Binary tree of best openings

Well, this is a peculiar way to study openings for those who like general patterns and taxonomy. Just take 2 "best" moves at each step (I use the Game Explorer here) and U'll get 2^n "best" openings after n plies. Normally, it should give various standard main lines.

1st ply :

• 1. e4  King's Pawn 
• 1. d4  Queen's Pawn

2nd ply :

• 1. e4
  • 1... c5  Sicilian
  • 1... e5  King Pawn game

• 1. d4
  • 1... Nf6  Indian game
  • 1... d5   Queen Pawn game

3rd ply :

• 1. e4
  • 1... c5  Sicilian
    • 2. Nf3 
    • 2. Nc3 Sicilian : Closed
  • 1... e5  King Pawn game
    • 2. Nf3  King's Knight opening
    • 2. Nc3  Vienna game

• 1. d4
  • 1...Nf6  Indian game
    • 2. c4  Normal variation
    • 2. Nf3 Knights variation
  • 1... d5  Queen Pawn game
    • 2. c4  Queen's Gambit
    • 2. Nf3

How far are U able to go in this study ?

I prefer to learn the ideas behind a particular opening and not every single move.

Yeah, though one approach doesn't contradict an other. Actually, I have exact ideas about many good openings in all 960 initial positions of Fischer's random chess.

Okay, I had enough patience to make 4 steps.

4th ply :

• 1. e4
  • 1... c5  Sicilian 
    • 2. Nf3  
      • 2...d6  Modern variations
      • 2...Nc6  Old Sicilian
    • 2. Nc3  Closed variation
      • 1...Nc6  Traditional line
      • 2...e6
  • 1... e5  King Pawn game
    • 2. Nf3  King's Knight opening  
      • 2...Nc6  Normal variation
      • 2...Nf6  Russian game (Petrov) 
    • 2. Nc3  Vienna game  
      • 2...Nf6  Falkbeer variation
      • 2...Nc6  Max Lange defence 

• 1. d4
  • 1...Nf6  Indian game
    • 2. c4  Normal variation  
      • 2...e6  East Indian defence
      • 2...g6  West Indian defence
    • 2. Nf3 Knights variation  
      • 2...g6 Pseudo-West Indian
      • 2...e6 Pseudo-East Indian
  • 1... d5  Queen Pawn game
    • 2. c4  Queen's Gambit  
      • 2...c6  Slav defence
      • 2...e6  QG declined
    • 2. Nf3  
      • 2...Nf6 Symmetrical
      • 2...c6 

Great, fellas! Now let's have some fun and consider 3 symmetries of the chessboard : 1) horizontal (reversed openings), 2) vertical (opposite openings) and 3) central symmetry when possible. We get 3 additional binary graphs.

2 plies :

1) reversed openings :

1. c4 e5  King's English = reversed Sicilian

1. Nf3 d5  Reti : Queen's pawn defence = reversed Indian

2) opposite openings :

1. d4 f5  Dutch = opposite Sicilian

1. e4 Nc6  Nimzo defence = opposite Indian

3) central symmetry :

1. f4 d5  Bird's opening : Dutch variation = reversed Dutch = opposite English

1. Nc3 e5  Dunst (Van Geet) : reversed Nimzo

When you speak of "Reversed openings" like~

1. c4 1... e5 Reverse Sicillian

You can think that this would give white a big advantage b/c the sicilian is soooooo very strong as black, and in this case you get that sicillian + 1 tempo...

but you see, this is one of cases of semi zugswang, the sicillian is designed to be a "Reactive System" it is like a "shield"... now you can in fact bash a persons skull in with a shield, but when you get the first attack, you are MUCH better off bringing a "sword" like e4 or d4

Just my opinion from my experiance, I could be wrong

Yeah, I think that U are right. Actually, I didn't meditate about strong and weak places in those openings, in this post I just developped some simple classification ideas.