Hi everyone,

I was playing a game on the internet and my opponent asked me what do I think about Svenonius variation. I'm quite well educated about chess theory. I know names of all the important openings (or at leats I've heard of them some times) but I've probaby never heard of this opening before.

First I thought it is one of the silly openings (today every joke like 1.a3, 1.Nh3,... has a name). But when I googled the name I was very surprised. 

I've found out that some lines in french, king's gambit, four knights and many other openings are called Svenonius variation. Now I'm wondering whether they have anything in common but I haven't found any similarities yet. Can anyone tell me what is Svenonius variation? is it a type of an opening, a structure, a position or what? And why is it called so? Was "Svenonius" a player or is it a place or anything else?

Thanks for your help

Good question, I am also waiting for an answer

That's how he has spelled, i just copy-pasted it. I think it's spelled correctly because when i googled it I found some results with this name

Isnt it obvious? It is the name of a chessplayer. The Variations were named after him and they dont need to have something in common. It is just like the Taimanov Variations, there are many that bear his name is one in the Nimzo, one in the KID and one in the Sicilian.

In this case two variations, one in the French and the other one in the 2 knights bear his name. 

"Ludvig Oskar Svenonius was born in the province of Jämtland, but studied medicine in Uppsala and Stockholm in the 1870s. During these years, he devoted a lot of time to chess playing and got a reputation as one of the top players in Sweden. After finishing his studies he moved north again, where he, after some provisional work along the east coast, finally settled in the province of Härjedalen. As those familiar with Sweden know, that’s about as far out in the forest you can get. This isolation in the wilderness meant that he seldom played any chess. To get a game, he had to travel ca 50 km, where he could meet the fellow chessplayer Rev. Linderdahl, who is described as a ‘fairly strong blitzplayer’. Thus, Svenonius never got play any of the celebrities from abroad in a serious game. In 1902, the famous chess master Jacques Mieses visited Stockholm, but Svenonius missed him, arriving shortly after he had left. At last, in 1913 when Svenonius was 60 years, he got play a star when Siegbert Tarrasch visited Sweden. Tarrasch held a simultaneous exhibition with 33 players. Only two of them won, but one of those was Svenonius."

Thanks to chessgames.com and google for providing me the info.

Here is a photo I found of him.

@NimzoPatzer: Thank you! :)

Now I know they are named after a player and it is obvious that they don't need to have anything in common. I am just surprised that so many (more than 2 fo sure) openings are named after a player whom I didn't know before. Once again, thanks

I dont know, most pages about him are written in Sweden.

If you are curious dig in this "kibitzing" from chessgames.com

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=101566

I have a move named after me. It is because i wrote a book on the Center Counter and it was back when that opening was not popular--so i was able to make new theory. Also some theory called the Taylor/Meises variation in the Center Counter.  

C01: French, exchange, Svenonius variation

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bg5

The general view in Sweden at the time was that Svenonius would have been able to hold his own against strong continental opposition. Clearly not against the world's very best, but as the simul win against Tarrasch shows, he was a strong player. Svenonius was a noted and well-respected theoretician, also internationally.

mickynj: Not so odd, in the 18th century, when Sweden was no longer conducting wars on all fronts, people who were enobled tended to be scientists or cultural personalities rather than militaries or administrators. These people had studied Latin, and for them it came naturally to make a latinized form of their name when they received their titles. This convention then spread to the upper classes in society. A convenient way to distinguish themselves from all and sundry whose surnames were Svensson, Andersson, Larsson, Nilsson etc! (It used to work the way Russian patronymics still work to this day: if you father's first name was 'Sven', your surname became 'Svensson' [ = Sven's son] or 'Svensdotter' [ = Sven's daughter']). Clearly, some first names are more frequently used than others, hence certain surnames also become much more frequently used than others.

You can't go deeper into the forest than halfway through, after that you just go out.

Thanks for all clarifications! One surprisingly solid variant of his name is the early 3. ...Ne7!? in the Danish Gambit.