"A simple descriptive categorization of the chess opening is King's Pawn Openings, Queen's Pawn Openings, and Others. Since these categories are still individually very large, it is common to divide each of them further. One reasonable way to group the openings is
- Double King Pawn or Open Games (1.e4 e5)
- Single King Pawn or Semi-Open Games (1.e4 other)
- Double Queen Pawn or Closed Games (1.d4 d5)
- Single Queen Pawn or Semi-Closed Games (1.d4 other)
- Flank openings (including 1.c4, 1.Nf3, 1.f4, and others)
- Unusual first moves for White "
from a good introductory article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_opening
Hi to all
The more I play chess the more I find the ECO Code of naming opening and their variants to be illogical and Difficult to remember, so why isn't a better system used.
I thinka system based on the Dewey decimal system is better, where all the openings being the Italian game, spanish Game, English Game Etc can be classified into one section; one for each opening with its variants, sub-variants, sub sub variants etc. In this way you can tell what game has been played with what variation just be looking at the number. This has a benefit of also allowing more openings to be given than the narrow ECO code, which often uses the same code for different variants of the same opening and thus confusing the chess player following the game. It wouls also make searching easier.
It is also the system used in when you write reports (i have written enough report to last a life time).
For example
1. Main heading
1.1 Sub-heading
1.1.1 Section 1 under the sub-heading
1.1.1.1 Paragraph in section 1 under the sub-heading, Etc
Example in chess
1. Sicilian
1.1 Sicilian, Najdorf
1.1.1 Sicilian, Najdorf, Zagreb
1.1.2 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky
From this you can see the first number highlights the opening, the second which variation and the third which variation of that variation. Tell me what you think.