Reti

In the 1920s the then so-called “hyper-moderns” broke away from the dogma that at the start of the game the centre absolutely had to be occupied with pawns. Instead of playing 1.e4 or 1.d4 they opened with 1.Nf3 and left it up to Black to follow up in the classical pattern with 1...d5. This results in the starting position of the system of Richard Réti (1889–1929), who from 1923 on played in this way with great success against the strongest of opposition. In the Réti System White holds back his central pawns for some time; instead he increases his central influence by playing the fianchetto g3, Bg2 and plans to attack the black d-pawn with c2-c4 – either on the second move or later.