110 Fun Facts About Chess Openings

Which chess opening begins 1.e4 c5?

Sicilian Defence breaks the symmetry at once instead of mirroring White's pawn, which makes for sharp, unbalanced games; Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov both relied on it.

Which chess opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5?

Ruy Lopez: the bishop attacks the knight that guards Black's e-pawn, and the opening takes its name from a 16th-century Spaniard who analysed it in a 1561 book.

Which chess opening begins 1.d4 d5 2.c4?

Queen's Gambit is a gambit in name only: if Black takes the c-pawn, White can win it back, and trying to cling to the extra pawn leaves Black worse off.

Which of these begins 1.e4 e6, and is known for a solid but cramped position with a 'bad' bishop on c8?

French Defence takes its name from an 1834 correspondence match between London and Paris, in which the Paris players adopted 1...e6.

Which opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.f4, with White offering a pawn to pull Black's e-pawn off the centre?

King's Gambit drew a famous article from Bobby Fischer, 'A Bust to the King's Gambit', which claimed the opening was refuted, yet Fischer went on playing it himself as White.

Which chess opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4, placing the bishop on the diagonal that eyes f7?

Italian Game: the bishop aims at f7 because that pawn is guarded only by Black's king; Italian masters were already studying the opening in the 16th century.

Which chess opening starts with the flank-pawn move 1.c4?

English Opening: Ding Liren won game 12 of the 2024 world championship with it, levelling the match a day after Gukesh had taken the lead.

Which opening, a favourite of Fischer and Kasparov, begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 with ...Bg7 and ...d6 to follow?

King's Indian Defence was long distrusted for handing White the centre, until Soviet players such as David Bronstein showed that Black could let the centre form and then strike at it.

Which of these begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4, pinning the knight to prevent e4?

Nimzo-Indian Defence: Black is ready to trade the bishop for the pinned knight and saddle White with doubled c-pawns; Aron Nimzowitsch, its namesake, did much to make the idea popular.

Which 19th-century favourite has White give up the b-pawn with 4.b4 to gain time against Black's bishop on c5?

Evans Gambit: after lying out of favour for most of the 20th century it was revived by Garry Kasparov, who used it to beat Viswanathan Anand in 25 moves in 1995.

Which defence, sometimes called the Center Counter, begins 1.e4 d5?

Scandinavian Defense got its old name because Black counters in the centre at once; the price is that after 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 the queen has to spend another move retreating.

Which hypermodern reply begins 1.e4 Nf6, inviting White's pawns forward so they can be attacked later?

Alekhine's Defence was sprung by Bobby Fischer in the 1972 world championship, where he beat Boris Spassky with it in game 13.

Which of these begins 1.d4 f5, a wing-pawn reply that gains kingside space but loosens Black's king?

Dutch Defence uses the f-pawn to fight for the e4 square, so White cannot easily build a full pawn centre; Paul Morphy often chose it when he faced 1.d4.

Which set-up has White play d4 and Bf4 regardless of Black's reply, usually with e3 and c3?

London System is named after the great London tournament of 1922, where the set-up caught the eye of the elite; because one scheme fits almost anything, there is little theory to learn.

In which line of the Two Knights Defense does White sacrifice a knight on f7 to drag Black's king into the open?

Fried Liver Attack is so dangerous in practice that Black usually avoids it altogether, playing 5...Na5 instead of recapturing the pawn on d5.

Which joke chess opening runs 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2, with White's king stepping forward on move two?

Bongcloud Attack breaks every opening rule, blocking White's own pieces and giving up castling, yet Hikaru Nakamura has beaten grandmasters with it in online speed games.

Which chess opening begins 1.g4, a first move widely rated among White's very worst?

Grob's Attack is named after the Swiss master Henri Grob, who analysed 1.g4 at length and kept playing it even though few other masters ever trusted it.

1.b4 is nicknamed after which animal?

Orangutan: Savielly Tartakower gave 1.b4 the nickname in 1924 after a trip to the zoo during a tournament; its more sober name is the Polish Opening.

Savielly Tartakower gave 1.b4 its animal nickname after visiting which zoo during a 1924 tournament?

Bronx Zoo: Savielly Tartakower went there during the great New York tournament of 1924, and by his own account the visit inspired both the move and its nickname.

The Evans Gambit is named after William Davies Evans, who was what by profession?

A Welsh sea captain who commanded mail packet ships, Evans learned chess only as an adult and famously played his gambit against the strong master Alexander McDonnell in London.

Which of these begins 1.f4, and can be met by the risky From Gambit 1...e5?

Bird's Opening is named after Henry Bird, the 19th-century master who championed 1.f4; the move grips the e5 square at the cost of slightly weakening White's own kingside.

Which chess opening, revived by Kasparov in the late 20th century, begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4?

Scotch Game got its name from the 1824 correspondence match between the chess clubs of Edinburgh and London, in which the opening was put to the test.

Which chess opening begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3, originally intended to prepare a delayed f4 thrust?

Vienna Game takes its name from the city where the knight move was already the fashion in the 1850s; Wilhelm Steinitz was among the Vienna-based masters who championed it.

Which symmetrical reply begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6?

Petrov's Defence is named after Alexander Petrov, a 19th-century Russian master; the symmetry cannot last, because copying White once more with 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 is a known mistake.

Which reply, named after an 18th-century master, begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6?

Philidor Defence: its namesake preferred 2...d6 to the more common 2...Nc6, yet the opening came to be seen as solid but passive.

Which dubious but wild line begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5, and is sometimes called the Greco Countergambit?

Latvian Gambit is a tribute to players from Riga, above all Kārlis Bētiņš, who analysed the old line in the early 1900s and tested it in correspondence matches against other cities.

Which unsound line, also called the Queen's Pawn Countergambit, begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5?

Elephant Gambit is rated unsound because White can take either centre pawn and keep the advantage, so it survives mainly as a surprise weapon.

Which line begins 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3, with White offering up to two pawns for rapid development?

Danish Gambit was popularised by a Danish master at the Paris tournament of 1867 and thrived for decades, but it lost favour in the 1920s once Black had learned how to defend.

Which chess opening begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5, sidestepping the Indian defences?

Trompowsky Attack: the bishop threatens to take the knight and double Black's pawns; the opening is named after Octávio Trompowsky, a Brazilian champion who played it in the 1930s and 40s.

Which pawn-sacrifice defence begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5?

Budapest Gambit was first seen in a game played in the Hungarian capital in 1896, and it caught on after Milan Vidmar used it to beat Akiba Rubinstein.

In the Benoni, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5, Black's pawn sacrifice 3...b5 is known as what?

Benko Gambit is named for Pal Benko; unusually for a gambit, Black gives up the pawn for lasting pressure on the queenside instead of a quick attack.

After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3, which hypermodern line arises from 3...d5?

Grünfeld Defence is named after Ernst Grünfeld, who took it up in 1922 and beat future world champion Alexander Alekhine with it in Vienna that same year.

Which of these, a favourite of world champions Euwe and Botvinnik, answers 1.d4 d5 2.c4 with 2...c6?

Slav Defense props up d5 without shutting in the light-squared bishop, the drawback of 2...e6; Alekhine and Euwe tested it heavily in their world title matches.

Which chess opening (1.Nf3 d5 2.c4) is named after the Czechoslovak player who beat Capablanca at New York 1924?

Réti used his opening to beat Capablanca in 1924, the world champion's first loss in eight years; a century later Gukesh won game 11 of the 2024 title match with it.

Which Danish grandmaster played 1.b3 so often that the opening carries his name alongside Nimzowitsch's?

Bent Larsen made 1.b3 a regular weapon around 1970, though his best-known game with it is a 17-move loss to world champion Boris Spassky that same year.

Which double-fianchetto set-up with pawns on d6 and e6 did Boris Spassky use twice in his 1966 world title match?

Hippopotamus Defence was no invention of Spassky's: he had faced the same set-up himself two years earlier, when the Slovak master Maximilian Ujtelky played it against him.

Which Open Sicilian line, defined by 5...a6, was the main defence of both Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov?

Najdorf Variation is named for the Polish-Argentine grandmaster Miguel Najdorf; the modest 5...a6 keeps White's pieces off b5 so that Black can follow up with ...e5.

The Sicilian line with Black's bishop fianchettoed on g7 is reportedly named after pawns resembling which constellation?

Draco, the dragon: Russian master and amateur astronomer Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky said he named the Dragon Variation in 1901 after seeing the constellation in Black's kingside pawns.

Who revived the Berlin Defence as a drawing weapon against Kasparov in the 2000 world championship?

Vladimir Kramnik used the Berlin to blunt Kasparov's favourite 1.e4, and Kasparov lost his title without winning a single game of the match.

Which Ruy Lopez pawn sacrifice, 8...d5, was famously sprung on Capablanca in New York in 1918?

Marshall Attack: its namesake, an American master, lost that famous game to Capablanca, yet the gambit proved sturdy enough that 'Anti-Marshall' systems were devised just to avoid it.

'Giuoco Piano', the traditional name for 3...Bc5 in the Italian, translates as what?

Quiet game: the name reflects the opening's slow, positional build-up, and the even slower version with an early d3 is called the Giuoco Pianissimo, the 'very quiet game'.

Ruy López de Segura, author of the 1561 chess book Libro del Axedrez, was what by vocation?

A priest from Zafra, López travelled to Italy around 1560 and by his own account did well against the players there, then published his own chess manual soon afterwards.

Paul Morphy beat a duke and a count in 1858 in which famous game, opened with the Philidor Defence?

The Opera Game was played in the Duke of Brunswick's box while an opera was on stage; the duke and Count Isouard consulted over every move and still lost to Morphy's sacrifices.

In the 1927 Alekhine-Capablanca world championship, all but two of the 34 games opened with which defence?

Queen's Gambit Declined was avoided only in games one and three; Alekhine won the marathon by six wins to three, with 25 draws, to take Capablanca's title.

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, whose ECO codes classify openings, is published in which city?

Belgrade is home to the publisher Chess Informant, whose system of codes and symbols was designed so that players could read its books in any language.

ECO opening codes run from A00 up to which final code?

E99 closes the list because the encyclopaedia first came out in five volumes, lettered A to E, and each letter is split into 100 codes, 500 in all.

How many legal first moves does White have in chess?

20: each of the eight pawns can move one or two squares and each knight has two squares to choose from, yet 1.e4 and 1.d4 are by far the most popular choices.

Fool's mate punishes White for advancing which two pawns?

The f- and g-pawns: once both have moved, the diagonal to White's king is open and Black's queen mates on h4 on move two; White, despite moving first, needs three moves for the same trick.

Which beginner's checkmate lands the queen on f7 supported by a bishop on c4?

Scholar's mate takes four moves, but it is easy to stop, and once it has been parried the attacker's early queen sortie usually leaves them worse off.

Kasparov blundered and lost the final game of the 1997 Deep Blue rematch in which opening?

Caro–Kann Defence: with the match level, Kasparov allowed a knight sacrifice that wrecked his position, and he resigned after only 19 moves.

In which Sicilian Dragon line does White castle queenside and pawn-storm with h4-h5 and g4?

Yugoslav Attack: while White storms the kingside, Black hits back down the half-open c-file, so both kings come under fire at once and a single slip can decide the game.

Which chess opening sees White play d4 and c4 and then fianchetto a bishop on g2?

Catalan: the name comes from the 1929 Barcelona tournament, in Catalonia, where Savielly Tartakower is credited with devising it, though the set-up had been tried a few times before.

Which defence begins 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6?

Pirc Defence, pronounced 'peerts', is named after Vasja Pirc, who helped popularise it after the Second World War; Black lets White build a broad centre and then attacks it from a distance.

Which attacking Soviet world champion revived the Modern Benoni with brilliant wins in the 1950s?

Mikhail Tal won a string of spectacular attacking games with the Modern Benoni, and Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov later took it up in the same uncompromising spirit.

Which English champion's name was long attached to the 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 opening?

Howard Staunton recommended 3.c3 in his 1847 handbook, so for decades it was known as Staunton's Opening; it now carries the name of Ponziani, an Italian who analysed it in the 1700s.

The defence 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ is named after which grandmaster, twice Alekhine's world title challenger?

Efim Bogoljubow, whose surname the opening's name clips to 'Bogo', once boasted 'When I am Black, I win because I am Bogoljubow', yet he lost both title matches to Alekhine, in 1929 and 1934.

The Colle System is also named after which Belgian-born master, famed for his blindfold exhibitions?

George Koltanowski became Belgium's leading player after Edgard Colle died in 1932 and went on developing his system; in 1937 he set a world record with 34 blindfold games at once.

The Blackmar–Diemer Gambit is partly named for an obscure 19th-century player from which city?

New Orleans was home to Armand Blackmar, who published the first analysis of 1.d4 d5 2.e4; his own follow-up proved unsound, and the gambit lives on in the version Emil Diemer championed.

The Albin Countergambit takes its name from Adolf Albin's 1893 game against which player, world champion a year later?

Emanuel Lasker faced it in New York in 1893 and later lent his own name to the line's famous trap, in which Black wins by promoting a pawn to a knight on move seven.

In the Tarrasch Defense, Black willingly accepts which structural weakness for active piece play?

An isolated d-pawn cannot be protected by other pawns, but Siegbert Tarrasch held that the open lines and active pieces it gives Black are worth the weakness.

Which offbeat first move for White is nicknamed the Sodium Attack, a pun on its chess notation?

1.Na3 earns the joke because Na is the chemical symbol for sodium. Its formal name, the Durkin Opening, honours Robert Durkin of New Jersey.

The Napoleon Opening, 1.e4 e5 2.Qf3, recalls a game the emperor reportedly lost in 1809 to which chess 'automaton'?

The Turk was a fake automaton: a hidden human made its moves, and at the time of Napoleon's game the operator was the master and theoretician Johann Allgaier.

The violent chess line 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 pairs Frankenstein in its name with which horror figure?

Dracula completes the Frankenstein–Dracula Variation, named by writer Tim Harding in 1976 because the play is so bloodthirsty that a game between the two monsters would suit it.

The chess term 'gambit', for an opening pawn sacrifice, comes from an Italian word for which physical act?

Tripping someone up is the sense of the Italian 'gambetto': a gambit gives up material early to wrong-foot the opponent and win a positional advantage later.

Which offbeat reply, 1.e4 a6, did England's Tony Miles use to beat world champion Anatoly Karpov in 1980?

St. George Defence is named after England's patron saint. After the upset at the European Team Championship it was also dubbed the Birmingham Defence, after the winner's hometown.

Which chess variant, unveiled in 1996, shuffles the back-rank pieces to make memorised opening theory useless?

Chess960 is named for its 960 possible starting positions. A former world champion devised it to reward creativity over preparation, and the governing body added it to an appendix of the Laws of Chess in 2008.

The Keres Defence in chess, 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+, is also known by the name of which Australian animal?

Kangaroo Defence is the alternative name. The formal one honours the Estonian grandmaster Paul Keres, though the bishop check was already being played in London in 1851.

Which American grandmaster played the beginner's sortie 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 in two tournament games in 2005?

Hikaru Nakamura, then US champion, insisted the early queen raid was playable. It is also called the Danvers Opening, after the hospital where the psychiatrist who named it worked.

The trap 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 is named for which coin Joseph Blackburne reputedly won per game with it?

Shilling is the stake in the legend: the English master is said to have won one a game from café visitors who grabbed a pawn with 4.Nxe5 and were hit by 4...Qg5.

Which chess term names what a player loses by taking two moves where one would do?

Tempo is a single turn. A knight that develops while attacking an early-roaming queen forces her to move again, so the attacker gains a tempo for free.

Which reply, 1.e4 b6, is named after the English vicar who used it to beat Paul Morphy in 1858?

Owen's Defence honours John Owen, who relied on 1...b6 for most of his career and scored one win and one loss with it against the American star.

Which weak reply, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6, bears the name of a Portuguese author who actually condemned it?

Damiano Defence is a misnomer: Pedro Damiano called 2...f6 weak, and later writers attached his name anyway. White can punish it at once with the knight sacrifice 3.Nxe5.

Which chess line shocks opponents in the quiet Four Knights by giving up a knight for a pawn with 4.Nxe5?

Halloween Gambit got its name from German player Steffen Jakob, who compared the surprise of 4.Nxe5 to being frightened by a mask. White hopes to seize the centre with pawns.

Which flexible reply, 1.e4 g6, is a close relative of the Pirc and is also called the Robatsch?

Modern Defence lets White build a broad pawn centre and then undermines it from a distance. Holding back the king's knight is what separates it from its cousin.

Which solid reply, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6, is named for the bishop Black develops on b7?

Queen's Indian takes its name from the queen's bishop that Black fianchettoes. The move 3...b6 also tightens Black's grip on the light central squares e4 and d5.

Which pawn sacrifice against 1.e4 c5, starting 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3, is named after a Dallas club player and a Frenchman?

Smith–Morra Gambit pairs Ken Smith of the Dallas Chess Club with Pierre Morra of France. At San Antonio in 1972 Smith tried it against three leading players and lost all three games.

Which dubious pawn offer, 1.d4 e5, did one opening author rate as the worst of all Black's first-move replies?

Englund Gambit is named after the Swedish player Fritz Englund, who sponsored a 1932–33 tournament in which every game had to start from one of its positions.

Which reply, 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6, is named after the Russian who twice lost world title matches to Wilhelm Steinitz?

Chigorin Defence breaks classical rules by blocking the c-pawn and giving up a bishop for a knight, in return for fast development. Its namesake lost both title matches in Havana.

Which set-up of White pawns on c3, d4, e3 and f4 brought Harry Pillsbury six wins from six games in 1893?

Stonewall Attack aims for one fixed pawn wall instead of memorised variations, which keeps it popular at club level long after it faded from top events in the 1920s.

Which chess term means reaching a known opening by a different move order, as when 1.c4 play reaches a 1.d4 line?

Transposition is also a weapon: players use it on purpose to dodge variations they dislike or to lure an opponent into unfamiliar territory.

The tongue-in-cheek 'Botez Gambit', named after chess streamer Alexandra Botez, means accidentally losing which piece?

Queen blunders are the whole joke, since a real gambit gives material away on purpose. The streamer's Twitch channel grew tenfold in about a year during the 2020 chess boom.

Paul Morphy's 1858 'Opera Game', a classic lesson in rapid development, was played in a theatre box in which city?

Paris hosted the game at the Salle Ventadour, where the American beat a duke and a count who consulted on every move while an opera was performed on stage.

Which opening snare, sprung by Capablanca in 1929, shuts White's bishop in on b3 behind pawns on a6, b5 and c4?

Noah's Ark Trap has an uncertain origin: the pawn chain may look like an ark, or the trick may simply be as old as the ark. Masters have still walked into it.

The Scheveningen Variation takes its name from a 1923 tournament in a seaside district of which city in the Netherlands?

The Hague includes Scheveningen, a North Sea beach resort. Several players tried the modest pawn set-up on d6 and e6 at the event, and Garry Kasparov later championed it.

In the Poisoned Pawn Variation of 1.e4 c5, Black's queen grabs a pawn on which square at the risk of being trapped?

b2 is the pawn's home. In the 1972 title match the challenger grabbed it twice against Boris Spassky: he drew game 7, then lost game 11 when the raiding piece was trapped.

Which chess trick, a queen sacrifice then mate with three minor pieces, did Joseph Blackburne spring many times?

Légal Trap is named after the French player Sire de Legall. Black assumes a pinned knight cannot move, captures the queen when it does, and is checkmated two moves later.

Which pawn clamp on c4 and e4 is named after a Hungarian grandmaster who faced it as Black in 1904?

Maróczy Bind controls the d5-square so firmly that Black struggles to free the position. For decades, allowing it was treated as close to a positional blunder.

The first move 1.Nf3 is named after which master, loser of the first official world championship match in 1886?

Johannes Zukertort lost that match to Wilhelm Steinitz. His move is White's third most popular opener and often steers the game into lines that usually start 1.d4 or 1.c4.

The Torre Attack, built on an early Bg5, is named after Carlos Torre Repetto, the first grandmaster from which country?

Mexico's first grandmaster played the system in the 1920s but was only awarded the title in 1977, the year before he died.

In chess slang, a player who deviates from established opening theory is said to be 'out of' what?

Book is shorthand for the reference works that record standard opening moves, so a game stays 'in book' until someone plays a new idea or simply runs out of memorised theory.

Which pawn sacrifice, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6, became an online favourite after streamer Eric Rosen championed it?

Stafford Gambit takes its name from a 1950 American correspondence game in which White resigned after only six moves. It is dubious but full of traps for the unwary.

The Benoni Defence takes its name from the title of an 1825 chess treatise, a Hebrew phrase meaning what?

Son of my sorrow was the nickname Aaron Reinganum of Frankfurt gave his opening analysis; he had taken up the study of chess to ease his depression.

Which system, 1.e4 c5 2.f4, is also named after Alexander McDonnell, who lost with it in London in 1834?

Grand Prix Attack is the modern name for 2.f4, which eyes the e5-square and a kingside assault. The sharp reply 2...d5 followed by 3...Nf6 has since dented its popularity.

Which sharp line, 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4, is named after a Polish master who won the 1883 German championship?

Winawer Variation pins the c3-knight at once and can lead to sharp complications. Szymon Winawer also won the first tournament ever held in Poland, at Warsaw in 1868.

Which line, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, is named after a master who also worked as a New York taxi driver?

Rossolimo Variation honours Nicolas Rossolimo, a grandmaster who in New York also waited tables, played the accordion, sang, and ran a chess studio in Greenwich Village.

The Traxler Counterattack, a wild answer to 4.Ng5, is known in America by the name of which Pennsylvania city?

Wilkes-Barre was the name chosen by an American champion who claimed to be first to analyse 4...Bc5, although Karel Traxler had already played it in a game at Hostouň in 1890.

The 'Indian' defences recall games Moheschunder Bannerjee played against John Cochrane from 1848 to 1860 in which city?

Calcutta was where Cochrane practised at the bar. European players largely learned the fianchetto set-ups of these defences from his Bengali opponent's example.

Which modest first move, now named after Adolf Anderssen, did he play three times against Paul Morphy in 1858?

1.a3 looks like a wasted turn, but after 1...e5 2.c4, as happened in that match, White reaches a reversed set-up in which the extra rook-pawn move can prove useful.

Which term of Arabic origin names a standard opening position where the real game is said to begin?

Tabiya positions are reached so often that the moves leading to them are routine, and they mark the point of departure where an opening's main variations branch off.

Which American shocked Boris Spassky by choosing the English Opening over 1.e4 in game 6 of the 1972 title match?

Bobby Fischer had played 1.c4 only twice before in serious games. He won so elegantly that the defending champion joined the audience in applauding.

Which spiny animal names Black's set-up against the English Opening, with pawns on a6, b6, d6 and e6?

Hedgehog pawns form a row of spines that Black shelters behind before striking back with a sudden pawn break. The ideas were first worked out in the English Opening.

In the film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which villain plays the English Opening in a chess game against Holmes?

Professor Moriarty and the detective finish the game without a board, calling out their last moves in old descriptive notation, and Holmes delivers checkmate.

The Symmetrical Variation of the English Opening arises when Black mirrors White's first move with which reply?

1...c5 answers 1.c4 in kind, and the copying can go on: one catalogued line stays perfectly symmetrical for five moves on each side.

Which knight move, the most common reply to the English Opening, usually aims to steer play into an Indian defence?

1...Nf6 gives the line its name, the Anglo-Indian Defence. If White keeps holding back the d-pawn, Black often changes plan and strikes with ...c5 or ...e5 instead.

The English Opening belongs to which family of chess openings, along with first moves such as 1.b3 and 1.f4?

Flank is the label for openings built on pawn moves outside the central d- and e-files. White often attacks the centre from the side with pieces instead of occupying it with pawns.

Which Soviet world champion names the English Opening system of pawns on c4, d3 and e4 with a bishop on g2?

Botvinnik's system adds Nc3, g3 and Ne2 in some order, and White can set it up against a variety of Black defences.

Which defending champion won game 12 of the 2024 world title match against Gukesh Dommaraju with the English Opening?

Ding Liren's 39-move win was his second with 1.c4 on that stage, after game 4 of his 2023 match, but two games later he lost the crown.

The English Opening is named for an English champion who played it in an 1843 match against which Frenchman?

Saint-Amant had been regarded as the world's strongest active player, and beating him made the Englishman the acknowledged number one. The move itself caught on only in the twentieth century.

Black's reply 1...e6 to the English Opening, preparing ...d5, carries the name of which Hundred Years' War battle?

Agincourt was the 1415 battle in which an outnumbered English army beat the French; on the board, 1...e6 and ...d5 give Black a typically French pawn set-up.

Which farm animal names the chess opening that streamer Anna Cramling introduced in 2023, playable with either colour?

Cow is her name for the slow knight-and-pawn set-up. At the 2024 Reykjavík Open a grandmaster turned it against her and won.