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A00Opening

Ware Opening

1. a4

a8b7c6d5e4f3g2h1

Black to move

Legal moves
20
Games in the next 4 moves
217,832
Different positions among them
78,841
Named lines from here
6

See it on the mapOn the opening map

Named after the American player Preston Ware. 1. a4 does little for the centre and is among the least played first moves.

It is reached after a single move: 1. a4.

Black is to move and has 20 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 217,832 different games. Those games reach 78,841 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 2.8 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 6 further lines after this position, such as Symmetric Variation (1... a5) and Crab Variation (1... e5 2. h4).

Map of every game of the next four moves after the Ware Opening
Every game of the next four moves from this position, as the map draws it. Each ring is one more move; the outer ring holds all 217,832 games.

Move by move

  1. 1. a4Ware Opening

Named lines from here

Related openings

FEN

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/P7/8/1PPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1