Answers.Body: <p>This table can be thought of as a tabular representation of an opening tree of in-theory moves where the rows (y-axis) represent the flow of the game and the columns (x-axis) refer to variations/branches in the tree that can occur.</p>
  <p>The author in your quote indicated that 2...exf4 spans a family 24 variations/sub-variations that are noteworthy (and considered theory) for reference.</p>
  <p>Here's an example for another such page on these NCO/MCO opening references.</p>
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/1uzzF.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/1uzzF.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
  <p>If this is confusing,  let's consider a simpler example with the first few moves (with some early deviations) from the popular <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Gambit" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Danish Gambit.</a></p>
  <p>Here's what a fragment of the opening tree would look like.</p>
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/91wPr.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/91wPr.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
  <p>If I wanted to represent/transform this tree into a table, it would look like this.</p>
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/40spb.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/40spb.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-05-13T15:06:42.987Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-05-14T14:19:50.433Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2021-05-14T14:19:50.433Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: shivsky
Body: <p>I was reading <em>Modern Chess Openings</em> by Nick de Firmian, and found &quot;columns 1-24 deals with 2...exf4 &quot; in relation to a theory table. So what does &quot;columns 1-24&quot; mean?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-05-13T12:15:21.353Z
Comments.Text: The columns in tables found in the book. See for example the table on p155 (fifteenth edition).
Comments.UserDisplayName: L. Scott Johnson
Tags: <opening><theory><terminology>
Title: What does columns 1-24 mean?
ThreadText: # What does columns 1-24 mean?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2021-05-13)
  
  I was reading *Modern Chess Openings* by Nick de Firmian, and found "columns 1-24 deals with 2...exf4 " in relation to a theory table. So what does "columns 1-24" mean?
  
  **Tags:** opening, theory, terminology
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: The columns in tables found in the book. See for example the table on p155 (fifteenth edition).  
  
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  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2021-05-13. Score: 11
  
  This table can be thought of as a tabular representation of an opening tree of in-theory moves where the rows (y-axis) represent the flow of the game and the columns (x-axis) refer to variations/branches in the tree that can occur.
  
  The author in your quote indicated that 2...exf4 spans a family 24 variations/sub-variations that are noteworthy (and considered theory) for reference.
  
  Here's an example for another such page on these NCO/MCO opening references.
  
  [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/1uzzF.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/1uzzF.png)
  
  If this is confusing, let's consider a simpler example with the first few moves (with some early deviations) from the popular [Danish Gambit.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Gambit)
  
  Here's what a fragment of the opening tree would look like.
  
  [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/91wPr.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/91wPr.png)
  
  If I wanted to represent/transform this tree into a table, it would look like this.
  
  [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/40spb.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/40spb.png)
  
  
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