The Romantic school
Attack first.
In the 1800s, chess was a game of attack. Players gave up pawns and pieces early to open lines to the enemy king, and a game was judged by its beauty as much as by its result.
Adolf Anderssen's Immortal Game, played in London in 1851, is the school's banner. Paul Morphy added the missing piece a few years later: bring every piece out first, then attack, and the attack works.
Nona Gaprindashvili of Georgia, the first woman to earn the grandmaster title, carried the same appetite into the modern game.
Openings that suit it
- King's Gambit: White gives up a pawn on move two to open the f file toward Black's king. Anderssen opened the Immortal Game this way.
- Evans Gambit: White gives up a pawn to gain time and open the center. Anderssen played it in the Evergreen Game.
- Italian Game: Quick development and a bishop aimed at the weakest square near Black's king.