Name That Opening
How many openings can you recognize from their first moves? This quiz shows you the opening moves in notation, sets up the resulting position on a board, and asks you to name the opening from four choices. Every answer links to the full guide, so each round teaches as it tests. Drawn from our library of 30+ opening guides.
Professor Archer says: Recognition comes before understanding. When a student can glance at 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 and say "King's Indian" before I finish placing the pieces, I know their opening study is working, because the names carry the plans with them. Five minutes of this quiz per day builds that reflex faster than any flashcard deck I have tried.
Features
- Questions drawn from 30+ real opening guides
- Moves shown in notation AND on the board
- Streak tracking with personal bests
- Every answer links to the full opening guide
- New random question every round, free and unlimited
Why Opening Recognition Is a Real Skill
Strong players do not think "pawn to e4, pawn to c5" when a game begins; they think "Sicilian" and instantly inherit everything they know about that name: the typical plans, the pawn structures, the danger squares. The name is a compressed file that unpacks into knowledge. Players who cannot name what is on the board have to work everything out from scratch, every game.
This quiz trains the compression in reverse. By repeatedly connecting move sequences to names to positions, the three representations fuse, which is exactly what happens naturally after years of play. You are just doing it on purpose, faster.
How to Use the Quiz for Study
Play until you miss, then read. The wrong answers are the valuable ones: every result links to the full opening guide, and two minutes with the guide after a miss converts the gap into knowledge while the position is still fresh. Streaks make the diagnosis honest, because a streak of three with lucky guesses collapses quickly, while real recognition sustains streaks of ten and more.
When you can name most of the pool on sight, you are ready for the next layer: knowing what to DO in each one. That is where the opening recommender quiz helps you pick which openings deserve your deep study, and Opening of the Day keeps the breadth topped up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which openings are in the quiz?
The pool is our full opening library: the major 1.e4 openings (Italian Game, Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, French, Caro-Kann and more), the 1.d4 family (Queen's Gambit, King's Indian, London System and others), and the main flank openings. New guides join the pool automatically.
Do I need to know notation to play?
It helps but is not required: every question also shows the final position on a board, so you can play by recognizing the structure. If the notation slows you down, ten minutes with our algebraic notation guide and the coordinate trainer will fix that quickly.
What is a good score?
Naming half the pool reliably puts you ahead of most club players. Recognizing 80% or more on sight, including the less common openings, reflects genuinely broad opening culture. Track your streak rather than a single round: consistency is the real signal.