In chess the word "opening" has two common meanings: a stage of a game and a sequence of moves; both of which are discussed in this article. Chess players are so familiar with these two meanings that many books and articles never state the distinction and may switch without notice from one meaning to the other. A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants. These vary widely in character from quiet positional play e.g. the Reti Opening and some lines of the Queen's Gambit Declined to wild tactical play e.g. the Latvian Gambit and Two Knights Defense, particularly the Traxler Variation. A sequence of opening moves that is considered standard often cataloged in a reference work such as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings is referred to as "the book moves", or simply "book".

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