Openings & their plans
Not move lists — plans. Each card walks the move order to the tabiya (where theory ends), explains the pawn structure, shows the middlegame plans for both sides, then makes you play the plan against the engine.
The full library · 36 openings
Playing as White
Queen's Gambit: Exchange Variation (Carlsbad)
The clearest 'what do I do now?' answer in all of chess: fix Black's queenside pawns, then attack them with your own.
Structure: Carlsbad structure
Queen's Gambit Accepted
Black took your c-pawn and gave you the centre. Your whole middlegame is one idea: use it before Black finishes developing.
Structure: QGA centre (and the IQP you must embrace)
Slav Defense: Main Line
Black defends the gambit pawn with ...c6 and frees the light bishop before ...e6. Your reward for patience: a strong centre and a space-grabbing e5 push.
Structure: Big centre vs. Slav wall
Italian Game (Giuoco Pianissimo)
The quiet Italian isn't quiet — it's a slow-motion kingside attack. Learn the Nf1–g3–f5 tour and you'll never wonder what to do on move 12 again.
Structure: Closed Italian centre
Ruy Lopez: Closed (Chigorin setup)
The opening with the most famous middlegame plan in chess: the d1-knight's pilgrimage to f5 while Black queues pieces on the queenside.
Structure: Closed Spanish centre
London System
The same solid setup against everything — but the setup is the beginning, not the plan. The plan is Ne5, f4, and a kingside avalanche.
Structure: London pyramid with e5 outpost
Scotch Game
Open the centre on move 3 and get free-flowing piece play — the anti-Italian for players who hate slow manoeuvring.
Structure: Open centre, Scotch style
Vienna Game (with f4)
A delayed King's Gambit with the knight already on c3: play f4–f5 and storm the kingside before Black knows the game has started.
Structure: Vienna clamp (e4+f5 vs e5+d6)
Sicilian: Alapin (2.c3) — the IQP middlegame
Skip the Sicilian theory: play c3, get an isolated queen's pawn, and attack with it — the most learnable attacking structure in chess.
Structure: Isolated queen's pawn (IQP)
Closed Sicilian
No theory, no open centre: fianchetto, play f4, and attack the king while the Sicilian player waits for tactics that never come.
Structure: Closed Sicilian (e4/d3/f4 vs c5/d6/e6)
Catalan Opening (Open)
A Queen's Gambit with the bishop on g2: quiet moves, permanent pressure on the queenside, and a bishop that wins endgames from move 3.
Structure: Open Catalan (queenside pressure)
English Opening (Reversed Sicilian)
Play a Sicilian with an extra tempo: fianchetto, queenside pawns, and a c-file that belongs to you.
Structure: Reversed Sicilian (c-file + b4)
Nimzo-Larsen Attack
One bishop, one diagonal, one promise: the b2 bishop stares at e5 and g7 forever — and every plan in your game flows from that stare.
Structure: Larsen structure (doubled c-pawns vs the b2 stare)
Réti Opening
Attack the centre from the wings: c4 and the g2 bishop gnaw at d5 until it trades or advances — and either way your pieces get the long diagonals.
Structure: Réti double fianchetto vs ...c5/...e6
Trompowsky Attack
Bishop out on move two, ask the big question immediately: take on f6, wreck the pawns, and play the whole game against a structure Black never chose.
Structure: Doubled f-pawn (Trompowsky exchange) structure
Jobava London
The London's polite bishop with a street-fighter behind it: Nc3 before c-pawn moves means Nb5 tricks, f3+e4 avalanches, and h-pawn attacks from move six.
Structure: Jobava centre (c5/d5 vs d4 with the e2 knight)
Playing as Black
Sicilian Defense: Najdorf
You trade a wing pawn for a centre pawn and win the long game — if you know the three levers: ...b5, ...d5, and the e5 clamp.
Structure: Najdorf structure (e5 vs e4, backward d6)
Caro-Kann: Advance Variation
White grabs space with e5; you get the one thing the French player never gets — a free light-squared bishop — then chip the chain with ...c5 and ...f6.
Structure: Advance chain (e5–d4 vs e6–d5)
King's Indian Defense: Classical (Mar del Plata)
You give White the whole centre, then slam it shut and mate the king. The most exciting plan in chess — and it's fully scripted.
Structure: Mar del Plata locked centre
French Defense: Advance Variation
White's proud pawn chain is a list of addresses to attack: d4 first, e5 second. Nimzowitsch wrote the plan a century ago; it still wins.
Structure: French Advance chain
Scandinavian Defense (…Qa5)
Trade the d-pawn on move one, get a Caro-Kann structure with your bishop already outside, and never get blitzed in the opening again.
Structure: Scandinavian/Caro triangle (c6–d? e6)
Pirc Defense (Classical)
Let White take the whole centre, then hit it with ...e5 and ...c6 — the fianchetto bishop does the heavy lifting.
Structure: Pirc centre (e5/d6 vs e4/d4)
Petrov (Russian) Defense
Symmetry with a sting: counterattack e4 instead of defending e5, and reach a solid, active middlegame where White's extra tempo means little.
Structure: Petrov centre with doubled c-pawns
Sicilian Dragon (Yugoslav Attack)
Opposite-side castling, a bishop on the long diagonal, and a rook sacrifice on c3 that you play with a smile. The most scripted race in chess.
Structure: Yugoslav race (opposite-side castling)
Nimzo-Indian Defense (Rubinstein)
Pin the knight, take it, and spend the rest of the game attacking the doubled c-pawns you created. Strategy you can feel.
Structure: Nimzo doubled c-pawns
Grünfeld Defense (Exchange)
Invite White to build the biggest centre in chess — then hit it with ...c5, ...Bg4 and the long diagonal until it collapses.
Structure: Grünfeld big centre vs. long diagonal
Dutch Defense: Stonewall
Build the wall (d5–e6–f5), park a knight on e4, and go after the king with ...g5. Positional structure, attacking mindset.
Structure: Stonewall (d5–e6–f5)
Modern Benoni
Give White a centre pawn on d5, take the queenside majority and the dark-square diagonal, and race: ...b5 and ...c4 vs White's e5 push.
Structure: Benoni (d5 wedge vs queenside majority)
Semi-Slav (Meran)
Take on c4, push ...b5 and ...c5, and turn your 'passive' triangle into a rolling queenside majority with the bishop on b7 firing.
Structure: Meran (queenside majority vs centre push)
Queen's Gambit Declined (as Black)
The most solid reply to 1.d4 ever played — and it has a plan: trade the cramped pieces, then strike with ...c5 or ...e5.
Structure: QGD after Capablanca's freeing manoeuvre
Alekhine Defense
Dangle the knight, provoke the pawn chase, then spend the whole game punishing the pawns White was so proud of pushing.
Structure: Alekhine Exchange structure (c4/d4 vs d6)
Philidor Defense (Hanham Setup)
A fortress with a spring inside: hold the e5 point with everything, absorb White's first punch, then break out with ...d5 or ...exd4 at the moment of your choosing.
Structure: Hanham wall (c6/d6/e5 vs e4/d4)
Two Knights Defense (vs 4.Ng5)
White grabs a pawn with a two-move knight raid; you answer with the oldest deal in chess — a pawn for the initiative — and then never stop developing with threats.
Structure: Two Knights gambit structure (e4 wedge vs the extra pawn)
Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon
The Dragon bishop without the Dragon bill: fianchetto first, skip ...d6, and dream of playing ...d5 in a single move — while the g7 bishop chews the long diagonal.
Structure: Accelerated Dragon structure (half-open c-file, ...b5 space)
Semi-Tarrasch Defense
Take on d5 with the knight, dodge the isolated pawn, and play the cleanest strategic argument in chess: your piece activity and queenside majority versus White's big centre.
Structure: Big centre vs queenside majority (Semi-Tarrasch)
Budapest Gambit
Give the e-pawn for two moves, take it back with three threats — and somewhere in the middle sits the most famous smothered mate in opening theory.
Structure: Budapest structure (e5 knight vs the bishop pair)