By Bill Wall:
Here are some classifications of chess openings.
Open games are usually double king pawn games (1.e4 e5).
The most common response is 2.Nf3 (King's Knight Opening). However, White can play:
2.a3 - Mengarini's Attack
2.Bb5 - Portuguese Opening
2.c3 - McCleod Opening
2.c4 - Whale Opening
2.Nc3 - Vienna Game
2.Bc4 - Bishop's Opening
2.Bd3 - Tortoise Opening
2.d3 - Clam Opening or Leonhardt Opening or Indian Opening
2.d4 - Center Game
2.Ne2 - Alapin's Opening
2.f3 - King's Head Opening
2.Qf3 - Napoleon Attack
2.f4 - King's Gambit
2.Qh5 - Parnham's Attack or Danvers Attack or Wayward Queen Opening
Semi-Open games are 1.e4 without 1...e5
Black can play:
1...a6 - St. George Defense or Birmingham Defense
1...a5 - Ware Defense
1...b6 - Owen's Defense
1...c5 - Sicilian Defense
1...c6 - Caro Kann Defense
1...Nc6 - Nimzovich Defense
1...d5 - Scandanavian or Center Counter Defense
1...d6 - Pirc (or Modern) Defense
1...e6 - French Defense
1...Nf6 - Alekhine's Defense
1...g6 - Modern (or Pirc) Defense
1...g5 - Basman Defense or Macho Grob
1...f5 - Fred Defense or From Reversed or Duras Defense
1...f6 - Barnes Defense
1...h5 - Pickering Defense
1...h6 - Carr Defense
1...Na6 - Lemming Defense
1...Nh6 - Adams or Hippoputumus or Wild Bull Defense
Closed games are the Double Queen Pawn openings (1.d4 d5)
The most common reply is 2.c4 (Queen's Gambit). Other moves are:
2.Nc3 - Chigorin or Veresov
2.e3 - Stonewall Attack
2.e4 - Blackmar-Diemer Gambit
2.Nf3 - Zukertort Variation
2.Bf4 - London System or Sarratt Attack
2.Bg5 - Bishop Attack or Zot or Levitsky Attack
2.f4 - Mason Attack
2.g4 - Zurich Gambit
2.Qd3 - Amazon Attack
The Semi-Closed Game is 1.d4 without 1...d5.
Black can play:
1...b5 - Polish Defense
1...b6 - Queen Fianchetto Defense
1...c5 - Benoni Defense
1...c6 - Anglo-Slav Defense
1...Nc6 - Lundin or Van Geet Defense
1...d6 - Pillsbury Defense or Rat Defense
1...e5 - Englund Defense
1...e6 - Franco-Indian Defense
1...Nf6 - Indian Systems (the most common of the semi-closed openings)
1...f5 - Dutch Defense
1...g5 - Borg Gambit
1...g6 - Kotov-Robatsch Defense
Flank Openings are as follows:
1.b3 - Larsen's Opening
1.b4 - Sokolsky or Polish or Orangutan Opening
1.c4 - English Opening
1.Nf3 - Reti or King's Indian Attack
1.f4 - Bird's Opening
1.g3 - Benko Opening
Irregular Openings are as follows:
1.a3 - Anderssen's Opening
1.Nh3 - Amar or Paris Opening
1.f3 - Barnes or Gedult's Opening
1.h3 - Clemenz Opening
1.h4 - Despres or Kadas Opening
1.Nc3 - Dunst Opening
1.Na3 - Durkin's Attack
1.g4 - Grob's Attack
1.d3 - Mieses Opening
1.c3 - Saragossa Opening
1.e3 - Van't Kruijs Opening
1.a4 - Ware or Meadow Hay or Crab Opening
Tactical openings are usually gambits or sharp openings.
Positional openings are usually closed openings.
Don't play any opening you are not familiar with. Study an opening book or play lots of games with your favorite openings. Experiment with your openings after you have studied it a bit. Watch out for opening traps.
Some guy named Bill Wall wrote at least 20 books on chess traps with over
10,000 chess traps and miniatures from actual games. You can find a lot of these traps in the downloads section
