History of Chess Openings And Gambits
Chess has a vibrant history. From its inception 1500 years ago, romantic ear in the 1880s and to engine domination ear in 21st century, the game has gone through several transformational stages. During this time chess has evolved significantly delivering us a wide range of openings, gambits, and theories underlying them. In this article, we provide the history of such chess openings and gambits.
If you have studied chess, openings theory should not be a new term for you. To avoid getting into trouble at the initial stages of the game, the chess opening theory covers sequences of moves and variations that players can deploy at the beginning of the game. The following table lists some of the well-known openings and the year it has been first believed to be played. It also lists some of the openings also known as defenses to the player playing with black pieces. (Please note that we have used various sources to gather this information, there could be conflicts based on the source you choose.)
The first column shows the name, then the move order, followed by the historical year of the opening. If you are passionate about one of these openings and would like to get a unique chess t-shirt representing that opening, the last column will take you to a chess t-shirt design produced by zeroblunders.com.
Opening/ Defense |
Mainline |
Year |
|
Italian Game |
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 |
1620 |
|
Ruy Lopez |
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 |
1490 |
|
Réti Opening |
1.Nf3 |
1924 |
|
Scotch Game |
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 |
1750 |
|
English Opening |
1. c4 |
1843 |
|
Vienna Game |
1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 |
1890s |
|
Bird's Opening |
1. f4 |
1497 |
|
King's Indian Attack |
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 |
1930s |
|
London System |
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 |
1883 |
|
Fried Liver Attack |
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 |
1606 |
|
Bongcloud |
1.e4 e5 2.Ke2 |
21st Century |
|
Hippopotamus Attack |
1.a3 e5 2.b3 d5 3.c3 Nf6 4.d3 Nc6 5.e3 Bd6 6.f3 O-O 7.g3 |
1858 |
|
Ponziani Opening |
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 |
1490 |
|
Sicilian Defense |
1.e4 c5 |
1594 |
|
King's Indian Defense |
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 |
1884 |
|
French Defense |
1.e4 e6 |
1834 |
|
Caro-Kann Defense |
1.e4 c6 |
1885 |
|
Slav Defense |
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 |
1886 |
|
Nimzo-Indian Defense |
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 |
1883 |
|
Grünfeld Defense |
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 |
1922 |
|
Petrov Defense |
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 |
1844 |
|
Pirc Defense |
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 |
1800s |
|
Alekhine Defense |
1.e4 Nf6 |
1821 |
|
Scandinavian Defense |
1.e4 d5 |
1475 |
Gambits are the most fun part of chess. It is really awesome when your opponent falls for the gambit, and it sucks to be on the receiving end. A gambit is a way to gain some kind of opening advantage by giving up material at the initial stages of the game. This advantage could help you to start an attack very early and checkmate your opponent soon after. The queen’s gambit is one of the oldest gambits (its history dates back to 1490) popular among top-level grandmasters to this day.
The following table lists the name, move order, and year of some of the well-established gambits followed by a link to a zeroblunders.com chess t-shirt design representing that gambit.
Gambit |
Mainline |
Year |
|
Queen’s Gambit |
1.d4 d5 2.c4 |
1490 |
|
King’s Gambit |
1.e4 e5 2.f4 |
16th century |
|
Evans Gambit |
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 |
1827 |
|
Réti Gambit |
1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 |
1924 |
|
Benko Gambit |
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 |
1936 |
|
Smith-Morra Gambit |
1.e4 c5 2.d4 |
1950 |
|
Budapest Gambit |
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 |
1896 |
|
Bishop's Gambit |
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 |
16th century |
|
Vienna Gambit |
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 |
1930 |
|
Danish gambit |
1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 |
1920s |
|
Stafford Gambit |
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6 |
1950 |
|
Botez Gambit |
1. e4 e5 2. d3 Qh4 3. Nf3 Bc5 |
2021 |
This article covered a list of well-known chess openings and gambits and the year they are first believed to be played. We believe having this historical information in one place will be useful for all chess enthusiasts not only as a reference but also to expand our vast chess knowledge.
About the Author
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