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The Wikipedia article on the Latvian Gambit says that the name Latvian Gambit was made official by the FIDE Congress of 1937. I didn't realise that FIDE was in the business of approving names of openings, so my question is:

What other opening names have been made official by FIDE?

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2 Answers 2

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FIDE has long given up on trying to standardize opening names. In 1935 they published a booklet (in French) which attempted to do this, but it had little to no impact. The Latvian Gambit ("Gambit leton" in French) is an ancient opening that was previously known as the Greco Counter Gambit. For some reason the new name for the Latvian Gambit took hold; most of the other proposed new names did not.

Today, as always, opening names are simply a matter of tradition and convention and may vary between countries and writers. For example, in Eastern Europe the Benko Gambit is usually called the Volga Gambit.

See http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fidehistory.html#Section_7:_Attempts_by_FIDE_to_openings_ for more info.

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You're asking for a list that isn't really available and might never be complete even if it is. For what it's worth, I'm not aware of any other openings that have had their titles FIDE approved.

In general, FIDE does not deal with the names of openings - to give one simple example there is still ambiguity about whether to call 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 the Spanish Opening or the Ruy Lopez. These things are normally more a matter of convention and influenced almost entirely by the use of names in the written works about them. As a result, I believe that the approval of the name 'Latvian Gambit' was more a special recognition than a matter of actually attempting to codify opening names on any significant scale.

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