See the numbers at the top of each column? That's move number. So yeah, they all share the first 4 moves, because the lines below are starting at move 4, 5, 6 etc.
To know which is better or worse look at the evaluation and read the footnotes.
See numbers for each row? Row 1 (the first variation) ends with = which means it's an equal position. +/= means white is a little better. +/- means white is better. (and +- would mean white is winning).
#1
The most important are the footnotes. For example line 3 after move 12...d5 is given as better for white because of footnote 22. That refers to a game published in Chess Informant.
The whole ECO is a giant index to the issues of Chess Informant.
Okay, so this is getting somewhere. If you assume that the actual opening is what is always given in that top, unnumbered line, then those first seven half-moves *do* work out to the Italian Game: Knight Attack -- so that's what C57 is.
But if C57 is, instead, nothing but the variations, then all of those 12- and 13-move lines are the various things that C57 is -- such as Italian Game: Traxler Counterattack, Knight Sacrifice Line, for the first variation.
AFAIK an ECO code can be subdivided into variations, sure.
But that's a bit before my time. I didn't really get into chess until chessbase was already out, so I looked up most of my stuff digitally.
Sorry about that. I just reiterated the original question.
I suppose if those long horizontal lines are just placeholders, then that would mean the ECO doesn't list *any* openings. Just variations that use those openings. Which can't be true. Yet there's nowhere else for those openings to be listed. So I guess C57 is the Italian Game: Knight Attack.
Now there's *two* long horizontal lines for C57, but looking at the second one, it's almost the same as the first, but it introduces a couple extra half-moves. It's its own opening: Italian Game: Knight Attack, Normal Variation. Yet it's still very much a child of the first opening given, so maybe C57 only covers one named opening and a bunch of variations...?
With lots of patience.
I think C 5 is the Italian. Then, C 55 to C 59 covers all variations from Two Knights defense.
Not sure if this my sound stupid question, but I’m curious of the use of this ECO thing?
Not sure if this my sound stupid question, but I’m curious of the use of this ECO thing?
50 years ago, before computers, it was a useful way to organize openings.
#10
It is still a useful way to classify openings. The 500 openings A00 to E99 form a partition of all chess openings. The ECO code is shorter than the full name. An ECO code is unambiguous. The names are ambiguous. Different names are used for the same ECO codes. Several ECO codes fall under the same name. Here is the full explanation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_openings
C57 Two Knights Defence, including the Fried Liver Attack
It's not something professionals use anymore, but sure, it's not like it's completely useless.
It's the best for showing off before non-chess players.
It's the best for showing off before non-chess players.
Or showing off to Carlsen.
As I recall during some GM-only chess trivia game, one of the only questions Carlsen couldn't answer was to name the ECO code of a Sicilian position. All the old GMs knew. In the end Carlsen won anyway.
For reference:
I was always under the impression that the top line is the opening itself, and all the lines underneath it are secondary in some way. So, in that sense, C57 is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5.
But now I'm thinking that the two main lines in this example are just placeholders for moves that all the lines underneath it share in common. In this case there is no C57 proper. It starts with C57.1, which is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5 5.Nxf7 Bxf2+ 6.Kf1 Qe7 7.Nxh8 d5 8.exd5 Nd4 9.d6 Qxd6 10.Nf7 Qc5 11.d3 e4 12.c3 Bh4.
Anyone here know how it works?