Alapin's Opening is an unusual
chess opening
The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''op ...
that starts with the moves:
: 1.
e4 e5
: 2.
Ne2
It is named after the
Russo Russo may refer to:
* Russo (surname)
* Russo (footballer, 1915–1980), full name Adolpho Milman, Brazilian football forward and manager
* Russo (footballer, born 1976), full name Ricardo Soares Florêncio, Brazilian football defender
* Russo brot ...
-
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
n player and openings analyst
Semyon Alapin (1856–1923).
Although this opening is rarely used, it occurred in
Jacobsen–
Ljubojević,
Groningen
Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...
1970, and in
Hartoch–
Ligterink, Amsterdam 1976.
Description
Alapin's Opening is offbeat, but perfectly for White. It is mainly used to avoid highly theoretical lines such as the
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. e4 e5
:2. Nf3 Nc6
:3. Bb5
The Ruy Lopez remains one of the most popular chess openings, featuring many variations. In ...
, or to surprise the opponent. White intends to play f2–f4 soon. There is similarity to the Smyslov Position (Smyslov–Botvinnik, 1958) if White tries to play something in the lines of g3, Nbc3, d3, Bg2.
Alapin's Opening also incurs several problems for White, however. First, the of White's , and also of his queen, is blocked, and will require another move of the knight or another pawn move, both of which go against the opening principle to develop the quickly. Second, the knight on e2, although flexible, has no control over Black's half of the , and will need to be moved again to become more useful.
It is relatively easy for Black to in this opening; for example, 2...Nf6 and 2...Nc6 both equalise, although Black should be careful to avoid being caught by surprise by an eventual f2–f4.
See also
*
List of chess openings
This is a list of chess openings, organised by the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' (''ECO'') code classification system. The chess openings are categorised into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken up into one hundred ...
*
List of chess openings named after people
''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' lists 1,327 named openings and variants. Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names. The name given to an opening is not always that of the first player to adopt it; often an opening is name ...
References
*
{{chess
Chess openings