Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

categories, “A” to “E”, each of which is divided into one

hundred subcategories.
ECO code is a registered trademark of Chess Informant.

1 Openings covered

1.1 Volume A: Flank openings

• English Opening

• Benoni Defense

• Dutch Defence

• Réti Opening

• Benko Gambit

• Old Indian Defense

• Bird’s Opening

• Irregular openings, etc.

ECO volume E. The first line of moves means that it contains 1.2 Volume B: Semi-Open Games other
openings beginning 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6. The second line means it
contains openings with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6, without an early d7– than the French Defense
d5.
• Sicilian Defence
The Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (or ECO) is a clas- • Caro-Kann Defence
sification system for the opening moves in chess. It is pre-
sented as a five-volume book collection (now also a com- • Pirc Defence
puter database) describing chess openings. The moves
• Alekhine’s Defence
were taken from hundreds of thousands of games between
masters, from published analysis in the Chess Informant • Modern Defense
since 1966, and then compiled by notable chess players.
The main editor is Aleksandar Matanović. Both the ECO • Scandinavian Defense, etc.
and the Chess Informant are published by the Serbian
company Šahovski Informator (Chess Informant). These
openings are typically provided in an ECO table that con- 1.3 Volume C: Open Games and the
cisely presents the best opening lines. French Defense
The books contain only a small amount of text, which
• Ruy Lopez
is in eight languages. The bulk of the book consists of
diagrams of positions and chess moves in International • French Defence
figurine algebraic notation, with special symbols for com-
ments about moves (see Chess annotation symbols). • Petrov’s Defence
Instead of the traditional names for the openings, ECO • King’s Gambit
has developed a unique coding system that has also been
adopted by other chess publications. There are five main • Philidor Defence

1
2 4 SECOND EDITION

• Italian (Giuoco Piano, Evans Gambit, and Two 2.2 B

Knights)
• 1.e4 without 1...c6, 1...c5, 1...e6, 1...e5 (B00–B09)
• Scotch Game
• 1.e4 c6: Caro-Kann Defence (B10–B19)
• Four Knights Game, etc.
• 1.e4 c5: Sicilian Defence (B20–B99)

1.4 Volume D: Closed Games and Semi-

Closed Games 2.3 C

(including Grünfeld Defence but not other In- • 1.e4 e6: French Defence (C00–C19)
dian Defenses)
• 1.e4 e5: Double King Pawn games (C20–C99)

• Queen’s Gambit
2.4 D
• Accepted
• Declined (Slav, Orthodox, Tarrasch, Tar- • 1.d4 d5: Double Queen Pawn games (D00–D69)
takower, Albin Countergambit, etc.)
• 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 with 3...d5: Grünfeld Defence
• Grünfeld Defence (D70–D99)

• Queen’s Pawn Game, etc.

2.5 E
1.5 Volume E: Indian Defenses • 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6: Indian systems with ...e6 (E00–
E59)
(other than Grünfeld Defence and Old Indian
Defense) • 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 without 3...d5: Indian systems
with ...g6 (except Grünfeld) (E60–E99)
• Nimzo-Indian Defence

• Queen’s Indian Defense 3 First edition

• King’s Indian Defence
The first edition was published in the following years:
• Catalan Opening

• Bogo-Indian Defence, etc. • Volume A: 1979

• Volume B: 1975

2 Main ECO codes • Volume C: 1974

• Volume D: 1976
Main article: list of chess openings
• Volume E: 1978

2.1 A 4 Second edition

• White first moves other than 1.e4, 1.d4 (A00–A39)
The second edition was published in the following years:
• 1.d4 without 1...d5, 1...Nf6: Atypical replies to 1.d4
(A40–A44) • Volume A: 1996
• 1.d4 Nf6 without 2.c4: Atypical replies to 1...Nf6 • Volume B: 1984
(A45–A49)
• Volume C: 1981
• 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 without 2...e6, 2...g6: Atypical Indian
systems (A50–A79) • Volume D: 1987

• 1.d4 f5: Dutch Defence (A80–A99) • Volume E: 1991

 3

5 Third edition • Abramov, Lev; Bagirov, Vladimir; Botvinnik,

Mikhail; Cvetkovic, Srdan; Filip, Miroslav; Geller,
The third edition was published in the following years: Efim; Gipslis, Aivars; Gufeld, Eduard; Hort, Vlas-
timil; Kasparov, Garry; Korchnoi, Viktor; Kr-
nic, Zdenko; Larsen, Bent; Matanović, Aleksan-
• Volume A: 1999 dar; Minev, Nikolay; Nunn, John; Parma, Bruno;
Polugaevsky, Lev; Suetin, Alexey; Sveshnikov,
• Volume B: 1997 Evgeny; Taimanov, Mark; Ugrinovic, Dragan;
Uhlmann, Wolfgang (1984). Encyclopedia of Chess
• Volume C: 1997 Openings, volume B (2nd ed.). Belgrade: Chess In-
formant. ISBN 0-7134-3716-2.
• Volume D: 1998

• Volume E: 1998
10 External links
• Publisher website. “ECO – Encyclopedia of Chess
6 Fourth edition Openings”.

The fourth edition was published in the following years: • Publisher website. “ECO code – Overview”.

• Bill Wall. “ECO codes with names”. Archived from

• Volume A: 2001 the original on 2010-02-20.

• Volume B: 2002 • Website Master Chess Openings. “ECO codes with

names”.
• Volume D: 2004 • Website Chess Archaeology. “ECO codes with
names”.
• Volume E: 2008
• Complete List of Chess Openings Sorted by ECO
Code.
7 Fifth edition • Searchable Database of ECO Openings

The fifth edition was published in the following years:

• Volume C: 2008

8 See also
• Chess annotation symbols (ECO uses a lot of sym-
bols instead of text)

• Chess Informant

• List of chess books

• List of chess openings for the full ECO codes

• Opening book

9 References
• Matanović, Aleksandar; Molorović, Milivoje;
Božić, Aleksandar (1971). “Classification of Chess
Openings”. Chess Informant.
4 11 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

11 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

11.1 Text
• Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopaedia_of_Chess_Openings?oldid=739195286 Con-
tributors: Arvindn, Camembert, Palnatoke, Dominus, Dori, Schneelocke, Chocolateboy, Romanm, Giftlite, Andris, Antandrus, ThreeE,
Discospinster, Andrejj, LAT NaDiR~enwiki, Alfanje~enwiki, Kdau, Velho, Sjakkalle, Quale, Bubba73, Tommy Kronkvist, FlaBot, Yurik-
Bot, Van der Hoorn, SmackBot, J carrillo vii, Bluebot, CyberSach, Shalom Yechiel, Albertod4, Ioannes Pragensis, Cream147, Thijs!bot,
Wikid77, Escarbot, Xeno, Rothorpe, Rjaroszewski, SyG, Perlnerd666, KylieTastic, VolkovBot, TXiKiBoT, MaxBrowne, JStripes, Cal-
tas, Matthew Yeager, Randy Kryn, Sfan00 IMG, PipepBot, Ikaria, R.traverso, Alexbot, Sun Creator, Bitopar, Lab-oratory, CarsracBot,
Luckas-bot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Kelisa English, Ulric1313, Citation bot, Grabapawnski, MrsHudson, Wikipe-tan, Woolworth, Citation
bot 1, HRoestBot, 564dude, Mentac, Updatehelper, EmausBot, ZéroBot, Ihardlythinkso, Toccata quarta, YFdyh-bot, MyTuppence, Mas-
terChessOpenings and Anonymous: 43

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