A
chess opening is the group of initial moves of a
chess game. Recognized sequences of initial moves are referred to as
openings by
White, or
defenses by Black, but
opening is also used as the general term. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants.
The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants. These vary widely in character from quiet positional play to wild
tactical play. In addition to referring to specific move sequences, the opening is the first phase of a chess game, the other phases being the
middlegame and the
endgame.