Closed Game

Closed Game (or Double Queen's Pawn Opening or Close Opening) is a generic term for a family of chess openings beginning with the moves: 1. d4 d5 Other responses to 1.d4 are termed Semi-Closed Games. The most frequent of the Closed Games is the Queen's Gambit, beginning 2.c4. Other examples include the London System and Colle System, which are classified as opening systems, where White avoids the pawn tension resulting from c2–c4. Such systems tend to be highly variable in move order and less forcing than 2.c4 and 1.e4, though Black can choose to introduce tension. When written in lowercase, the term closed game refers to a chess position where ranks, files, and diagonals are closed, and tending to lead to more strategic gameplay, with less emphasis on tactics. This relates to the closed nature of the resulting positions where White declines to offer any pawn exchanges. The Closed Games lead to such positions more often than the Open Games (1.e4 e5) and Semi-Open Games (1.e4 without 1...e5), but this is not always the case. 1...d5 is Black's traditional response to 1.d4, and 1.d4 d5 achieved widespread popularity by the early 20th century as players with White began to try first moves other than 1.e4 more often. It remains the second most popular response to 1.d4; moreover, though 1...Nf6 (the Indian Defence, a Semi-Closed Game) is now more common, it frequently ends up transposing to the Queen's Gambit or another Closed Game. Many authors do not use the term Semi-Closed Game and instead do not distinguish them from the Closed Games.