The Réti Opening (also called the Zukertort Opening, King's Indian Attack, or King's Knight Opening) is a chess opening characterized by the opening move 1. Nf3. It is named after Richard Réti, an untitled Grandmaster from Czechoslovakia who used it to defeat José Raúl Capablanca, the reigning World Chess Champion, in a 1924 match. In the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO) Réti Opening is classified A04-A09.
According to ChessBase, out of the twenty possible opening moves, 1. Nf3 ranks third in popularity. It develops the knight to a good square and prepares for a quick castling, blocks king's pawn game and restricts queen's pawn game. White maintains flexibility by not committing to a particular central pawn structure, while waiting to see what Black will do. The slight drawback to the move is that it blocks the f-pawn. This is not a problem if White does not intend to move it in the near future, but it rules out the possibility of playing systems with f3 and Nge2, which is a fairly popular setup against the King's Indian.
Usually 1. Nf3 will transpose into an opening with 1. … d5, such as the King's Indian or the Queen's Gambit. If White follows up with an early c4 a transposition to the English Opening may be reached. Even the Sicilian Defence may be reached if the game continues 1. … c5 2. e4.
When the game does not transpose to some other opening, the main lines to Réti Opening are
Traditionally, 1. Nf3 d5 (A06) has been the signature calling card of the Réti. The most common reply for white is 2. c4 (A09), known as the traditional or classic method. 2. g3 (A07) has become increasing popular in recent years and is referred to as the modern method, with white aiming for an early fianchetto of the king-side bishop, although this often transposes into a King's Indian. Also note two strange 2nd moves:
Starting from the position of A09, the replies for black are:
At some point white will play g3 and Bg2 to fianchetto the bishop prior to a king-side castle. This is in the spirit of the hypermodernism movement that Réti championed, with the center being dominated from the wings, rather than being occupied. White is also willing to sacrifice material for tempo and position, although the pawn is usually considered poison in modern grandmaster play because 3. Qa4+ immediately regains it, and also gives white undisputed dominance over the center after 4. Qxc4. Black's exchange also leaves his forces undeveloped while White has a Queen and a Knight exerting influence into enemy territory.
The Reti is great for throwing Black out of the book. If I have trouble with the English against my Black opponent then I typically try the Reti on the next game with good results. Also, if I happen to know my player is an all out aggessive attacker then I find the Reti draws him out to over extension or leaves him with little to target.
Chessfanforlife can you recommend a good modern book on the opening? I know I have plenty more to learn about this opening.
What the heck?!! Didn't you listen to anyone?
1. Only post material that is exclusively your own work.
2. This does not belong in the forums. Post this as a chess article in the openings section or submit it as an entry to the chessopedia, iff you think the current articles are sub-par.
Please listen this time. We don't want some plagiarism fiasco here on chess.com.
I have "The Dynamic Reti" by Nigel Davies and "Hypermodern Opening Repertoire for White" by Eric Schiller. I know Schiller doesn't generally get a good press but his book is very good, I prefer it to the book by Davies.
If I'm not mistaken this is an extract from Wikipedia. Given that, is is freely available for distribution under the Free Documentation License provided no changes are made.
I prefer Schiller's book to Davies'. Schiller stays within the Reti and sidelines of the English and gives suggestions for all of black's decent defenses.
Davies, on the other hand, just didn't seem to be in the "spirit of the Reti". For example, I found this line to be annoying due to the backwards pawn (and an uncharacteristic occupation of the center) - 1. Nf3 d5; 2. c4 dxc4; 3. e4.
Sides, not really.
I just posted what I thought was correct.
What you see is what you get with Evil H. :-)
Alright, thanks for pointing that out Mr. Evil.
If he is right about this then please disregard my comment about plagiarism Chessfan.
I still don't think there is any point to copying pages from wikipedia, when we can all just go to wikipedia, but either way, this sort of thing does not belong in the forums.
No worries,
Perhaps posting links for this sort of info should be the policy?
Well, I agree on both aspects. We should quote sources, and there is nothing wrong with quoting people's ideas, as long as you give them credit. But chess lines are like cooking recipes - a person can claim a line is his, yet someone else has "cooked" that line up before. So if you "honestly" don't have a source for your ideas, then just say its yours...the point is to give out ideas that we love. No one is making money here. However, it is respectful to credit a source that you use - this way, people will be inspired to buy that player's work. This helps our GMs and masters survive so they can continue to teach us about what we love - chess. So, if you have a source, just be kind and quote it.
Join Chess.com for free to add your comment! Already a member? Then login now to comment.
But how much do you know about the game - the history, the players, the rules, and more!? Take our quiz and compare your scores!
Mark all forum topics as READ