Play the Opening like a Champion

Yes, but which one...

I caught a couple of the Devon U18s playing the English Opening in Wales recently, and I was reminded of these two stern admonitions:

"A knowledge of tactics is the foundation of positional play. This is a rule which has stood its test in chess history and one which we cannot impress forcibly enough upon the young chess player. A beginner should avoid Queen's Gambit and French Defence and play open games instead! While he may not win as many games at first, he will in the long run be amply compensated by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the game" - RICHARD RETI

and

"Again, a word of warning must be given to the inexperienced: do not attempt (these openings) until you have fully tried out, first, the open game, and then the Queen’s. These are far and away the most difficult types of opening to master. The writer has spent a considerable portion of his chess-playing life studying them intensively and is still liable to be met with shocks…" Harry GOLOMBEK in Griffiths & Golombek: Pocket Guide to the Chess Openings

And I linked these to Reti's other well-known opinion:

"We perceive after a careful consideration of the evolution of the chess mind that such evolution has gone on, in general, in a way quite similar to that in which it goes on with the individual chess player, only with the latter more rapidly." -- Richard RETI

This made me wonder if you could capture the sweep of chess history (fashion?) in the opening by looking at the ECO codes of openings featuring in World Championship matches. I grabbed all the games labelled "World Championship" in a big database and extracted the year and ECO code. Here is the resulting table:

I haven't nitpicked the data because I'm more interested in the sweep.

So, rather broadly:

  • We start firmly in the arena of the Italian Game, then move with Steinitz to the Ruy Lopez
  • At the start of the twentieth century, the Queen's Gambit dominates: first with the Orthodox Defence (22 games in 1927!), then the Slav. We also see Black avoiding 1...d5 with the Dutch Defence.
  • Post-war, We see Botvinnik avoiding 1...e5 with first the French Defence then the Caro-Kann; we see Smyslov introducing the King's Indian Defence which was also a favourite of Tal.
  • The 1960s had no clear shape; games roamed freely across the range.
  • The 1970s and 1980s saw much use of the English Opening, a return to the Orthodox Queen's Gambit, and use of the Queen's and Nimzo- Indian Defences.
  • The 1980s and 1990s featured the Sicilian Defence in quantity for the first time, a reappearance of the Grunfeld (after Smyslov's use in the 1950s), and then the King's Indian
  • The 2000s were notable for the dour solidity of the Petroff and Catalan.
  • The 2010s and 2020s also don't have a lot of shape; there is a clustering around various systems of teh Ruy Lopez again, and Carlsen's use of the Sicilian Defence

List of ECO codes (a complete list is somewhere else): 

A0	Unorthodox	1. R' 1. e4, 1. d4, 1. c4
A1	English	1. c4
A2	King's English	1. c4 e5
A3	Symmetrical English	1. c4 c5
A4	QP	1. d4
A5	Indian	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4
A6	Benoni	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6
A7	Benoni Classical	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 4. Nc3 ed5 5. cd5 d6 6. e4 g6 7. Nf3
A8	Dutch	1. d4 f5
A9	Dutch mainline	1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2
B0	Semi-Open	1. e4  
B1	Caro-Kann	1. e4 c6
B2	Sicilian	1. e4 c5
B3	Sicilian Nc6	1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6
B4	Sicilian e6	1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6
B5	Sicilian d6	1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6
B6	Sicilian Classical	1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd4 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5
B7	Sicilian Dragon	1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd4 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6
B8	Sicilian Scheveningen	1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd4 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6
B9	Sicilian Najdorf	1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd4 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6
C0	French	1. e4 e6
C1	French 3.Nc3	1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3
C2	KP	1. e4 e5 
C3	King's Gambit	1. e4 e5 2. f4
C4	KP 2.Nf3	1. e4 e5 2. Nf3
C5	Italian	1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 
C6	Ruy Lopez	1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 
C7	Ruy Lopez Morphy	1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4
C8	Ruy Lopez Open Morphy	1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 5. O-O: + 5...Ne4, 5... Be7
C9	Ruy Lopez Closed Morphy	1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d6
D0	QP	1. d4 d5 
D1	QG Slav	1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6
D2	QG Accepted	1. d4 d5 2. c4 dc4
D3	QG Orthodox	1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6
D4	QG Orthodox 4.Nf3	1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3
D5	QG Orthodox 4.Bg5	1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5
D6	QG Orthodox main line	1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7
D7	?King's Indian	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 R' d7-d5
D8	Grunfeld	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5
D9	Grunfeld 4.Nf3	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3
E0	Catalan	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3
E1	Queen's Indian	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3
E2	Nimzo-Indian	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4
E3	Nimzo-Indian Classical	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4: + 4. Bg5, 4. Qc2
E4	Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3
E5	Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein 5.Nf3	 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Nf3
E6	King's Indian	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 R' d7-d5
E7	King's Indian 4.e4	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4
E8	King's Indian Samisch	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3
E9	King's Indian Classical	1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3

List of matches/tournaments: 

Steinitz - Zukertort (1886)
Steinitz - Chigorin (1889)
Steinitz - Gunsberg (1890)
Steinitz - Chigorin Rematch (1892)
Lasker - Steinitz (1894)
Lasker - Steinitz Rematch (1896)
Lasker - Marshall (1907)
Lasker - Tarrasch (1908)
Lasker - Schlechter (1910)
Lasker - Janowski (1910)
Lasker - Capablanca (1921)
Capablanca - Alekhine (1927)
Alekhine - Bogoljubov (1929)
Alekhine - Bogoljubov Rematch (1934)
Alekhine - Euwe (1935)
Euwe - Alekhine Rematch (1937)
FIDE World Championship Tournament (1948)
Botvinnik - Bronstein (1951)
Botvinnik - Smyslov (1954)
Botvinnik - Smyslov Return Match (1957)
Botvinnik - Smyslov Rematch (1958)
Tal - Botvinnik (1960)
Tal - Botvinnik Return Match (1961)
Petrosian - Botvinnik (1963)
Petrosian - Spassky (1966)
Petrosian - Spassky Rematch (1969)
Spassky - Fischer (1972)
Fischer - Karpov (1975)
Karpov - Korchnoi (1978)
Karpov - Korchnoi Rematch (1981)
Karpov - Kasparov (1984/85)
Karpov - Kasparov (1985)
Karpov - Kasparov Rematch (1986)
Kasparov - Karpov (1987)
Kasparov - Karpov (1990)
Kasparov - Short (1993) 
Kasparov - Anand (1995)
Karpov - Anand (1998) 
Kasparov - Kramnik (2000) 
Kramnik - Leko (2004) 
Kramnik - Topalov (2006) 
FIDE World Championship Tournament (2007)
Anand - Kramnik World Championship Match (2008)
Anand - Topalov World Championship Match (2010)
Anand - Gelfand World Championship Match (2012)
Anand - Carlsen World Championship Match (2013)
Carlsen - Anand World Championship Match (2014)
Carlsen - Karjakin World Championship Match (2016)
Carlsen - Caruana World Championship Match (2018)
Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi World Championship Match (2021)
Ding - Nepomniachtchi World Championship Match (2023)

Again, not nitpicked.

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