Openings · A04–A09

Réti Opening

1.Nf3 — a developing move that controls e5, commits to nothing, and can become almost any other opening.

1.Nf3played as White

The idea

The hypermodern idea is to let Black occupy the centre and then attack it from the side: c4 against a pawn on d5, a bishop on g2 along the long diagonal, and the d-pawn kept at home on d3 where it does not block anything.

The practical idea is move order. 1.Nf3 rules out a great deal of Black's sharpest preparation, and it can transpose into the English, the Catalan or a Queen's Gambit at the moment of White's choosing. What it cannot do is play itself.

Practise the line

You play White; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 10/1

1.Nf3

Your move. Drag a piece, or tap it and then its square.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Using it as a waiting move

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.O-O Be7 5.d3 O-O 6.Nbd2 c5

The mistake: Playing Nf3, g3, Bg2, O-O and d3 without ever deciding what the centre is for.
Why it costs: Black has spent the same moves taking the middle of the board, and the position is now a King's Indian with colours reversed in which White's extra tempo has been spent on nothing in particular. Flexible is not a plan; it is a decision that has not been made yet.
Instead: Play c4 while the pawn on d5 is still there. Hitting d5 from c4 is what makes this the Réti rather than a slow start.

Blocking the bishop you fianchettoed

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.O-O Be7 5.d4 O-O 6.c3 c5

The mistake: Playing d4 and c3, with the bishop already on g2.
Why it costs: The bishop's entire life is the long diagonal, and a pawn of your own on d4 sits on it. Black answers …c5 and …Nc6, the position locks, and the best piece of the setup spends the game looking at the back of a pawn chain.
Instead: c4 rather than c3, so the diagonal opens when the centre is traded. If a pawn on d4 is what is wanted, 1.d4 gets there without the detour.

Leaving the wedge on d4 alone

1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d4 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 e5 5.O-O Nf6 6.d3 Be7

The mistake: Meeting 2…d4 by developing round it and hoping the pawn becomes weak by itself.
Why it costs: It does not. Black follows with …e5, …Nc6 and …Bd6, and the space advantage that was supposed to be temporary becomes the whole middlegame. A pawn wedge is undermined by pawns, not admired by pieces.
Instead: b4 or e3 — hit d4 from the side or from underneath. The move can wait a couple of moves; it cannot wait ten.

Where it fits

One line out of it has a page of its own: King's Indian Attack.

Try it on one of your own

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