 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsGeneral TopicsAnalysisComputerChess Politics ChessKB.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Chess Forum / General Topics / January 2007How many opening are there?
Approximately how many openings are there in chess? This would include the various subcategories of the major openings. A friend asked me that question and I hesitated to even guess. Can anyone in the vast chess audience answer this? > Approximately how many openings are there in chess? This would > include the various subcategories of the major openings. A friend > asked me that question and I hesitated to even guess. > Can anyone in the vast chess audience answer this? The question is too vague to answer and probably doesn't become interesting if made more precise. Does 1.a3 a6 2.h4 h5 3.Nh3 count as an opening, even though nobody in their right mind would play it? Is 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 the same opening as 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 (transposition of moves)? Marshall Attack theory runs beyond move 20 -- do games that differ only from their 23rd move count as different openings? If I had to give an answer, I'd say something like, `Several hundred to several thousand, but most of these fall within twenty or thirty major systems.' Dave.  SignatureDavid Richerby Technicolor Bulb (TM): it's like www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ a light bulb but it's in realistic colour! It's difficult to know how many openings there are. You could simply look at the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO) codes and get a rough idea. If you define an "opening" system as one determined by move X (say move 5, move 10, or whatever) then you can probably get a more accurate answer. You can also use other factors: for openings that do not occur very often (say, 1. f3), you can exclude them from your answer if you choose. Do a database search and if a certain opening occurs less than Y percent of the time, then you can discard the opening since it appears to be unimportant. You can go with "popular" systems as well. For example, you could start off with with the Spanish, the Italian, the Scotch, the four knights, etc. If you do that, my guess is that the number of major popular systems is under 50. > Approximately how many openings are there in chess? This would include > the various subcategories of the major openings. A friend asked me that > question and I hesitated to even guess. > Can anyone in the vast chess audience answer this? For named openings, take a look at http://www.chessopolis.com/ecolong.htm and simply count. SignatureIan Burton (Please reply to the Newsgroup) >Approximately how many openings are there in chess? This would include >the various subcategories of the major openings. A friend asked me that >question and I hesitated to even guess. >Can anyone in the vast chess audience answer this? The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1327 named openings. ray@iinet.com.au www.iinet.com.au/~ray |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2010 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.