The name is derived from the fact that the games played in India does not have the initial double pawn move. In these openings up to some moves the double pawn move is not used (they are originated in India). like nimzonindian and other Indian defenses. - Rueben Fine in his book "the Ideas behind chess openings"
reuben fine was born after the invention of the indian openings as far as i know.
I read somewhere that they were named "indian" defenses because certain european hypermodern players thought them to be exotic. I find this believable.
there are actually 2 stories about it, one because the moves remind one of the indian game and another is a german story. According to that one, the grandmaster of the day found the opening so strange that they called it indian.
Does this imply that they thought India was strange?
Let's see how many Indian defenses there are.
Scamming and cheapness are the only ones i can think of. Oh wait, we are talking about chess. (I am an indian btw)
Bogo, Nimzo, Queen's, King's directly have indian in them
and other openings branch off 1..nf6 which are still technically classified as indian defenses.
Scamming and Cheapness?Be careful with what you say.
lol, well a lot of "us" are pretty cheap if you ask me.
Regardless of what you think,you are offending people.Intentionally or Unintentionally,idk and idc.So,please stop these derogatory comments and let's focus on the chess,shall we?
I can't be the only one thinking this, right?
---
And to be on-topic myself, to my knowledge most openings (if not all?) are named by their historical background. As said in earlier replies by others, Indians played a lot 'Indian Defence' in the past.
I said i dont care whether his remarks were intentional or unintentional,not that ii dont care bout the remakrks.Goin off topic wasnt wrong here becoz clearly,he was talking bad about a "Country".
I read somewhere that they were named "indian" defenses because certain european hypermodern players thought them to be exotic. I find this believable.
i heard the classical players found the openings of the hypermodern exotic and thats how the name came.
probably true. to be even more specific it might have been efim bogoljubow who first called them "indian defenses".
there are actually 2 stories about it, one because the moves remind one of the indian game and another is a german story. According to that one, the grandmaster of the day found the opening so strange that they called it indian.
Does this imply that they thought India was strange?
i should have used exotic.
Nothing wrong with "strange" too...
But 'one square only' sounds more plausible for calling it "Indian Opening".
As kids, we used to distinguish the chess rules as "Indian" and "International". For up to early sixties, we mostly played by Indian rules. Under Indian rules:
1. A pawn could move only one square
2. The king could move once in it's lifetime like a knight for the purpose of castling - but not if had been checked.
3. The pawns were promoted to the piece according to the square it reached (i.e. it would be promoted knight if it reached knight's square)
4. If a pawn was promoted to knight (this piece is called horse in Hindi), it could optionally 'jump' also at the the time of promotion (at least that's the way I remember).
5. For black as well as white the queen is placed to the right of the king (or may be to the left - my memory is failing me).
6. I do not remember if "white square must always be on the right" while placing the board was part of rules.
i always thought indians used elephants instead of knights and they would choose starting position before the game, but maybe im confusing it with arabian chess and they changed the rules till it came there.
there are actually 2 stories about it, one because the moves remind one of the indian game and another is a german story. According to that one, the grandmaster of the day found the opening so strange that they called it indian.
Does this imply that they thought India was strange?
i should have used exotic.
Nothing wrong with "strange" too...
But 'one square only' sounds more plausible for calling it "Indian Opening".
As kids, we used to distinguish the chess rules as "Indian" and "International". For up to early sixties, we mostly played by Indian rules. Under Indian rules:
1. A pawn could move only one square
2. The king could move once in it's lifetime like a knight for the purpose of castling - but not if had been checked.
3. The pawns were promoted to the piece according to the square it reached (i.e. it would be promoted knight if it reached knight's square)
4. If a pawn was promoted to knight (this piece is called horse in Hindi), it could optionally 'jump' also at the the time of promotion (at least that's the way I remember).
5. For black as well as white the queen is placed to the right of the king (or may be to the left - my memory is failing me).
6. I do not remember if "white square must always be on the right" while placing the board was part of rules.
Indian chess was the first chess i learn too,albeit in the 2000's not 60's.As far as I remember,castling was not allowed an the white king and queen had to be opposite to each other.
oh so it was probably this
http://hkroshan.blogspot.com/2012/06/indian-defense.html
and then in the 1920s the hypermodern players, like bogoljubow, championed them. and that's where certain quotes of those players calling them "exotic" come from. but technically it wasn't the hypermoderns themselves that were responsible for the name. interestingly the indian defenses weren't very popular until russian players in the 1940s proved that they were sound.
by the way is the grunfeld and indian defense as well? i mean it strange that the opening is named after a chess player while all the other defenses are just called indian defenses.
there are actually 2 stories about it, one because the moves remind one of the indian game and another is a german story. According to that one, the grandmaster of the day found the opening so strange that they called it indian.
Does this imply that they thought India was strange?
i should have used exotic.
Nothing wrong with "strange" too...
But 'one square only' sounds more plausible for calling it "Indian Opening".
As kids, we used to distinguish the chess rules as "Indian" and "International". For up to early sixties, we mostly played by Indian rules. Under Indian rules:
1. A pawn could move only one square
2. The king could move once in it's lifetime like a knight for the purpose of castling - but not if had been checked.
3. The pawns were promoted to the piece according to the square it reached (i.e. it would be promoted knight if it reached knight's square)
4. If a pawn was promoted to knight (this piece is called horse in Hindi), it could optionally 'jump' also at the the time of promotion (at least that's the way I remember).
5. For black as well as white the queen is placed to the right of the king (or may be to the left - my memory is failing me).
6. I do not remember if "white square must always be on the right" while placing the board was part of rules.
Indian chess was the first chess i learn too,albeit in the 2000's not 60's.As far as I remember,castling was not allowed an the white king and queen had to be opposite to each other.
Castling was allowed and the method of castling in Indian chess is:
1. The pawn above king would be moved one square
2. King will move one square up
3. The king will move like a knight towards the rook
4. Rook will be placed by the king side just like in international.
5. Like in international, the bishop (oont in Hindi, meaning camel) and knight (ghoda in Hindi - horse) squares should not be occupied.
6. If the king was given a check before it could castle, it cannot move "dhai chaal" as it is called in Hindi for knight's 2.5 squares move (dhai means 2.5 and chaal means move).
there are actually 2 stories about it, one because the moves remind one of the indian game and another is a german story. According to that one, the grandmaster of the day found the opening so strange that they called it indian.
Does this imply that they thought India was strange?
i should have used exotic.
Nothing wrong with "strange" too...
But 'one square only' sounds more plausible for calling it "Indian Opening".
As kids, we used to distinguish the chess rules as "Indian" and "International". For up to early sixties, we mostly played by Indian rules. Under Indian rules:
1. A pawn could move only one square
2. The king could move once in it's lifetime like a knight for the purpose of castling - but not if had been checked.
3. The pawns were promoted to the piece according to the square it reached (i.e. it would be promoted knight if it reached knight's square)
4. If a pawn was promoted to knight (this piece is called horse in Hindi), it could optionally 'jump' also at the the time of promotion (at least that's the way I remember).
5. For black as well as white the queen is placed to the right of the king (or may be to the left - my memory is failing me).
6. I do not remember if "white square must always be on the right" while placing the board was part of rules.
Indian chess was the first chess i learn too,albeit in the 2000's not 60's.As far as I remember,castling was not allowed an the white king and queen had to be opposite to each other.
Castling was allowed and the method of castling in Indian chess is:
1. The pawn above king would be moved one square
2. King will move one square up
3. The king will move like a knight towards the rook
4. Rook will be placed by the king side just like in international.
5. Like in international, the bishop (oont in Hindi, meaning camel) and knight (ghoda in Hindi - horse) squares should not be occupied.
6. If the king was given a check before it could castle, it cannot move "dhai chaal" as it is called in Hindi for knight's 2.5 squares move (dhai means 2.5 and chaal means move).
My grandfather taught me chess and i think he was not aware of dis rule and so never told me bout it.
Yawn. Who reads this massive blather?
Get a life, or play some chess, instead. 
Yawn. Who reads this massive blather?
Get a life, or play some chess, instead.
Some people do read it.
Likhit, dont quote everything...
goes back to Indian players in 1884.
i used to think of the fianchettoed bishop as being like an American Indian hiding with a bow and arrow, an interpretation i've always preferred myself.
American Indians are descendants of Indian people living in America. I believe you are talking about Native Americans, though Indians also had bows and arrows.
Ya but how come so many openings are called Indian.. for example.. we have only one French opening or one English opening..
Nah, there's more than 1 named after the English:
English Opening - 1.c4
English Defense - 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 or 1.c4 b6
English Attack - Various Sicilians, usually featuring a White Bishop on e3 with pawn advances to f3 and g4.
The French have the French Defense (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5), and the Paris Gambit (1.g3 e5 2.Nh3 d5 3.f4)
Also, you can refer to the Symmetrical English and King's English (what some sites refer to the Reverse Sicilian as, 1.c4 e5) the same way you say "Queen's Indian" and "King's Indian".
So it's no different, really.
Beat me to it
there are actually 2 stories about it, one because the moves remind one of the indian game and another is a german story. According to that one, the grandmaster of the day found the opening so strange that they called it indian.
Does this imply that they thought India was strange?
Let's see how many Indian defenses there are.
Scamming and cheapness are the only ones i can think of. Oh wait, we are talking about chess. (I am an indian btw)
Bogo, Nimzo, Queen's, King's directly have indian in them
and other openings branch off 1..nf6 which are still technically classified as indian defenses.
Scamming and Cheapness?Be careful with what you say.
lol, well a lot of "us" are pretty cheap if you ask me.
Regardless of what you think,you are offending people.Intentionally or Unintentionally,idk and idc.So,please stop these derogatory comments and let's focus on the chess,shall we?
I can't be the only one thinking this, right?
---
And to be on-topic myself, to my knowledge most openings (if not all?) are named by their historical background. As said in earlier replies by others, Indians played a lot 'Indian Defence' in the past.
I said i dont care whether his remarks were intentional or unintentional,not that ii dont care bout the remakrks.Goin off topic wasnt wrong here becoz clearly,he was talking bad about a "Country".
Technically, when you put paranthesis around ""Country"" it is just as offensive, since you are questioning the validity of the fact that India is a "Country". lol just sayin.
there are actually 2 stories about it, one because the moves remind one of the indian game and another is a german story. According to that one, the grandmaster of the day found the opening so strange that they called it indian.
Does this imply that they thought India was strange?
i should have used exotic.