Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

ECO volume E. The second line of moves means it contains openings with 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6, without an early d7–d5.

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO) is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection (now also a computer database) describing chess openings. The moves were taken from hundreds of thousands of games between masters, from published analysis in the Chess Informant since 1966, and then compiled by notable chess players. The main editor is Aleksandar Matanović. Both the ECO and the Chess Informant are published by the Serbian company Šahovski Informator (Chess Informant). These openings are typically provided in an ECO table that concisely presents the best opening lines.

The books contain only a small amount of text, which is in eight languages. The bulk of the book consists of diagrams of positions and chess moves in International figurine algebraic notation, with special symbols for comments about moves (see Punctuation (chess)).

Instead of the traditional names for the openings, ECO has developed a unique coding system that has also been adopted by other chess publications. There are five main categories, "A" to "E", each of which is divided into one hundred sub-categories.

ECO code is a trademark of Chess Informant Inc.

Openings covered

• Volume A: Flank openings

English Opening Benoni Defense Dutch Defence Réti Opening

Benko Gambit Old Indian Defense Bird's Opening Irregular openings, etc.

• Volume B: Semi-Open Games other than the French Defense

Sicilian Defence Caro-Kann Defence Pirc Defence

Alekhine's Defence Modern Defense Scandinavian Defense, etc.

• Volume C: Open Games and the French Defense

Ruy Lopez French Defence Petrov's Defence King's Gambit

Philidor Defence Italian (Giuoco Piano and Two Knights) Scotch Game Four Knights Game, etc.

• Volume D: Closed Games and Semi-Closed Games (including Grünfeld Defence but not other Indian Defenses)
  • Queen's Gambit
    • Accepted
    • Declined (Slav, Orthodox, Tarrasch, Tartakower, Albin Countergambit, etc.)
  • Grünfeld Defence
  • Queen's Pawn Game, etc.

• Volume E: Indian Defenses (other than Grünfeld Defence and Old Indian Defense)

Nimzo-Indian Defence Queen's Indian Defense King's Indian Defence

Catalan Opening Bogo-Indian Defence, etc.

Main ECO codes

Main article: list of chess openings

• A
  • White first moves other than 1.e4, 1.d4 (A00–A39)
  • 1.d4 without 1...d5, 1...Nf6: Atypical replies to 1.d4 (A40–A44)
  • 1.d4 Nf6 without 2.c4: Atypical replies to 1...Nf6 (A45–A49)
  • 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 without 2...e6, 2...g6: Atypical Indian systems (A50–A79)
  • 1.d4 f5: Dutch Defence (A80–A99)

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

• C
  • 1.e4 e6: French Defence (C00–C19)
  • 1.e4 e5: Double King Pawn games (C20–C99)

• D
  • 1.d4 d5: Double Queen Pawn games (D00–D69)
  • 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 with 3...d5: Grünfeld Defence (D70–D99)

• E
  • 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6: Indian systems with ...e6 (E00–E59)
  • 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 without 3...d5: Indian systems with ...g6 (except Grünfeld) (E60–E99)

First edition

The first edition was published in the following years:

• volume A: 1979
• volume B: 1975
• volume C: 1974
• volume D: 1976
• volume E: 1978

Volume D (1976) Code Author 00–01 Bagirov, Vladimir 94–95 Bagirov, Vladimir 60–65 Barcza, Gedeon 60–65 Florian, Tibor 70–79 Botvinnik, Mikhail 98–99 Botvinnik, Mikhail 70–79 Abramov, Lev 98–99 Abramov, Lev 56–57 Bukić, Enver 02–05 Cvetković, Srđan 02–05 Sokolov, Vladimir 31–32 Euwe, Max 50–55 Filip, Miroslav 45–46 Gheorghiu, Florin 45–46 Samarian, Sergiu 38–39 Gipslis, Aivars 80 Gipslis, Aivars 90–91 Gipslis, Aivars 58–59 Hort, Vlastimil 66–69 Judovič, Mihail 85–89 Karpov, Anatoly 43–44 Korchnoi, Viktor 47–49 Korchnoi, Viktor 15–19 Kotov, Alexander 33–34 Larsen, Bent 30 Matanović, Aleksandar 35–36 Matanović, Aleksandar 30 Ugrinović, Dragan 35–36 Ugrinović, Dragan 25 Matulović, Milan 25 Krnić, Zdenko 06–09 Minev, Nikolay 37–38 Minev, Nikolay 40–42 Parma, Bruno 26–29 Polugaevsky, Lev 96–97 Smyslov, Vasily 10–14 Suetin, Alexey 20–24 Taimanov, Mark 81–84 Uhlmann, Wolfgang 92–93 Uhlmann, Wolfgang

Volume E (1978) Code Author 00–05 Averbakh, Yuri 00–05 Neishtadt, Yakov 32–37 Bagirov, Vladimir 67–69 Boleslavsky, Isaac 67–69 Lepeshkin, Vladimir 27–29 Botvinnik, Mikhail 47–49 Botvinnik, Mikhail 27–29 Abramov, Lev 47–49 Abramov, Lev 97–99 Byrne, Robert 97–99 Mednis, Edmar 90–92 Euwe, Max 46 Filip, Miroslav 56–59 Filip, Miroslav 10–11 Gipslis, Aivars 20–23 Gipslis, Aivars 95–96 Vlastimil Hort 54–55 Ivkov, Borislav 52 Judovič, Mihail 83–84 Karpov, Anatoly 83–84 Razuvayev, Yuri 43 Kotov, Alexander 50–51 Kotov, Alexander 06–07 Krnić, Zdenko 93–94 Krnić, Zdenko 06–07 Cvetković, Srđan 93–94 Cvetković, Srđan 85–86 Larsen, Bent 87–89 Lilienthal, Andor 87–89 Florian, Tibor 08–09 Matanović, Aleksandar 15–19 Matanović, Aleksandar 08–09 Ugrinović, Dragan 15–19 Ugrinović, Dragan 70–72 Minev, Nikolay 76–79 Minev, Nikolay 24–26 Parma, Bruno 53 Parma, Bruno 14 Polugaevsky, Lev 73–75 Polugaevsky, Lev 80–82 Razuvayev, Yuri 12–13 Suetin, Alexey 30–31 Taimanov, Mark 40–45 Taimanov, Mark 60–63 Uhlmann, Wolfgang 38–39 Unzicker, Wolfgang 64–66 Wade, Robert

Second edition

The second edition was published in the following years:

• volume A: 1996
• volume B: 1984
• volume C: 1981
• volume D: 1987
• volume E: 1991

Volume B (1984)

Code	Author
04–05	Bagirov, Vladimir
18–19	Bagirov, Vladimir
13–14	Botvinnik, Mikhail
13–14	Abramov, Lev
10	Filip, Miroslav
12	Filip, Miroslav
15	Filip, Miroslav
17	Filip, Miroslav
36–39	Filip, Miroslav
70–79	Geller, Efim
95–99	Gipslis, Aivars
20–21	Gufeld, Eduard
23–26	Gufeld, Eduard
02–03	Hort, Vlastimil
80–85	Kasparov, Garry
30–31	Korchnoi, Viktor
34–35	Korchnoi, Viktor
28–29	Krnić, Zdenko
87	Krnić, Zdenko
28–29	Cvetković, Srđan
00–01	Larsen, Bent
16	Larsen, Bent
60–69	Matanović, Aleksandar
60–69	Ugrinović, Dragan
06	Minev, Nikolay
11	Minev, Nikolay
57	Nunn, John
88–89	Nunn, John
07–09	Parma, Bruno
44	Polugaevsky, Lev
50–53	Polugaevsky, Lev
86	Polugaevsky, Lev
90–94	Polugaevsky, Lev
96	Polugaevsky, Lev
27	Suetin, Alexey
54–56	Suetin, Alexey
58–59	Suetin, Alexey
22	Sveshnikov, Evgeny
33	Sveshnikov, Evgeny
40–43	Taimanov, Mark
45–49	Taimanov, Mark
32	Uhlmann, Wolfgang

See also

• Chess Informant
• List of chess books
• List of chess openings for the full ECO codes
• Opening book
• Punctuation (chess) ECO uses a lot of symbols instead of text

References

• Matanović, Aleksandar; Molorović, Milivoje; Božić, Aleksandar (1971). Classification of Chess Openings. Chess Informant 
• Abramov, Lev; Bagirov, Vladimir; Botvinnik, Mikhail; Cvetkovic, Srdan; Filip, Miroslav; Geller, Efim; Gipslis, Aivars; Gufeld, Eduard; Hort, Vlastimil; Kasparov, Garry; Korchnoi, Viktor; Krnic, Zdenko; Larsen, Bent; Matanović, Aleksandar; Minev, Nikolay; Nunn, John; Parma, Bruno; Polugaevsky, Lev; Suetin, Alexey; Sveshnikov, Evgeny; Taimanov, Mark; Ugrinovic, Dragan; Uhlmann, Wolfgang (1984). Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, volume B (2nd ed.). Belgrade: Chess Informant. ISBN 0-7134-3716-2. 

External links

• Publisher website. "Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings". http://www.chessinformant.rs/categories/ECO-%252d-Encyclopeadia-of-Chess-Openings/. 
• Publisher website. "ECO codes". https://www.chessinformant.rs/content/eco/index.html. 

• Bill Wall. "ECO codes with names". Archived from the original on 2010-02-20. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/eco.htm&date=2010-02-20+10:14:24. 
• World Correspondence Chess Federation. "ECO codes with names". http://www.ewccf.com/eco.htm. 
• website Chess Archaeology. "ECO codes with names". http://www.chessarch.com/library/0000_eco/index.shtml. 
• Complete List of Chess Openings Sorted by ECO Code.
• Searchable Database of ECO Openings