Indian defense
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| Moves | 1.d4 Nf6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ECO | A45–A79 D70–D99 E00–E99 |
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| Parent | Queen's Pawn Game | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the game of chess, Indian defence is a broad term for a group of openings characterised by the moves:
They are all to varying degrees hypermodern defences, where Black invites White to establish an imposing presence in the centre with the plan of undermining and ultimately destroying it. Although the Indian defences were championed in the 1920s by players in the hypermodern school, they were not fully accepted until Russian players showed in the late 1940s that these systems are sound for Black. Since then, the Indian defences have become a popular way for Black to respond to 1.d4 because they often offer an unbalanced game with winning chances for both sides. Transpositions are important and many variations can be reached by several move orders. It is also possible to transpose into classical openings such as the Queen's Gambit and the Slav Defence; these are not considered "Indian" openings.
The usual White second move is 2.c4, grabbing a larger share of the centre and allowing the move Nc3, to prepare for moving the e-pawn to e4 without blocking the c-pawn with the knight. Black's most popular replies are
but other moves are played as detailed below.
Instead of 2.c4, White often plays 2.Nf3. Then Black may play 2...d5 which may transpose to a Queen's Gambit after 3.c4. Or Black may play which retains possibilities of transposing to a Queen's Gambit or Queen's Indian Defence. Alternatively 2...g6 may transpose to a King's Indian Defence or Grünfeld Defence, while 2...c5 invites transposition to a Benoni. White can deny Black any of these transpositions by refraining from c2–c4 over the next several moves.
On the second move, White can also play 2.Bg5, the Trompowsky Attack. Black can respond 2...Ne4 (see ), or 2...e6 (see ), among other moves. A third alternative for White is the rarer 2.Nc3. Then Black may play 2...d5, after which 3.Bg5 is the Richter-Veresov Attack (D01, see ). Black may also play 2...g6 (see ).
The earliest known use of the term "Indian Defence" was in 1884, and the name was attributed to the opening's use by the Indian player Moheschunder Bannerjee against John Cochrane.Philip W. Sergeant describes Moheschunder as having been as of 1848 "a Brahman in the —up country, as we might say—who had never been beaten at chess!" Sergeant wrote in 1934 (substituting algebraic notation for his descriptive notation):
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