Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings Information & Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings Links at HealthHaven.com

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

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.

[edit] Openings covered

Volume A: English, Benoni, Dutch, Réti, Benko Gambit, Old Indian, Bird, etc
Volume B: Sicilian, Caro-Kann, Pirc, Alekhine, Scandinavian, etc
Volume C: Ruy Lopez, French, Petroff, King's Gambit, Philidor, Italian (Giuoco Piano and Two Knights Defense), Scotch Game, etc
Volume D: Queen's Gambit (Slav, Accepted, Orthodox, Tarrasch, Tartakower, etc), Grünfeld Defence, Queens Pawn, etc
Volume E: Nimzo-Indian, Queen's Indian, King's Indian, Catalan, Bogo-Indian, etc

[edit] Main ECO codes

Main article: list of chess openings

[edit] 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)

[edit] B

1.e4 without 1...c5, 1...e6, 1...e5 (B00–B19)
1.e4 c5: Sicilian Defence (B20–B99)

[edit] C

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

[edit] D

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

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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	Nejštadt, Jakov
32–37	Bagirov, Vladimir
67–69	Boleslavsky, Isaac
67–69	Lepeškin, 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

[edit] 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

[edit] See also

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

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] 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.

[edit] External links

Publisher website. "Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings". http://www.sahovski.com/products/eco/index.php.
Bill Wall. "ECO codes with names". http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/eco.htm.
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.
ECO Information and Index
Searchable Database of ECO Openings

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