Apostrophes in the Names of Chess Openings

[Paul McKeown]

I have now started to publish game scores to the Richmond Juniors website, using pgn files.

I include the ECO code and the names of the openings. Opening nomenclature has, however, not been standardised.

I have been trying to set a simple standard for the website, based on what a well-informed 9 to 12 year old might be expected to know. So the names of all the common openings, but only names of variations where they are well-established and particularly important, and no sub-variations. Also keen to avoid faddish, jokey, internet in-crowd or Schilleresque ("utter crap" - Tony Miles) naming, so only opening names used by the broader offline chess community.

Also British English spellings, rather than American English spellings. So, "defence" rather than "defense."

What about apostrophes? Should opening names include them?

For example:

• Bird's Opening - or the Bird Opening?
• Alekhine's Defence - or the Alekhine Defence?
• King's Gambit - or the Kings Gambit?
• Bishops's Gambit
• Four Knight's Opening
• Two Knight's Defence

What about the Larsen Opening? Is that Larsen's Opening? (Or is it the Larsen-Nimzovitsch Opening?)

The Pirc Defence? Or Pirc's Defence? Or Pirc' Defence?

What is good usage? What is unnecessary grammatical nitpicking?

On a related note, Spanish Opening or Ruy Lopez?

Accents? Göring Gambit (or indeed Göring's Gambit), or Goring Gambit, or Goering Gambit?

If accents, which ones? Acutes, graves, diaresis, umlaut, cedilla? So French and German? There are a large number of other extended Latin alphabets, where does one draw the line?

Which transcriptions from non-Latin alphabets should one use? Is it Kortchnoi or Korchnoi?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I would say include the apostrophes, but better overall to stick to a standard listing (not using opening names at all and just codes may be a step too far) and get juniors familiar with the ECO codes and the possibilities of transpositions. So many chess players fall for tricks where they think they are playing one opening and suddenly find themselves in a different one.

[Paul McKeown]

stick to a standard listing

What do you mean by a standard listing?

get juniors familiar with the ECO codes

Only the most advanced ones, who genuinely need to delve deeper, surely?

transpositions

I think there is a fair agreement on what openings are and what are transpositions into them. So 1. e4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 is a Four Knight's Opening, not an Alekhine's Defence, nor a Vienna Opening.

[Roger de Coverly]

I think there is a fair agreement on what openings are and what are transpositions into them. So 1. e4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 is a Four Knight's Opening, not an Alekhine's Defence, nor a Vienna Opening.

I would have thought it should be Knights' Opening as there are four of them. Similarly when there are three or even two as a defence. The Bishop's opening only has the one bishop by contrast.

[John Moore]

Surely the Four Knights Opening. No apostrophe necessary.

[Ian Thompson]

On a related note, Spanish Opening or Ruy Lopez?

Ruy Lopez, as I think that is the more commonly used name in this country.

Which transcriptions from non-Latin alphabets should one use? Is it Kortchnoi or Korchnoi?

There's no right or wrong answer to this. I'd go with FIDE's transliteration, which was Korchnoi in the rating list.

[Roger de Coverly]

Surely the Four Knights Opening. No apostrophe necessary.

It sounds good in German

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vierspringerspiel
similarly
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreispringerspiel

But simple to leave all apostrophes out entirely.

wiki does
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Knights_Game

[IM Jack Rudd]

There's at least one opening where knowing ASCII codes comes in handy. (Specifically: ALT-0252 helps me spell Grünfeld.)

[Paul McKeown]

There's at least one opening where knowing ASCII codes comes in handy. (Specifically: ALT-0252 helps me spell Grünfeld.)

Although some people dodge this with "Gruenfeld" or, grotesquely, "Grunfeld".

[Geoff Chandler]

What about apostrophes? Should opening names include them?

Hi Paul,

I'd go with what they have here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_openings.

[Joey Stewart]

I always think the less apostrophes the better, when you see how badly used they are in general these days it's a much better idea to not use them at all when the option is available and spare us all the horror of misplaced apostrophe's.

[Chris Goodall]

The van 't Kruys opening needs its apostrophe

My football club Queens Park Rangers shed its apostrophe by design in the late 70s. As did Earls Court Centre, whereas Barons Court Theatre never had one, being named after multiple barons. Queen's Park FC holds firm.