ECO stands for Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. They are codes identifying chess opening,
each consisting of a letter from A to E, followed by two digits. For example -
C33 represents the King's Gambit Accepted.
There are five hundred distinct ECO codes.
To see a game's ECO code, select
Game-> Identify Opening
and examine the Game Information window.
Scid Extensions to ECO
The ECO system is however fairly limited, and insufficient for modern games.
Some codes are never used, while others are overly frequent.
To improve this, Scid allows an optional
extension to the basic ECO codes. Codes may be extended with a
letter from a to z, with a further extension - a digit from 1 to 4 - being
possible but not yet used.
So an extended code may look like A41e or E99b2.
Many of the codes common in modern master-level games have
extensions defined in the Scid ECO file.
Scid's
ECO Browser shows information
about ECO codes and their frequency and performance for ECO classified games in the current database.
The upper pane shows a bar graph with three sections (representing White wins, draws and Black wins),
and illustrates at a glance an openings characteristics - whether
draws are common or White or Black is winning.
To go to a deeper ECO level click on a bar in the graph. To go higher press the button.
You can also browse ECO codes and Opening names by typing them into the bottom entry box and pressing 'Enter'.
The bottom pane shows the positions for a particular ECO code according to the ECO file loaded.
Note - Games not ECO classified will not contribute to the statistics graph. To ECO classify games, go to the Maintenance Window
Loading an ECO File
Scid will attempt to load the default scid.eco at start up.
If it cannot, or you wish to use another file, one may be loaded manually via the
Load ECO File feature,
after which this will be loaded automatically.
button.
You can also browse ECO codes and Opening names by typing them into the bottom entry box and pressing 'Enter'.