The Library

Chess openings

Every Encyclopedia of Chess Openings classification — 3,161 lines from A00 to E99, with interactive playback and family hierarchy. Statistics from 2,808 positions tracked in master play.

Most played

Frequency in master games, from Lichess Masters DB.

  1. 1 King's Pawn Game B00 1,309,466 games
  2. 2 Queen's Pawn Game A40 1,029,878 games
  3. 3 Indian Defense A45 626,798 games
  4. 4 Sicilian Defense B20 601,092 games
  5. 5 Indian Defense: Normal Variation A50 456,632 games
  6. 6 Zukertort Opening A04 292,958 games
  7. 7 King's Knight Opening C40 289,898 games
  8. 8 King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation C44 249,218 games
  9. 9 Sicilian Defense: Modern Variations B50 231,200 games
  10. 10 Queen's Gambit D06 204,463 games
  11. 11 English Opening A10 199,442 games
  12. 12 Sicilian Defense: Modern Variations, Main Line B54 171,576 games

Browse by ECO volume

Every family in the encyclopaedia, and under each one the variations that carry their own study — editorial coverage, or enough master practice for the statistics to mean something. Families link through to the full tree, which continues past what is listed here.

A

Volume A

Flank openings and irregular

70 families · 672 lines carried
B

Volume B

Semi-open games, Sicilian

21 families · 674 lines carried
C

Volume C

1.e4 e5 and the French

30 families · 1089 lines carried
D

Volume D

Closed games, Queen's Gambit

17 families · 458 lines carried
E

Volume E

Indian defences

10 families · 268 lines carried

The Encyclopedia of Chess Openings divides theory into five volumes (A–E), each containing one hundred two-digit codes (00–99). Every code identifies a specific position reached by a defined move order. Caissly carries all 3,161 named lines — each with an interactive playable board, the canonical PGN and its parent, sibling and child variations — and studies 461 of them in their own right. The remainder are waypoints in the tree rather than destinations: walk into them from any family above, or open the Explorer to move through the whole encyclopaedia position by position.