Réti Opening

Named after Richard Réti, a leader of the hypermodern school. He used it to beat José Raúl Capablanca in New York in 1924, ending Capablanca’s eight-year run without a loss.

It is reached after 3 moves: 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4.

Black is to move and has 29 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 559,098 different games. Those games reach 192,354 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 2.9 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 12 further lines after this position, such as Réti Accepted (2... dxc4) and Advance Variation (2... d4).

The same moves can be played in 2 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. c4 d5 2. Nf3, which starts as the English Opening.