Offbeat defences for Black
The defences that do not fit the main families: Alekhine's, the Scandinavian, the Pirc, the Modern and the Benko. Each one leaves mainstream theory by the second or third move, which is worth real points at club level — your opponent is on their own thinking time while you are still following a plan you know.
4 openings
- Scandinavian Defence (B01) — Trade the centre off on move one and always get the same position
- Pirc Defence (B08) — Let White have the centre and undermine it once the king is safe
- Modern Defence (B06) — Delay everything, commit to nothing, and let White overextend
- Alekhine's Defence (B04) — Offer the knight as bait and let White's centre chase it into overextension
All families
- Sicilian Defence openings — 7 openings
- Ruy López openings — 5 openings
- Italian Game and other open games — 6 openings
- Scotch Game openings — 4 openings
- Romantic gambit openings — 4 openings
- French Defence openings — 4 openings
- Caro-Kann Defence openings — 4 openings
- Queen's Gambit openings — 4 openings
- Indian Defence openings — 7 openings
- Dutch Defence openings — 3 openings
- Offbeat defences for Black — 4 openings
- System openings for White — 4 openings
- Chess opening traps — 11 openings
Browse by difficulty
- Chess openings for beginners — 25 openings
- Chess openings for intermediate players — 30 openings
- Advanced chess openings — 12 openings