uses of Win32?

[Need4Sleep]

Ive been looking to get outside my normal consoles and learn some new stuff, but im confused on what win32 is used for. At the moment programming is a hobby for me, but im looking to major in computer science and hopefully grab a job programming in c++ or other languages. But in the present im just learning and making some fun little games, but does Win32 support OpenGL? Say i want to create a small 2d game that is similar to chess in a way(layout), which uses some small graphics and textures. Can i write that using Win32 and OpenGL? or should i use SFML for that?

[Stewbond]

Win32 creates your window (it creates your canvas) and OpenGL fills it. Yes these libraries work VERY well together as they both do different things.

SFML actually uses both the WIN32 libraries and OpenGL if you look in the source code and combines these into one interface.

Here's some tutorials that use Win32 to display OpenGL:
http://www.nullterminator.net/opengl32.html
http://nehe.gamedev.net/tutorial/creating_an_opengl_window_(win32)/13001/