Liardet Defense
The Liardet Defense is widely regarded as the strongest response to the Watkins Opening in all of antichess. As of recent, this opening has become a lot more popular in top level gameplay. In particular, the Liardet Defense has been the opening in the ACWC finals for the past two years, and was one of the two main opening choices in this year’s candidates round (along with the Polish). This opening is played very little by beginners, in bullet time controls, and is even sometimes rare at the top level gameplay because of the concept of keeping more pieces and slowly making progress to beat down your opponent. Although it has these attributes, it is black’s longest path of survival, and is estimated to be #120.
All opening names come from FM Arimakat, tolius, or were popularized within the community. If you notice any openings that do not appear on here that are seen quite frequently, be sure to contact one of the members on the steering committee for more information.
| Name | Moves |
| Liardet Defense | 1.e3 b6 |
| Queen Attack | 1.e3 b6 2.Qh5 |
| Bela Palanka Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Qh5 c5 3.Qxf7 Kxf7 4.Bd3
 |
| Andrejić Defense |
1.e3 b6 2.Qh5 c5 3.Qxh7 Rxh7 4.Bc4 Rxh2 5.Bxf7 Rxg2
 |
| Classical Variation |
1.e3 b6 2. Ba6 Nxa6
 |
| Geneva Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qg4
 |
| Serbian Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qe2
 |
| Turkish Defense |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qe2 b5 4.Qxb5 Nb4 5.Qxd7 Nxa2 6.Rxa2 Qxd7
 |
| Dutch Game |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qe2 Nc5
 |
| Old Dutch Game |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qe2 Nc5 4.d3
 |
| Improved Queen Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5
 |
| Retreat Defense |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5 Nb8
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| Modern Classical Defense |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5 c5
 |
| Nagorko Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5 c5 4.Qxh7 Rxh7 5.g3
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| King Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5 c5 4.Qxh7 Rxh7 5.Kd1
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| Belgrade Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5 c5 4.Qxh7 Rxh7 5.h3
 |
| Morrison Attack |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5 c5 4.Qxh7 Rxh7 5.Kf1
 |
| Candidates Variation |
1.e3 b6 2.Ba6 Nxa6 3.Qh5 c5 4.Qxh7 Rxh7 5. b4
 |
| Wing System | 1.e3 b6 2.a4 |
| Kpa Defense |
1.e3 b6 2.a4 e5
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| Classical Wing System |
1.e3 b6 2.a4 b5 3.Bxb5
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| FishTest Defense |
1.e3 b6 2.a4 e6 3.Ra3 Bxa3 4.Nxa3 b5 5.Bxb5 Qe7
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| Watkins Finale |
1.e3 b6 2.a4 e6 3.Ra3 Bxa3 4.Nxa3 b5 5.Bxb5 Qg5
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