Scotch Game

Named after a correspondence match between Edinburgh and London in 1824. White opens the centre at once with 3. d4; Garry Kasparov brought it back to top-level chess in the 1990s.

It is reached after 5 moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4.

Black is to move and has 32 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 1,272,367 different games. Those games reach 422,796 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 3 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 48 further lines after this position, such as Lolli Variation (3... Nxd4).

The same moves can be played in 12 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. Nf3 e5 2. e4 Nc6 3. d4, which starts as the Zukertort Opening.