King's Fianchetto Opening
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| Moves | 1.g3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ECO | A00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The King's Fianchetto Opening or Benko Opening (also known as the Rat Opening, Hungarian Opening, or Bilek Opening) is a chess opening characterized by the move:
- 1. g3
White's 1.g3 ranks as the fifth most popular opening move, but it is far less popular than 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.Nf3. It is usually followed by 2.Bg2, fianchettoing the bishop. Nick de Firmian writes that 1.g3 "can, and usually does, transpose into almost any other opening in which White fianchettos his king's bishop". Included among these are the Catalan Opening, the King's Indian Attack and some variations of the English Opening. For this reason, the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings has no specific code devoted to 1.g3. The move itself is classified under A00, but the numerous transpositional possibilities can result in various ECO codes. Transposition by delayed fianchetto occurs in the Barcza Opening (1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 or 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3).