufman estimates that "the quality of play in fast rapid, say 10+2,

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1716-467: A forced win at engine level. Suicide chess is a weakly solved game : White wins with 1.e3. Kaufman has also mentioned the old Japanese variant chu shogi (played on a 12×12 board with 46 pieces per side) as a case where draws or opening theory should not be a problem. Although it is very much a minority view, three prominent twentieth-century masters claimed that White's advantage should or may be decisive with best play. Weaver Adams , then one of

1859-497: A form of it, giving a ¾–¼ result for stalemate only, has even been rated by FIDE . Kaufman and Nickel advocate extending Lasker's idea to scoring threefold repetition as ¾–¼ as well. This means penalising the player who brings about the repetition with only a quarter-point, even if the other side is forcing the repetition. This has similarities to the East Asian variants xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess), as well as

2002-488: A game of ' chicken '; who will 'blink' first and play an unsound move to avoid the mutually bad result of a draw?" Nickel has likewise criticised this idea as "wholly inadequate", creating "an artificial and empty pressure at best", and creating unfairness and incentivising "game manipulations" in team events or double round-robins. In this format, players are simply incentivised to trade wins with each other rather than agree to draws, and players have an easier time cheating as

2145-581: A game progresses. The prevalent style of play for Black today is to seek unbalanced, dynamic positions with active counterplay , rather than merely trying to equalize . Modern writers also argue that Black has certain countervailing advantages. The consensus that White should try to win can be a psychological burden for the White player, who sometimes loses by trying too hard to win. Some symmetrical openings (i.e. those where Black's moves mirror White's) can lead to situations where moving first

2288-476: A good opening, and Black wastes a move very early, Black can probably still draw if he plays perfectly thereafter, but a second pointless move should lose". Chess theorists have long debated how enduring White's initiative is and whether, if both sides play perfectly, the game should end in a win for White or a draw. François-André Danican Philidor was of the opinion that White's first-move advantage should be sufficient to win. However, his contemporaries who wrote

2431-649: A harmless sideline last century", is now seen as a "serious alternative" to the Ruy Lopez. As such, elite players currently prefer 1.e4 e5 to 1.e4 c5. Modern writers often think of Black's role in more dynamic terms than merely trying to equalize. Rowson writes that "the idea of Black trying to 'equalize' is questionable. I think it has limited application to a few openings, rather than being an opening prescription for Black in general." Evans wrote that after one of his games against Fischer, "Fischer confided his 'secret' to me: unlike other masters, he sought to win with

2574-399: A large center with the goal of attacking it with pieces. Other semi-open games have been studied but are less common; see Semi-Open Game for details. The openings classified as closed games begin 1.d4 d5. The move 1.d4 offers the same benefits to development and center control as does 1.e4, but unlike with King Pawn openings where the e4-pawn is undefended after the first move, the d4-pawn

2717-506: A last-round draw, explaining to the waiting reporters: 'Well, chess is a draw. ' " Eleventh World Champion Bobby Fischer thought that "it's almost definite that the game is a draw theoretically". Similarly, British grandmaster and World Championship challenger Nigel Short wrote that "... with perfect play, God versus God ... chess is a draw". Today some of the sharpest opening variations have been analyzed so deeply that they are often used as drawing weapons . For example, at

2860-408: A leading Soviet player and theoretician during the 1930s, likewise "claimed in the [1930s]: '1.e4—and White wins!' and he managed to prove it quite often". More recently, IM Hans Berliner , a former World Champion of Correspondence Chess , claimed in his 1999 book The System that 1.d4 gives White a large, and possibly decisive, advantage. Berliner asserted that with best play White wins against

3003-409: A lot of attention in the opening stages to the following strategies: Apart from these ideas, other strategies used in the middlegame may also be carried out in the opening. These include preparing pawn breaks to create counterplay, creating weaknesses in the opponent's pawn structure, seizing control of key squares, making favorable exchanges of minor pieces (e.g. gaining the bishop pair), or gaining

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3146-588: A player has specialized in is called an opening repertoire. The main elements a player needs to consider in a repertoire are: A very narrow repertoire allows for deeper specialization but also makes a player less flexible to vary against different opponents. In addition, opponents may find it easier to prepare against a player with a narrow repertoire. The main openings in a repertoire are usually reasonably sound; that is, they should lead to playable positions even against optimal counterplay. Unsound gambits are sometimes used as surprise weapons, but are unreliable for

3289-449: A position that is not clearly drawn. Kaufman has tested these ideas regarding the scoring of draws with the engine Komodo , and found the following results: chess at the level of a human World Championship match would have a draw rate of 65.6%; scoring stalemate as ¾–¼ reduces the draw rate to 63.4%; scoring stalemate and bare king as ¾–¼ brings it to 55.9%; and scoring stalemate, bare king, and threefold repetition as ¾–¼ brings it all

3432-488: A preselected list. Computer tournaments are run this way, though with two games per chosen opening, so that each player plays White once: this arrangement with two games per chosen opening was advocated in 1928 by Frank Marshall . Other ideas have also been suggested, such as the "football scoring": 0 for a loss, 1 for a draw, and 3 for a win, which is equivalent to scoring draws as ⅓–⅓ rather than ½–½. This has been criticised, however. Kaufman argues that this solution misses

3575-455: A psychological rather than a positional advantage, "and whether it leads to a positional advantage depends on the relative skill of the players." Third, some players are able to use the initiative to "play a kind of powerful ' serve and volley ' chess in which Black is flattened with a mixture of deep preparation and attacking prowess." Fourth, "If White wants to draw, it is often not so easy for Black to prevent this. This advantage

3718-586: A real advantage against all Sicilians other than the Najdorf and Sveshnikov", and that the Berlin and Marshall defenses to the Ruy Lopez are "very close to equal"; indeed, he had to write a new edition of his opening repertoire book (switching from 1.d4 to 1.e4) because "it became nearly impossible to show a consistent advantage for White [after 1.d4], especially against the Grünfeld and Nimzo / Ragozin defenses". Views on

3861-449: A similar engine". Kaufman has tried to compare White's first-move advantage with various positional or material advantages by having engines play games from modified versions of the opening position: he concludes that "if we define 1.00 as the advantage of a clean extra pawn in the opening with all other factors being equal, it takes above a 0.70 advantage in the opening to be more likely to win than to draw with perfect play (or at least with

4004-481: A somewhat different chess." The magnitude of the first-move advantage differs in other variants. In Fischerandom, as in normal chess, White has a first-move advantage that is probably insufficient to force a win. In shogi, the first move is only a "modest edge" even at top engine level according to Kaufman, whereas in Crazyhouse (which is basically chess with the shogi drop rule), the first player almost certainly has

4147-448: A space advantage, whether in the center or on the flanks. At higher levels of competition, for many years the main objectives of opening play were to obtain a better position when playing as White and to equalize when playing as Black. The idea behind this is that playing first gives White a slight initial advantage ; for example, White will be the first to attack if the game opens symmetrically (Black mirrors White's moves). Since about

4290-517: A stable repertoire. Repertoires often change as a player develops, and a player's advancement may be stifled if the opening repertoire does not evolve. Some openings that are effective against amateur players are less effective at the master level. For example, Black obtains active play in return for a pawn in the Benko Gambit ; amateur players may have trouble defending against Black's activity, while masters are more skilled at defending and making use of

4433-444: A team. (A team of players enters an open event; one of them is selected to obtain the maximum score and portion of the prize fund, and the others throw their games to that player; the prize is then shared among the team. This is easier to do when a win earns more points.) Kaufman speaks more favourably of an idea by Ed Epp, which is to score draws as 0.4–0.6, equalising the expected score for White and Black; but while he writes that he

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4576-535: A total white winning percentage of 59.2%. Since then, the draw percentage in World Championship games has increased further; notably, in the World Chess Championship 2018 between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana , all classical games were drawn. GM Larry Kaufman notes that in amateur games, the draw rate is low, but rises above 50% (in classical games) at the master level: in 2017 and 2018,

4719-413: A very sharp position, with mutual chances." Lasker and Capablanca both worried that chess would suffer a "draw death" as top-level players drew more and more of their games. More recently, Fischer considered that this had happened, saying that the game has become played out. Fourteenth World Champion Vladimir Kramnik agreed, writing: "From my own experience, I know how difficult it has become to force

4862-519: A vigorous counter-attack ." Rowson and Watson concur. Watson also observes, "Because of the presumption of White being better, the juncture of the game at which Black frees his game or neutralizes White's plans has often been automatically assumed to give him equality, even though in dynamic openings, the exhaustion of White's initiative very often means that Black has seized it with advantage." Rowson argues that both White and Black have certain advantages: According to Rowson, White's first advantage

5005-549: A well-prepared opponent playing Black can equalize fairly easily. The Stonewall is characterized by the White pawn formation on c3, d4, e3, and f4, and can be achieved by several move orders and against many different Black setups. The diagram positions and the move sequences given below are typical. Other closed openings have been studied but are less common; see Closed Game for details. The Indian systems are asymmetrical defenses to 1.d4 that employ hypermodern chess strategy. Fianchettos are common in many of these openings. As with

5148-471: A whole extra move before play (1.e4 2.d4 before Black makes a move) would only result in a 0.6 advantage, not enough to win (engine tests agree). Kaufman further makes the point that if White starts without the c-pawn, engine tests suggest that Black is only barely winning (roughly a 0.75 advantage for Black, because White has compensation from moving first and having an open diagonal for the queen), supporting his contention that "White's initial advantage in chess

5291-441: A win without an error by Black. The view that a game of chess should end in a draw given best play prevails. Even if it cannot be proved, this assumption is considered "safe" by Rowson and "logical" by Adorján. Watson agrees that "the proper result of a perfectly played chess game ... is a draw. ... Of course, I can't prove this, but I doubt that you can find a single strong player who would disagree. ... I remember Kasparov, after

5434-447: Is "all for this idea", he also admits that "the benefit would be small, most games would have the same outcome". Kaufman has also mentioned (but not advocated) the system used in janggi (Korean chess): in positions which otherwise would be draws, points are tallied up for the pieces and pawns remaining on the board, with the player moving second being given 1.5 points to compensate for the first-move advantage. Since every piece and pawn

5577-563: Is 2.c4, grabbing a larger share of the center and allowing the move Nc3, to prepare for moving the e-pawn to e4 without blocking the c-pawn. Black's most popular replies are: Advocated by Nimzowitsch as early as 1913, the Nimzo-Indian Defense was the first of the Indian systems to gain full acceptance. It remains one of the most popular and well-respected defenses to 1.d4 and White often adopts move orders designed to avoid it. Black attacks

5720-466: Is OK!" Alone amongst modern writers, Adorján claims that White starts the game with essentially no advantage. He writes, "In my opinion, the only obvious advantage for White is that if he or she plays for a draw, and does so well, then Black can hardly avoid this without taking obvious risks." Adorján goes so far as to claim that, "The tale of White's advantage is a delusion; belief in it is based on mass psychosis." Rowson writes that Adorján's "contention

5863-468: Is a positive correlation between the players' ratings and White's score. According to GM Evgeny Sveshnikov , statistics show that White has no advantage over Black in games between beginners, but "if the players are stronger, White has the lead". An analysis of the results of games in ChessBase 's Mega 2003 database between players with similar Elo ratings, commissioned by GM András Adorján , showed that as

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6006-484: Is a consensus among players and theorists that the player who makes the first move ( White ) has an inherent advantage, albeit not one large enough to win with perfect play . This has been the consensus since at least 1889, when the first World Chess Champion , Wilhelm Steinitz , addressed the issue, although chess has not been solved . Since 1851, compiled statistics support this view; White consistently wins slightly more often than Black , usually achieving

6149-495: Is a detriment, for either psychological or objective reasons. In 1946, W.F. Streeter examined the results of 5,598 games played in 45 international chess tournaments between 1851 and 1932. Streeter found that overall White scored 53.4% (W: 38.12; D: 30.56; L: 31.31). White scored 52.55% in 1851–1878 (W:45.52; D: 14.07; L: 40.41), 52.77% in 1881–1914 (W: 36.89; D: 31.76; L: 31.35), and 55.47% in 1919–1932 (W: 36.98; D: 36.98; L: 26.04). Streeter concluded, "It thus appears that it

6292-448: Is about 200 Elo below classical play". This is already done for xiangqi (Chinese chess), which is even more drawish than chess (because the elephants and advisors cannot cross the river and are hence relegated to defense only). However, this is impossible for correspondence chess, and brings a philosophical problem: Kaufman writes "For many chess players the beauty of the game is in the search for truth, and if allowing enough time to find

6435-483: Is actually less than a move, since White must tip his hand first, allowing Black to react to White's plans. Suba writes, "In terms of the mathematical games theory , chess is a game of complete information , and Black's information is always greater—by one move!" Rowson also notes that Black's chances increase markedly by playing good openings, which tend to be those with flexibility and latent potential, "rather than those that give White fixed targets or that try to take

6578-555: Is also a kind of obligation to play for a win, and Black can often use this to his advantage." Second, "White's 'extra move' can be a burden, and sometimes White finds himself in a mild form of zugzwang ('Zugzwang Lite')." Third, although White begins the game with the initiative, if "Black retains a flexible position with good reactive possibilities, this initiative can be absorbed and often passes over to Black." Fourth, "The fact that White moves before Black often gives Black useful information". Suba likewise argues that White's advantage

6721-475: Is becoming increasingly difficult to win with Black, but somewhat easier to draw." Two decades later, statistician Arthur M. Stevens concluded in The Blue Book of Charts to Winning Chess , based on a survey of 56,972 master games that he completed in 1967, that White scores 59.1%. However, Stevens assembled his games from those that had been published in chess magazines, rather than complete collections of all

6864-448: Is characterized by White playing 1.Nf3, fianchettoing one or both bishops, and not playing an early d4 (which would generally transpose into one of the 1.d4 openings). The King's Indian Attack (KIA) is a system of development that White may use in reply to almost any Black opening moves. The characteristic KIA setup is 1.Nf3, 2.g3, 3.Bg2, 4.0-0, 5.d3, 6.Nbd2, and 7.e4, although these moves may be played in many different orders. In fact,

7007-485: Is common to divide each of them further. One reasonable way to group the openings is: The Indian systems (1.d4 Nf6) are the most important of the Semi-Closed Games, and warrant separate treatment. White starts by playing 1.e4 (moving their king pawn two spaces). This is the most popular opening move and it has many strengths—it immediately works on controlling the center, and it activates two pieces (the queen and

7150-529: Is considered solid, safe, and perhaps somewhat drawish . Black often chooses the Queen's Indian when White avoids the Nimzo-Indian by playing 3.Nf3 instead of 3.Nc3. Black constructs a sound position that makes no positional concessions, although sometimes it is difficult for Black to obtain good winning chances. Karpov was a leading expert in this opening. The Modern Benoni is a risky attempt by Black to unbalance

7293-412: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Chess opening Opening moves that are considered standard are referred to as "book moves", or simply "book". When a game begins to deviate from known opening theory , the players are said to be "out of book". In some openings, book lines have been worked out for over 30 moves, such as some lines in

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7436-401: Is fairly easy to explain why White is better, even if in many cases a grandmaster can expect to hold the draw against a similar opponent. Black should at least be the one who has to be careful to get the draw." Nonetheless, Kaufman considers it necessary for White to make no mistakes to achieve this evaluation. Kaufman writes that "once White makes one or two second-rate moves I start to look for

7579-453: Is given an integer number of points, the result can never be a draw, making janggi the only competitively played version of chess where draws do not exist (at least when played by the official South Korean tournament rules). He writes: "The chess analogue would perhaps be to count pawn 3, knight 10, bishop 11, rook 16, queen 31 in case of a draw by normal rules, with Black winning ties. It would probably be close to fair, but of course it would be

7722-603: Is named after the Catalonia region. Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names. The name given to an opening is not always that of the first player to adopt it; often an opening is named for the player who was the first to popularize it or to publish analysis of it. Eponymic openings include the Ruy Lopez , Alekhine's Defense , Morphy Defense , and the Réti Opening . Some opening names honor two people, such as

7865-440: Is one of the most important chess ideas of the last two decades ... because it has shaken our assumption that White begins the game with some advantage, and revealed its ideological nature". Rowson rejects Adorján's claim, however, that White has essentially no advantage, reasoning that " 'White is better' and 'Black is OK' need not be mutually exclusive claims". Kaufman writes that he has to disagree with Adorján's claim that "with

8008-458: Is particularly acute in cases where there is a possible threefold repetition , because White can begin the repetition without committing to a draw and Black has to decide whether to deviate before he knows whether White is bluffing." Rowson cites as an example of the last phenomenon the well-regarded Zaitsev Variation of the Ruy Lopez . After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 (initiating

8151-574: Is protected by White's queen. This slight difference has a tremendous effect on the opening. For instance, whereas the King's Gambit is rarely played today at the highest levels of chess, the Queen's Gambit remains a popular weapon at all levels of play. Also, compared with the King Pawn openings, transpositions among variations are more common and critical in the closed games. The most important closed openings are in

8294-476: Is somewhat inflexible because it blocks White's c-pawn; also, after 1...d5 the knight is liable to be driven to an inferior square by ...d4. (Note that after 1.Nf3 the analogous 1...e5? loses a pawn.) Bird's Opening , 1.f4, addresses center control but not development and weakens the king position slightly. The Sokolsky Opening 1.b4 and the King's and Queen's fianchettos : Larsen's Opening 1.b3 and 1.g3 aid development

8437-592: Is still played occasionally at the top level by Short and others. Another fairly common opening is the Benoni Defense , which may become very wild if it develops into the Modern Benoni , though other variations are more solid. Several other uncommon semi-closed openings have been named and studied, see Semi-Closed Game for details. The flank openings are the group of White openings typified by play on one or both flanks. White plays in hypermodern style, attacking

8580-412: Is that "the first move has some similarities with the first serve in tennis in that White can score an ' ace ' (for instance with a powerful opening novelty ), he has more control over the pace and direction of the game, and he has a ' second serve ' in that when things go wrong his position is not usually losing." Second, White begins the game with some initiative, although Rowson regards this as

8723-454: Is to the exclusion of tactical training and middlegame and endgame strategy. A new sequence of moves in the opening is referred to as a theoretical novelty . When kept secret until used in a competitive game, it is often known as a prepared variation , a powerful weapon in top-class competition. Whether they are trying to gain the upper hand as White, or to equalize as Black or to create dynamic imbalances, players generally devote

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8866-399: Is understood to have the attack ." This is consistent with the traditional view that White, by virtue of the first move, begins with the initiative and should try to extend it into the middlegame , while Black should strive to neutralize White's initiative and attain equality . Because White begins with the initiative, a minor mistake by White generally leads only to loss of

9009-462: Is usually done by transpositions , in which a game that apparently starts with one opening can reach a position that is normally produced by a different opening. Most players realize after a while that they play certain types of positions better than others, and that the amount of theory they can learn is limited. Therefore, most players specialize in certain openings where they know the theory and that lead to positions they favor. The set of openings

9152-399: Is way too small to win the game without significant mistakes by Black". The above conclusions are about optimal play; human play is far from optimal. A pawn down without compensation is usually lost with perfect play, but accumulated small errors mean that grandmasters have a difficult time converting games against engines when they are a clean minor piece up, and have sometimes even lost. In

9295-406: Is widely considered the father of modern chess, wrote in 1889, "It is now conceded by all experts that by proper play on both sides the legitimate issue of a game ought to be a draw." Lasker and Capablanca, the second and third World Champions, agreed. Reuben Fine , one of the world's leading players from 1936 to 1951, wrote that White's opening advantage is too intangible to be sufficient for

9438-479: Is worse than −460. He found that White's advantage is equivalent to 35 rating points, i.e. if White has a rating 35 points below Black's, each player will have an expected score of 50%. Sonas also found that White's advantage is smaller (53%) in rapid games than in games at a slower ("classical") time control . In the 462 games played at the 2009 World Blitz Chess Championship , White scored only 52.16% (W38.96 D26.41 L34.63). Other writers conclude that there

9581-500: The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings . Although these codes are invaluable for the serious study of the chess opening, they are not very practical for a broad survey of the chess opening as the codes obscure common structural features between related openings. A simple descriptive categorization of the chess opening is King's Pawn Openings , Queen's Pawn Openings , and Others. Since these categories are still individually very large, it

9724-456: The Traité des Amateurs (published in 1786) disagreed: they wrote that White's advantage is not enough to win, that the result of a perfect game should be a draw, and that Black would seize the advantage if White made a mistake. George Walker wrote in 1846 that, "The first move is an advantage, ... but if properly answered, the first move is of little worth". Steinitz, the first World Champion, who

9867-650: The Alekhine and the Scandinavian have made occasional appearances in World Chess Championship games. The Sicilian and French Defenses lead to unbalanced positions that can offer exciting play with both sides having chances to win. The Caro–Kann Defense is solid as Black intends to use their c-pawn to support their center (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5). Alekhine's, the Pirc and the Modern are hypermodern openings in which Black tempts White to build

10010-597: The Caro–Kann and the Smith–Morra . A few opening names are purely descriptive, such as Giuoco Piano ( Italian : quiet game ), Two Knights Defense , Four Knights Game and Bishop's Opening . Some openings have been given fanciful names, often names of animals. This practice became more common in the 20th century. By then, most of the more common and traditional sequences of opening moves had already been named, so these tend to be unusual or recently developed openings like

10153-562: The Grünfeld Defense , the Modern Benoni , the Benko Gambit and other (unnamed) "major defences", and achieves at least a large advantage in many lines of the Queen's Gambit Declined . He allowed, however, that "It is possible that the rules of chess are such that only some number of plausible-appearing defences to 1.d4 can be refuted." Berliner wrote that Adams' "theories, though looked upon with scorn by most top chess players, made an immediate and lasting impression on me. Weaver W. Adams

10296-476: The Italian Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nbxd2 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Qb3 Na5 11.Qa4+ Nc6 12.Qb3), in the context of arguing for his proposed rule change to penalise threefold repetition: he argues that "the majority of repetitions occur when the game isn't otherwise clearly drawn". Rowson argues that Black also has several advantages. First, "White's alleged advantage

10439-677: The Orangutan , Hippopotamus, Elephant, Hedgehog, and, most recently, the Cow. A few are given humorous names, such as the Monkey's Bum and the Toilet Variation . Opening names usually include one of the terms "opening", "variation", "defense", "gambit" etc, however the terminology is inconsistent and imprecise, and is not a useful basis for classification. Broadly, these terms are used as follows: Chess openings are primarily categorized by move sequences. In

10582-419: The Ruy Lopez or Spanish Opening . Opening theory was studied more scientifically from the 1840s on, and many opening variations were discovered and named in this period and later. Opening nomenclature developed haphazardly, and most names are historical accidents not based on systematic principles. In the early 1930s, the nascent FIDE embarked on a project to standardize opening nomenclature, culminating in

10725-643: The Vienna Game (2.Nc3), the Bishop's Opening (2.Bc4), and the King's Gambit (2.f4). These openings have some similarities with each other, in particular the Bishop's Opening frequently transposes to variations of the Vienna Game. The King's Gambit was extremely popular in the 19th century. White sacrifices a pawn for quick development and to divert a black pawn from the center. The Vienna Game also frequently features attacks on

10868-802: The 1950s another objective has gradually become more dominant. According to IM Jeremy Silman , the purpose of the opening is to create dynamic imbalances between the two sides, which will determine the character of the middlegame and the strategic plans chosen by both sides. For example, in the main line of the Winawer Variation of the French Defense (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3), White will try to use their bishop pair and space advantage to mount an attack on Black's kingside , while Black will seek simplifying exchanges (in particular, trading off one of White's bishops to blunt this advantage) and counterattack against

11011-457: The 20th century, but that this figure had recently slipped to 55%. The website Chessgames.com holds regularly updated statistics on its games database . As of January 12, 2015, White had won 37.50%, 34.90% were drawn, and Black had won 27.60% out of 739,769 games, resulting in a total White winning percentage of 54.95%. New In Chess observed in its 2000 Yearbook that of the 731,740 games in its database, White scored 54.8% overall; with

11154-575: The Black center by means of a f2–f4 pawn advance. In the Center Game (2.d4) White immediately opens the center but if the pawn is to be recovered after 2...exd4, White must contend with a slightly premature queen development after 3.Qxd4. An alternative is to sacrifice one or two pawns, for example in the Danish Gambit . Many other variations after 1.e4 e5 have been studied; see Open Game for details. In

11297-401: The Black pieces from the start. The revelation that Black has dynamic chances and need not be satisfied with mere equality was the turning point in his career, he said." Likewise, Watson surmised that Kasparov, when playing Black, bypasses the question of whether White has an opening advantage "by thinking in terms of the concrete nature of the dynamic imbalance on the board, and seeking to seize

11440-595: The Catalan System. The most important Indian Defenses are listed below, but many others have been studied and played; see Indian Defense for details. Of the defenses to 1.d4 other than 1...d5 and 1...Nf6, the most important are the Dutch Defense and the Benoni Defense . The Dutch, an aggressive defense adopted for a time by World Champions Alekhine and Botvinnik , and played by both Botvinnik and challenger David Bronstein in their 1951 world championship match ,

11583-566: The Grünfeld). In the 19th century, general opinion was that 1.e4 was obviously the best move and 1...e5 obviously the best reply; but in the first half of the 20th century, the French Defence (1.e4 e6) became popular, and Kaufman speculates that this led to 1.d4 surpassing 1.e4 in popularity among masters then. By the second half of the 20th century, the French had fallen out of favour, and the Najdorf

11726-595: The KIA is probably most often reached after 1.e4 when White uses it to respond to a Black attempt to play one of the semi-open games such as the Caro–Kann, French, or Sicilian, or even the open games which usually come after 1.e4 e5. Its greatest appeal may be that by adopting a set pattern of development, White can avoid the large amount of opening study required to prepare to meet the many different possible Black replies to 1.e4. First-move advantage in chess In chess , there

11869-495: The Lasker rule could be combined with Fischerandom in order to solve both draw death and opening preparation. Kramnik has also advocated changes to the rules of chess, such as No Castling Chess where castling is forbidden. At one point, Kramnik advocated an alternative solution to avoid the issue of openings being prepared to extreme depth with engines: using the normal starting position, but choosing openings by lot or at random from

12012-451: The Najdorf, that Black must be very well-prepared to survive, and that White can avoid the Najdorf and Sveshnikov altogether by playing 3.Bb5 and still have the better chances. Meanwhile, the Ruy Lopez , which previously was seen to give White an advantage, is now seen as very even because of the Berlin and Marshall – so much so that the Italian Game , which Kaufman writes "was considered to be

12155-584: The Paulsen Variation of the French Defense , 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 c5 Other chess moves [ edit ] Marshall Attack , in the Ruy Lopez which also sacrifices a pawn, and can therefore be called a "gambit" Marshall Defense , in the Queen's Gambit Declined Marshall Counterattack in the Sicilian Defense where after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4, black plays 3...d5?! Topics referred to by

12298-439: The Queen's Gambit family (White plays 2.c4). The Queen's Gambit is somewhat misnamed, since White can always regain the offered pawn if desired. In the Queen's Gambit Accepted , Black plays ...dxc4, giving up the center for free development and the chance to try to give White an isolated queen pawn with a subsequent ...c5 and ...cxd4. White will get active pieces and possibilities for the attack. Black has two popular ways to decline

12441-493: The Queen's Gambit other than 2...dxc4, 2...c6, and 2...e6 are uncommon. The Colle System and Stonewall Attack are classified as Queen's Pawn Games because White plays d4 but not c4. They are also examples of Systems , rather than specific opening variations. White develops aiming for a particular formation without great concern over how Black chooses to defend. Both systems are popular with club players because they are easy to learn, but are rarely used by professionals because

12584-538: The Zaitsev Variation), White can repeat moves once with 11.Ng5 Rf8 12.Nf3. This gives Black an awkward choice between (a) insisting on the Zaitsev with 12...Re8, which allows White to choose whether to draw by threefold repetition with 13.Ng5 Rf8 14.Nf3, or play on with a different move, or (b) playing something other than 12...Re8 and entering an inferior variation. Kaufman mentions this draw, as well as an early one in

12727-461: The best openings for Black have played a role in determining what opening moves are more fashionable for White. Kaufman wrote in 2004 that White's "only serious [tries] for advantage in the opening" are 1.e4 and the Queen's Gambit (by which he means playing d4 and c4 in the first few moves, thus also including diverse Black responses like the King's Indian, the Nimzo-Indian , the Modern Benoni , and

12870-405: The case for Fischerandom "very strong as the draw reduction is sizeable, memorization is almost eliminated, and the game already has strong support, being recognized by FIDE and quite popular among the top players." However, he added that while he supported Fischerandom for human play, it is still insufficient at reducing draws for computer play. Kaufman also wrote that his and Nickel's extension of

13013-502: The center from the flanks with pieces rather than occupying it with pawns. These openings are played often, and 1.Nf3 and 1.c4 trail only 1.e4 and 1.d4 in popularity as opening moves. If White opens with 1.Nf3, the game often becomes one of the d4 openings (closed games or semi-closed games) by a different move order (this is called transposition ), but unique openings such as the Réti and King's Indian Attack are also common. The Réti itself

13156-524: The center with pieces and is prepared to trade a bishop for a knight to weaken White's queenside with doubled pawns . The King's Indian Defense is aggressive, somewhat risky, and generally indicates that Black will not be satisfied with a draw. Although it was played occasionally as early as the late 19th century, the King's Indian was considered inferior until the 1940s, when it was taken up by Bronstein , Boleslavsky , and Reshevsky . Despite being Fischer 's favored defense to 1.d4, its popularity faded in

13299-561: The classical King's Indian Defense and in the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. Professional chess players spend years studying openings, and they continue doing so throughout their careers as opening theory continues to evolve. Players at the club level also study openings, but the importance of the opening phase is less there since games are rarely decided in the opening. The study of openings can become unbalanced if it

13442-508: The closed games, transpositions are important and many of the Indian defenses can be reached by several different move orders. Although Indian defenses were championed in the 1920s by players in the hypermodern school, they were not fully accepted until Soviet players showed in the late 1940s that these systems are sound for Black. Since then, Indian defenses have been the most popular Black replies to 1.d4 because they offer an unbalanced game with chances for both sides. The usual White second move

13585-592: The draw rate of players rated over 2750 surpassed 70%. In top-level correspondence chess (where engine assistance is allowed), the draw rate is much higher. Of 1512 games played in the World Correspondence Championship finals and the Candidates' sections between 2010 and 2013, 82.3% ended in a draw. Since that time, the draw rate in top-level correspondence play has been rising steadily, reaching 97% in 2019. Regarding computer play, Kaufman wrote: "As

13728-464: The extra pawn. Some openings played between grandmasters are so complex and theoretical that amateur players will have trouble understanding them. An example is the Perenyi Attack of the Sicilian Defense (see diagram), which yields an immensely complicated and tactical position that even strong players have difficulty handling, and that is beyond the comprehension of most amateurs. Major changes in

13871-458: The fifth World Champion) replied to Capablanca's proposal to the effect that he thought that changes were unnecessary, but that he was in agreement with Lasker and Réti that reevaluating stalemate and considering bare king as a victory "would do the game no harm". Siegbert Tarrasch and Akiba Rubinstein were against Capablanca's modifications. The fourth World Champion Alexander Alekhine considered in 1933 that chess did not need any changes at

14014-404: The first move advantage in chess have been recorded. He wrote in 2020, "I don't believe that White has a forced win in chess, but I do believe that if he starts with 1.e4 and makes no mistakes, he can retain at least the preferable position without allowing an obvious draw for 30 to 40 moves or so, beyond the point to which openings can generally be analyzed. He should normally get positions where it

14157-449: The gambit pawn or return it. The Catalan Opening is characterized by White forming a pawn center at d4 and c4 and fianchettoing their king's bishop. It resembles a combination of the Queen's Gambit and Réti Opening . Since the Catalan can be reached from many different move orders, (one Queen's Gambit Declined -like move sequence is 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3), it is sometimes called

14300-511: The game of Go , where repetition is forbidden either absolutely or under certain circumstances. (Shogi has a very low draw rate of about 1–2%, and under some rule sets used in some amateur events, draws are completely eliminated.) Kaufman does concede that this is a "much more extreme idea" than simply penalising perpetual check (which is more like the East Asian rules), but argues for it nonetheless because engine-play experiments show that most repetition draws occur when any other move would lead to

14443-433: The games played in particular events. More recent sources indicate that White scores approximately 54 to 56 percent. In 2005, Grandmaster (GM) Jonathan Rowson wrote that "the conventional wisdom is that White begins the game with a small advantage and, holding all other factors constant, scores approximately 56% to Black's 44%". International Master (IM) John Watson wrote in 1998 that White had scored 56% for most of

14586-454: The general perception that White has an advantage is founded more in psychology than reality. Though computer analysis disagrees with his wider claim, it agrees with Adorján that some openings are better than others for Black, and thoughts on the relative strengths of openings have long informed the opening choices in games between top players. Mihai Suba and others contend that sometimes White's initiative disappears for no apparent reason as

14729-650: The highest levels, Black often uses the Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez . In this line Black sacrifices a pawn for strong attacking chances, to obtain an endgame where Black is still a pawn down but is able to draw with correct play. In 2007, GMs Kiril Georgiev and Atanas Kolev asserted that much the same was true of the so-called Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Najdorf Sicilian , which arises after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 !? This has long been considered one of

14872-476: The idea that White has an enduring advantage. Suba, in his influential 1991 book Dynamic Chess Strategy , rejects the notion that the initiative can always be transformed into an enduring advantage. He contends that sometimes the player with the initiative loses it with no logical explanation, and that, "Sometimes you must lose it, just like that. If you try to cling to it, by forcing the issue, your dynamic potential will become exhausted and you won't be able to face

15015-432: The initial position of the pieces is determined at random and identical for both players, subject to the constraints that the bishops be on opposite colours and that the king stand between the rooks. (Randomising the starting position has a long history: in 1792, Philip Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt already advocated it as a solution to obviate the advantage of preparation.) In 2021, Larry Kaufman wrote that he considered

15158-399: The initial position, White has twenty legal moves. Of these, 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.Nf3, and 1.c4 are by far the most popular as these moves do the most to promote rapid development and control of the center. A few other opening moves are considered reasonable but less consistent with opening principles than the four most popular moves. The Dunst Opening , 1.Nc3, develops a knight to a good square, but

15301-598: The initiative prematurely." He also emphasizes that "White has 'the initiative', not 'the advantage'. Success with Black depends on seeing beyond the initiative and thinking of positions in terms of 'potential'." These ideas are exemplified by the Hedgehog , a dynamic modern system against the English Opening that can arise from various move orders . A typical position arises after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.0-0 e6 6.Nc3 Be7 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.e4 a6. White has

15444-528: The initiative whenever possible". Watson observes that "energetic opening play by Black may ... lead to a position so complex and unclear that to speak of equality is meaningless. Sometimes we say 'dynamically balanced' instead of 'equal' to express the view that either player is as likely as the other to emerge from complications with an advantage. This style of opening play has become prevalent in modern chess, with World Champions Fischer and Kasparov as its most visible practitioners." Modern writers also question

15587-402: The initiative, while a similar mistake by Black may have more serious consequences. Thus, Sveshnikov wrote in 1994, "Black players cannot afford to make even the slightest mistake ... from a theoretical point of view, the tasks of White and Black in chess are different: White has to strive for a win, Black—for a draw!" Kaufman gives Black slightly more scope for errors: he writes "if White plays

15730-442: The leading American masters, was the best-known proponent of this view, which he introduced in his 1939 book White to Play and Win , and continued to expound in later books and articles until shortly before his death in 1963. Adams opined that 1.e4 was White's strongest move, and that if both sides played the best moves thereafter, "White ought to win." Adams' claim was widely ridiculed, and he did not succeed in demonstrating

15873-537: The level soars past 3000, the percentage of decisive games drops ever closer to zero, while the percentage of White wins among those decisive games approaches 100. This is why engine vs. engine tournaments and rating lists have to use arbitrarily chosen openings (playing each side once) to keep things interesting." In 2017 AlphaZero , playing 100 games against Stockfish , won 25 and drew 25 as White, but won 3 and drew 47 as Black. Joseph Bertin wrote in his 1735 textbook The Noble Game of Chess , "He that plays first,

16016-564: The lowest-rated players (Elo ratings below 2100), White scored 53.1% overall (W37.0 D32.1 L30.8). Adorján also analyzed the results of games played at World Championship matches . Of 755 games played in 34 matches between 1886 and 1990, White won 234 (31.0%), drew 397 (52.6%), and lost 124 (16.4%), for a total white winning percentage of 57.3%. In the last five matches in Adorján's survey, all between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov , White won 31 (25.8%), drew 80 (66.7%), and lost 9 (7.5%), for

16159-436: The mid-1970s. Kasparov 's successes with the defense restored the King's Indian to prominence in the 1980s. Ernst Grünfeld debuted the Grünfeld Defense in 1922. Distinguished by the move 3...d5, Grünfeld intended it as an improvement to the King's Indian which was not considered entirely satisfactory at that time. The Grünfeld has been adopted by World Champions Smyslov , Fischer, and Kasparov. The Queen's Indian Defense

16302-441: The most perfect play available now)", and that White's first-move advantage on this scale would be "about 0.20" (assuming he is speaking of a linear scale, an advantage of 0.20 gives White 1 win and 6 draws in 7 games, and 1.50, half a minor piece, is already more than enough to start to look for a conversion). Thus a tempo is worth 0.4 (just under half a pawn), and Kaufman remarks that this means that even allowing White to start with

16445-405: The most popular first moves for White, but with one less tempo . Defenses beginning with 1...c6 and 1...e6, often followed by the center thrust 2...d5, are also popular. Defenses with an early ...d6 coupled with a kingside fianchetto are also commonly played. The most important scheme of classifying chess openings for serious players is by ECO code , a series of 500 opening codes assigned by

16588-472: The number of drawn games. Lasker suggested that stalemate or king and minor piece versus king (with the superior side to move) should receive ¾ of a point instead of being a draw, and was supported by Richard Réti . (This rewards the side that would have often been considered the winner in shatranj , and thus has a historical precedent.) More recently, correspondence chess grandmaster Arno Nickel has also favoured this idea and tested it in correspondence play:

16731-705: The pawn, the Slav (2...c6) and the Queen's Gambit Declined (2...e6). Both of these moves lead to an immense forest of variations that can require a great deal of opening study to play well. Among the many possibilities in the Queen's Gambit Declined are the Orthodox Defense, Lasker's Defense, the Cambridge Springs Defense , the Tartakower Variation, and the Tarrasch and Semi-Tarrasch Defenses. Black replies to

16874-414: The play of engines with the humans merely choosing which engine they want to follow". Rules prohibiting an early draw by agreement have been tried, but they do not address the problem, which is that chess is drawish enough at high levels that draws are too common even if one or both players is playing to win. Lasker, Capablanca, Fischer, and Kramnik all advocated changing the rules of chess to minimize

17017-420: The players' ratings went up, the percentage of draws increased, the proportion of decisive games that White won increased, and White's overall winning percentage increased. For example, taking the highest and lowest of Adorján's rating categories of 1669 games played by the highest-rated players (Elo ratings 2700 and above), White scored 55.7% overall (W26.5 D58.4 L15.2), whereas of 34,924 games played by

17160-405: The point: it reduces the incentive to draw, but the reason for the high draw rate is not one of incentives, but rather that White's first-move advantage is not enough to win. Thus Kaufman calls this solution "terrible", going against "the very nature of the game": he writes that "The inferior side should be trying to draw, and to penalize Black for obtaining a good result is crazy. It makes chess like

17303-436: The position and gain active piece play at the cost of allowing White a pawn wedge at d5 and a central majority. Tal popularized the defense in the 1960s by winning several brilliant games with it, and Fischer occasionally adopted it, with good results, including a win in his 1972 world championship match against Boris Spassky . Often Black adopts a slightly different move order, playing 2...e6 before 3...c5 in order to avoid

17446-500: The problem is that very few people know which are the openings where Black is really OK. Those who find these lines have nothing to fear, as Black is indeed OK , but only in those variations!" Rowson considers this an important point, noting that "1.d4 players struggle to get anywhere against main-line Slavs and 1.e4 players find the Najdorf and Sveshnikov Sicilians particularly tough." Kaufman likewise writes that "White gets

17589-459: The publication of a short booklet in 1933, but this had little impact. The oldest openings tend to be named for geographic places and people. Many openings are named after nationalities of players who advocated them, for example Indian, English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Scotch, Russian, Italian, Scandinavian and Sicilian, or places where important games featuring the opening were played such as Vienna, Berlin, and Wilkes-Barre . The Catalan System

17732-602: The queen pawn to d4. Black's most common reply is 2...Nc6, which usually leads to the Ruy Lopez (3.Bb5), Scotch Game (3.d4), or Italian Game (3.Bc4). If Black instead maintains symmetry and counterattacks White's center with 2...Nf6 then the Petrov's Defense results. The Philidor Defense (2...d6) is not popular in modern chess because it allows White an easy space advantage while Black's position remains cramped and passive, although solid. Other responses to 2.Nf3 are not seen in master play. The most popular alternatives to 2.Nf3 are

17875-410: The right choice of defenses Black should have roughly equal chances", but that Adorján is "correct in the sense that Black need not lose just because he moves second". GM Lajos Portisch opined in 1994, and was quoted in one of Adorján's books, that "at least two-thirds of all 'tested' openings give White an apparent advantage." In 2021, Kaufman noted that the number of openings considered playable at

18018-436: The rules of chess in the late fifteenth century increased the speed of the game, consequently emphasizing the importance of opening study. Thus, early chess books, such as the 1497 text of Luis Ramirez de Lucena , present opening analysis, as do Pedro Damiano (1512) and Ruy López de Segura (1561). Ruy López's disagreement with Damiano regarding the merits of 2...Nc6 led to 3.Bb5 (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6) being named for him as

18161-427: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Marshall Gambit . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marshall_Gambit&oldid=1090126615 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

18304-424: The same time control the same year; Smerdon won 5–1 (+5 −1 =0). Thus, there is a large difference between the threshold of being objectively lost, and the threshold of resignability (not being able to create practical chances) in human play. As of 2024, grandmasters need roughly knight odds to be competitive against engines. Starting in 1988, Adorján has argued in a series of books and magazine articles that "Black

18447-557: The semi-open games White plays 1.e4 and Black breaks symmetry immediately by replying with a move other than 1...e5. The most popular Black defense to 1.e4 is the Sicilian (1...c5), but the French (1...e6, normally followed by 2.d4 d5) and the Caro–Kann (1...c6, normally followed by 2.d4 d5) are also very popular. The Pirc and the Modern are closely related openings that are also often seen, while

18590-687: The sharpest and most problematic, or even foolhardy, opening lines. The game usually continues 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3. Georgiev and Kolev stated that 6.Bg5 is seldom seen at the highest level because the main line of this variation leads, with best play, to a draw by perpetual check . They wrote that the following game "will probably remain the last word of theory": Georgiev and Kolev's pessimistic assessment of 6.Bg5 has since been called into question, however, as White succeeded with 10.e5 (another critical line) in several later high-level games. GM Zaven Andriasyan wrote in 2013 that after 10.f5, "a forced draw results", but that after 10.e5, "we reach

18733-442: The sharpest lines for White. The Benko Gambit is often played by strong players, and is very popular at lower levels. Black plays to open lines on the queenside where White will be subject to considerable pressure. If White accepts the gambit, Black's compensation is positional rather than tactical, and their initiative can last even after many piece exchanges and well into the endgame . White often chooses instead either to decline

18876-420: The stronger side something to play for even when checkmate cannot be attained.) The remaining draws would mostly be by the fifty-move rule ; Kaufman notes that even these could be similarly addressed by giving ¾ of a point to the last player who captured or played a pawn move, but considers this too radical, noting that "it really does change the game drastically". Capablanca in 1926 proposed Capablanca Chess ,

19019-511: The time, but that combining "the best features" of the Asian varieties of chess with Western chess "would be a more natural evolution than adding new squares and pieces, or some of the other changes that have been proposed". In 1936, Capablanca advocated scoring ⅔ or ¾ points for a stalemate, saying that that change would be enough to address the problem of the game being played out. Fischer advocated Fischerandom Chess , another chess variant, in which

19162-533: The top choice among the best players by 2021, due to analytical advances in favour of Black's chances in the Open Game and against them in the Sicilian.) Statistician Jeff Sonas , in examining data from 266,000 games played between 1994 and 2001, concluded that White scored 54.1767% plus 0.001164 times White's Elo rating advantage, treating White's rating advantage as +390 if it is better than +390, or −460 if it

19305-430: The top level has shrunk further, because engines have shown that space advantages are worth more than had been previously supposed: consequently, he writes that "many defenses formerly considered to be playable, if slightly worse for Black, are now viewed as practically, if not theoretically, losing to a well prepared opponent", listing the King's Indian Defense as an example. According to Portisch, for Black, "The root of

19448-427: The traditional paradigm that Black's objective should be to neutralize White's initiative and obtain equality. Starting from 2004, GM Larry Kaufman has expressed a more nuanced view than Adams and Berliner, arguing that the initiative stemming from the first move can always be transformed into some sort of enduring advantage, albeit not a decisive one. This has been the consensus for almost as long as players' views on

19591-410: The truth about positions makes for too many draws or makes preparation too critical that's a huge problem". The preparation issue has also become more important in recent years; in the past, opening preparation meant the top players had to analyse by themselves, but now they only need to consult engines. Kaufman writes that "to a significant degree", the games of the top players are not "human play, but

19734-485: The two most popular opening moves, White scored 54.1% in 349,855 games beginning 1.e4 (moving the king's pawn two spaces forward), and 56.1% in 296,200 games beginning 1.d4 (moving the queen's pawn two spaces forward). The main reason that 1.e4 was less effective than 1.d4 was the Sicilian Defence (1.e4 c5), which gave White only a 52.3% score in 145,996 games. (Since then, 1.e4 e5 has replaced 1.e4 c5 as

19877-487: The validity of his theory in tournament and match practice. The year after his book was published, at the finals of the 1940 U.S. Open tournament , he scored only one draw in his four games as White, but won all four of his games as Black. Adams also lost a match to IM I.A. Horowitz , who took the black pieces in every game. Larry Kaufman wrote in 2020 that Adams "resorted to dubious gambits that were often just winning for Black". According to Sveshnikov, Vsevolod Rauzer ,

20020-449: The way down to 22.6%. Kaufman and Nickel thus argue that this last extension of Lasker's rule "is the simplest and most acceptable way to reduce draws dramatically without fundamentally changing the game." (The same reduction of draws would occur if stalemate, bare king, and threefold repetition were scored as 1–0 instead of ¾–¼, but the point of the ¾–¼ scoring is to allow the weaker side to still benefit from avoiding checkmate, while giving

20163-457: The weakened pawns on White's queenside ; both players accept different combinations of advantages and disadvantages. This idea was a doctrine of the Soviet school of chess . A third objective, which is complementary to the previous ones and has been common since the 19th century, is to lure the opponent into positions with which the player is more familiar and comfortable than the opponent. This

20306-410: Was generally considered Black's best response to and perhaps the only way to equalise against 1.e4. Statistics in 2000 thus show 1.e4 as scoring worse than 1.d4, because of the Sicilian; Kaufman suggests that this may be a reason why Kasparov favoured 1.d4 for most of his career. However, analytical advances have since shown that there are many dangerous ways that White can play for an advantage against

20449-406: Was the first person I met who actually had theories about how chess should be played." Berliner's thesis, like Adams', has been sharply criticized. As explained below, chess theorists in recent decades have continued to debate the size and nature of White's advantage, if any. Apart from Berliner, they have rejected the idea that White has a forced win from the opening position. Many also reject

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