Réti Opening
Move Sequence
♞f3— Hypermodern opening: White skips central pawns first and develops pieces.d5— Black occupies the center classically.c4— Réti's point: flanks d5 without creating central weaknesses.
The Réti Opening begins with 1.♞f3 — White develops the knight and attacks the centre with pieces, without moving a pawn in the first move. The opening is named after Austrian-Czech grandmaster Richard Réti, who developed it in the early 1920s and thereby created one of the important hypermodern openings. Réti was, alongside Nimzowitsch, the most important theoretician of hypermodernism.
A typical continuation is 1...d5 2.c4 d4 3.g3 (Réti Fianchetto) or 1...d5 2.c4 (transposing into the Queen's Gambit).
Strategy
The central theme of the Réti Opening is extreme flexibility: White makes almost no commitments in the first moves and can transpose into the Queen's Gambit, the Catalan, the English or purely Réti-specific systems depending on Black's answer. The fianchettoed bishop on g2 controls the long diagonal. White uses transpositions as a weapon, thereby avoiding the main theory of the big systems.
Typical Continuation
In the classic Réti Fianchetto after 1...d5 2.g3 ♞f6 3.♝g2 e6 4.O-O ♝e7 5.c4 both sides develop solidly. White plans d2-d4 only after completing piece development. With 1...d5 2.c4 the game often transposes into a Queen's Gambit. The Réti is particularly popular at a high level because it can neutralise the opponent's deep theoretical knowledge.
Suitable for: Flexible / experienced — for players who want to exploit transpositions and avoid extensive theory.