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Guides
Opening guides

Start with structure.

Sixteen openings that explain the ideas behind the first moves, each with a board, a plan and the trap that catches careless players. Below them sits the full public catalogue: 442 named lines from A00 to E60, searchable by name, ECO code or move.

16curated guides
442catalogue lines
5ECO families
01

Fight for the centre

Pawns on e4 and d4 give your pieces room. Every opening in this guide is a different argument about how to do that.

02

Develop with a purpose

A developed piece should attack something, defend something, or prepare a pawn break. “Just developing” fills squares, not plans.

03

Castle before you attack

The side whose king is safe first usually gets to choose the direction of the attack. In open games this is not optional.

04

Learn structures, not moves

Move orders change. The pawn structure tells you where the pieces belong. That is what makes an opening reusable.

Curated study
Pick a guide from the index
C50 · Beginner

Italian Game

The oldest classroom in chess.

Full explorer

Read-only chess board with white pieces at the bottom, black pieces at the top. Each square announces its coordinate and the piece on it.

1. e41… e52. Nf32… Nc63. Bc43… Bc54. c34… Nf65. d35… d66. O-O6… O-O
Analyse
The idea

White puts the bishop on the long diagonal, builds a pawn centre with c3 and d4, and castles before opening the position. Black mirrors the setup, so the first player to create a concrete threat usually decides the character of the game.

Plans to know
  • Play c3 and d4 to challenge the e5 pawn, then recapture toward the centre.
  • Develop the queen knight to d2, the rook to e1, and only then choose a plan on the kingside.
  • If Black plays an early ...Nf6 and allows Ng5, calculate the Fried Liver lines rather than guessing.
The trap

The Fried Liver Attack (4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7) is dangerous but not free. Check whether Black can answer with ...Qf6 or ...Qe7 before sacrificing.

Public catalogue

Every name in the table.

These are representative lines: the shortest line for each named opening in the ChessUrge ECO table. Use them to recognise a name, then open the analysis board to go deeper.

450 matching lines
A00 · Flank & irregular

Anderssen's Opening: Polish Gambit

Read-only chess board with white pieces at the bottom, black pieces at the top. Each square announces its coordinate and the piece on it.

The family

White starts with something other than e4 or d4: c4, Nf3, b3, g3, b4 and friends. The goal is usually to control the centre from the side and transpose into a structure you know.

The line
1. a31… a52. b4
Analyse
How to study a line
  1. Play the line on the board until you can say the first six moves without looking.
  2. Name the pawn structure and the piece that is hardest to develop.
  3. Play the resulting position against the engine from both sides.
  4. Tag the first move in your own games where you left the line. That is where your real study begins.
Keep going

Openings are only the first ten moves.

The endgame guides pick up where the opening stops being useful, and the history timeline explains how the ideas got here.

Endgame guidesTechnique, mating patterns and the positions worth drilling. Famous gamesNine classics, move by move, with the idea behind the brilliancy. Chess historyFrom chaturanga to the online era, in dated milestones.