 How Many Openings are Possible in Chess?

 E4 Openings for White

 Ruy Lopez
 italian game
 Giuoco Piano
 Giuoco Pianissimo
 The Fried Liver
 Four Knights Game
 Three Knights Opening
 Scotch Game
 Answers to E4 for Black
 Sicilian
 The Najdorf Defense
 The Dragon Variation
 Accelerated Dragon
 Hyper-Accelerated Dragon
 French
 Caro-Kann defense
 The Scandinavian
 Alekhine Defense
 Pirc Defense
 Hungarian defense
 Two Knights Defense
 D4 Openings
 Trompowsky Attack
 London
 Answers to D4
 Slav Defense
 Dutch Defense
 Indian Defenses
 King’s Indian
 Nimzo Indian
 Queens Indian Defense
 Grünfeld Defence
 Bogo-Indian Defense
 Benoni Defense
 Non E4, D4 Openings
 The English
 Reti opening
 Bird’s Opening
 Hungarian
 Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack
 Polish Opening
 Opening Gambits
 Evan’s Gambit
 King’s Gambit
 Queen’s Gambit Accepted
 Queen’s Gambit Declined
 Benko Gambit
 Smith-Morra Gambit
 Blackmar-Diemer Gambit: Ryder Gambit

Some of the best chess openings for beginners are:

1. The Italian Game

2. The Sicilian Defense
3. The French Defense
4. The Ruy-Lopez
5. The Slav Defense

#1 The Italian Game

The Italian game begins with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. The point is
to control the center quickly with your pawn and knight and then
put your bishop on it’s most dangerous square. You are also
preparing to castle to safety.

1. e4 e5 2. 
f3 
c6 3. 
c4

#2 The Sicilian Defense

The Sicilian Defense is the most popular choice of aggressive

players with the black pieces. Often White will play 2.Nf3 and 3.d4
which will gain central space, but it allows Black to benefit by
exchanging a central pawn for a bishop's pawn.

1. e4 c5

#3 The French Defense

The French Defense is one of the first strategic openings every chess
player should learn. After e5 (now or later), both sides will have
pawn chains. One risk of the French Defense is that the c8-bishop
can be very hard to develop.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5

#4 The Ruy-Lopez

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest and most classic of all openings.
It is named after a Spanish bishop who wrote one of the first books
on chess. The Ruy Lopez attacks the knight which defends the e5-
pawn. White hopes to use this attack to build more pressure on the
black center.

1. e4 e5 2. 
f3 
c6 3. 
b5

#5 The Slav Defense

The Slav Defense is a very solid opening which defends the d5-pawn
securely. Black's pieces can all develop to natural squares, but
Black will usually have a little less space.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6
But the best opening of all is The Control-the-Center-with-Active-Pieces-and-Play-Carefully Opening!
And you already know how to play that one.

There are dozens of different openings, and hundreds of variants. The

Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants.
These vary widely in character from quiet positional play to wild
tactical play.