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Chess by the numbers

How many first moves are there in chess?

20. Each of the eight pawns can move one or two squares (16 moves), and each knight can jump to one of two squares (4 moves). Black has the same 20 replies, so after one move each there are 400 possible positions.

All 20 first moves and their names

Every first move has a name. The last column counts the games that can follow in the first four moves: 1. e4 opens the most roads, the modest 1. e3 is a close second, and 1. d4 comes third.

MoveNameGames after 4 moves
1. e4King's Pawn Game13,160
1. e3Van't Kruijs Opening13,134
1. d4Queen's Pawn Game12,435
1. d3Mieses Opening11,959
1. Nc3Van Geet Opening9,755
1. Nf3Zukertort Opening9,748
1. c4English Opening9,744
1. b3Nimzo-Larsen Attack9,345
1. g3Hungarian Opening9,345
1. b4Polish Opening9,332
1. a4Ware Opening9,329
1. h4Kádas Opening9,329
1. g4Grob Opening9,328
1. c3Saragossa Opening9,272
1. f4Bird Opening8,929
1. Na3Sodium Attack8,885
1. Nh3Amar Opening8,881
1. a3Anderssen's Opening8,457
1. f3Barnes Opening8,457
1. h3Clemenz Opening8,457

Black’s 20 replies to 1. e4

Black has 20 legal answers to any first move. Against 1. e4 most of them have names of their own:

Which first move is best?

Most strong players open with 1. e4 or 1. d4, followed by 1. c4 and 1. Nf3; together they account for the great majority of master games. The others are rare, and a few, like 1. f3 and 1. g4, weaken White’s own king. But all twenty are legal, and on the map every one of them leads to its own branch of the 197,281 games of the first four moves.

Sources