Irregular openings
The irregular openings are little played openings in the game of chess .
The openings dealt with here are all closed games . The irregular openings are therefore all that do not begin with 1. e2 – e4 (open and half-open games depending on the black answer) and also not with 1. d2 – d4 ( queen pawn game ) or 1. c2 – c4 ( English opening ). Originally, this was used to refer to openings that were not recorded by name and theoretically not processed. With the increasing development of opening theory, the term experiences a corresponding narrowing.
Overview
Openings without 1. d4 ( closed games ) and 1. e4 ( open and semi- open games ), but also without 1. c4 ( English opening ), 1. f4 ( Bird opening ) and 1. Nf3 ( Réti opening ) count today ) to the irregular openings. These are classified in the ECO codes under the keys A00 and A01 ( Larsen system ).
Some of the opening names listed here are mainly used in English, in German there is (still) no standard designation. Common German terms are marked at the appropriate place by references to independent articles.
Of the 20 possible opening moves, 16 are pawn moves. Without 1. c4, 1. d4, 1. e4, 1. f4 the following 12 remain:
| Opening move | Common names |
|---|---|
| 1. a2-a3 | Anderssen opening |
| 1. A2-A4 | Goods opening |
| 1. b2-b3 | Larsen system , Larsen opening, Nimzowitsch-Larsen opening |
| 1. b2-b4 | Sokolski opening , orangutan opening, Polish opening |
| 1. c2-c3 | Zaragoza opening |
| 1. d2-d3 | Lousy opening |
| 1. e2 – e3 | Van't Kruijs opening |
| 1. f2-f3 | Barnes opening |
| 1. g2-g3 | Royal fianchetto |
| 1. g2-g4 | Gross attack |
| 1. h2 – h3 | Clemenz opening |
| 1. h2 – h4 | Desprez opening |
Out of four possible knight moves, the following three are counted among the irregular openings.
| Opening move | Common names |
|---|---|
| 1. Nb1-a3 | Durkin opening, sodium attack |
| 1. Sb1-c3 | Sleipner opening |
| 1. Ng1-h3 | Amar opening |
Pawn moves
Anderssen opening
This opening begins with 1. a2 – a3 . See Anderssen opening .
Goods opening
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1. A2-A4
At the goods opening, White starts with the first move a2 – a4. It is named after the American chess player Preston Ware (1821-1891), who often played irregular openings.
The double step of the marginal pawn is certainly one of the weakest white opening moves: the pawn on a4 has no influence on the center , does not open any trajectories for the white bishops and weakens the white queenside. For Black it can therefore be foreseen early on that White will hardly strive for long castling. In addition, this marginal pawn move gives the black the free choice in their own central game or piece structure. The natural moves 1.… d7 – d5 or 1.… e7 – e5 are good answers.
The opening of the goods does not matter in modern tournament chess.
Larsen opening
This opening begins with 1. b2 – b3 . See Larsen system .
Orangutan opening
This opening begins with 1. b2 – b4 . See Sokolski opening .
Zaragoza opening
This opening begins with 1. c2 – c3 . See Zaragoza opening .
Lousy opening
This opening begins with 1. d2 – d3 . See lousy opening .
Van't Kruijs opening
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1. e2 – e3
The Van't Kruijs opening is introduced by 1. e2 – e3 . It is named after the Amsterdam player Maarten van 't Kruijs (1813-1885), who won the sixth Dutch championship in 1878.
1. e2 – e3 is not a popular move, according to Chessbase it is the eleventh most popular of the twenty possible first moves by White. He frees the king's bishop and claims the center for himself in a moderate way, but the move is passive, also in that it leaves the black man with a free hand in the counter. The development of the queen's bishop is hindered by the pawn on e3, and White usually wants to achieve more than a cautious occupation of the center.
Although the move is not very aggressive, the game can move on to the English opening , the queen pawn game or a reversed type of French defense (with a delayed d2 – d4) or the Dutch defense (f2 – f4 with a possible stonewall construction with d2-d4 and c2-c3).
The Van't Kruijs opening is not a common choice for grandmasters , but its ability to transition into many different openings explains the attractiveness of the opening for some players like Czech grandmaster Pavel Blatný .
The Amsterdam attack is a variant of the Van't Kruijs opening, in which on 1. e2 – e3 the moves 1.… e7 – e5 2. c2 – c4 (This means that Sicilian is approaching .) D7 – d6 3. Nb1-c3 Nb8-c6 4. Follow b2-b3 Ng8-f6.
Barnes opening
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1. f2-f3
The Barnes opening or Gedult opening is introduced by 1. f2 – f3 .
Of the twenty possible first moves, 1. f2 – f3 is considered the worst. The move attacks the central square e4, but if the control of e4 is White's goal, which it should not be exclusively, 1. d2 – d3 or 1. Nb1 – c3 is to be preferred, although these moves are considered very passive become. 1. f2 – f3 does nothing for the development, in reality the move still hinders White’s development because the king's knight is deprived of the natural, centrally effective field f3. In addition, 1. f3 unnecessarily weakens the position of the king .
Since 1. f3 is a weak move, it is not played very often. Still, it might not be the rarest opening move. Some players play this move with a certain arrogance to show their opponent that anything can be played against them. After 1. f2 – f3 e7 – e5, some players even play the nonsensical move 2. Ke1 – f2 ?, this opening is sometimes called the Wanderkönig opening. It was even played at the British Chess Championships in 1999 in a game that was insignificant for the outcome of the tournament.
The refutation of 1. f2 – f3 is not as easy as one might think. Black can easily realize an advantage by occupying the center and striving for a rapid development of pieces, but it is not a matter of course to turn it into a profit.
The Barnes opening can be played as a fool , 1. f2 – f3 e7 – e5 2. g2 – g4 ?? Qd8 – h4 #. In addition to 2. h2 – h3 ?? Qd8 – h4 + 3. g2 – g3 Qh4xg3 #, however, this is the only move that enables an early checkmate and is only made possible by serious mistakes by White.
The opening is named after Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825–1874), an English chess player who beat Paul Morphy eight times , including a game in which he answered 1. e2 – e4 with 1.… f7 – f6. As a Gedult opening it was named after the French David Gedult (born May 10, 1897 in Poland; † May 20, 1981 in Paris).
Royal fianchetto
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1. g2-g3
The King's Fianchetto Opening is by train 1. g2-g3 introduced to with the aim of the King Bishop to g2 fianchettieren . Usually the opening goes into positions of the English game or the King's Indian attack . White can also build up according to the Pirc-Ufimzew defense , at an increased pace.
Gross attack
This opening begins with 1. g2 – g4 . See Gross Attack .
Clemenz opening
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1. h2 – h3
The Clemenz opening begins with move 1. h2 – h3 . It is named after the Estonian player Hermann Clemenz (1846-1908).
Like the Anderssen opening , 1. a2 – a3, 1. h2 – h3 is a time-consuming move. He doesn't claim any central fields for himself and doesn't help any figure in development. The move also means a slight weakening of the pawn structure on the kingside , although the weakening is not as severe as in 1. g2 – g4 ( Grob's attack ) or 1. f2 – f3 ( Barnes opening ). For these reasons it is arguably one of the most rarely played twenty possible first moves for White.
Black has many playable answers, the most common are 1.… d7 – d5 and 1.… e7 – e5, which occupies the center. Black, however, cannot hope for a great advantage, since with the Clemenz opening White is practically only giving away the draw advantage .
Desprez opening
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1. h2 – h4
The Desprez or Kadas opening is characterized by the first move 1. h2 – h4 . The opening is named after the French chess player Marcel Desprez and after the Hungarian chess player Gabor Kadas.
Like 1. a2 – a4, the commodity opening, 1. h2 – h4 is an unimportant pawn move that does nothing for the battle for the central squares and nothing for development. The only piece that has been released is the king's rook , which is mostly needed for short castling or is practically never developed after h3. As a result, White is almost forced to castling for a long time, giving Black the opportunity, from the first move on, to focus his game on an attack on the position of long castling. In addition, 1. h2 – h4 creates a weakening on the kingside . For these reasons 1. h2 – h4 is one of the most rarely played first twenty possible opening moves by White.
As a rule, Black answers by filling the center with 1.… e7 – e5 or 1.… d7 – d5, and 1.… Ng8 – f6 is also possible as a healthy development move. Rarely, however, is here King Bishop by 1. ... g7-g6 fianchettiert because by now possible Bauer lever is now justified h4 h5-with opening the h-file, the white opening move.
Knight moves
Durkin opening
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1. Nb1-a3
The Durkin opening, also known as the Sodium Attack, starts with the move 1. Nb1 – a3 .
This strange development of the lady's jumper does little to use the advantage of the white suit. From a3 the knight has no influence on the center and no activity. It is likely that White will soon move the knight again, perhaps to position it on c2 after 2. c4 or on c4 after swapping. If this is White's plan, then it is stronger to move 1. c4 and thus play the English opening . Seen in this way, the only point of the move can be seen in deviating from the opening theory.
The opening is named after the American chess player Robert Durkin. The name “sodium attack” is an ironic name for this opening, which is based on the English notation of move 1. Sa3. In English this move is noted 1. Na3, (N for kNight) and Na is the chemical symbol for the element sodium .
Sleipner opening
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1. Sb1-c3
The Sleipner opening - named after Sleipnir , Odin's eight-legged horse - begins with 1. Nb1 – c3 .
The knight move to c3 is a sensible development move towards the center. Although the move is playable, it is not very popular. On the one hand, the attracting player commits himself to the development of the knight before the pawn structure in the center is clarified. On the other hand, the player who follows has a free choice of opening moves such as 1.… e7 – e5, 1.… d7 – d5 or 1.… c7 – c5, so that he can shape the character of the opening significantly. Nevertheless, some players have dealt intensively with the move and tried it out many times, such as the Danish correspondence chess grandmaster Ove Ekebjærg or the Dutch correspondence chess grandmaster Dirk Daniel van Geet (born March 1, 1932).
After 1. Nb1 – c3, various transitions into other known openings are possible. After 1.… e7 – e5 2. e2 – e4 you reach the Vienna game . After 1.… d7 – d5 2. e2 – e4 various semi-open games such as the Caro-Kann Defense , the Alekhine Defense or the French Defense can arise. The answer 1.… c7 – c5 reaches the Sicilian Defense after 2. e2 – e4 .
The following variants, however, have a mostly independent character:
- 1. Nb1-c3 e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6 3. d2-d4 e5xd4 4. Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 5. Bc1-g5
- 1. Nb1 – c3 d7 – d5 2. e2 – e3 e7 – e5 3. Qd1 – h5 Nb8 – c6 4. Bf1 – b5 Qd8 – d6 5. d2 – d4 e5xd4 6. e5xd4 Ng8 – f6 7. Qh5 – e5 + Bc8 -E6 8. Bc1-f4 0-0-0 9. Bb5xc6 Qd6xc6 10. Nc3-b5 Kc8-d7
- 1. Nb1 – c3 d7 – d5 2. f2 – f4 (“Aasum system”, which can be counted as part of the Bird opening .)
- 1. Nb1 – c3 d7 – d5 2. e2 – e4 d5 – d4 !? 3. Nc3 – e2 This van Geet attack is a main path in the opening 1. Nc3. After 3.… e7 – e5 the pawn lever f2 – f4 is obvious, but in the “lizard attack” it is only prepared with d2 – d3, g2 – g3, Bf1 – g2.
- 1. Nb1 – c3 c7 – c5 2. Ng1 – f3 (also 2. d2 – d4 c5xd4 3. Qd1xd4 Nb8 – c6 4. Qd4 – h4 has already been tried out) Nb8 – c6 3. d2 – d4 c5xd4 4. Nf3xd4
Other names of the opening
In the Anglo-American language area, the opening is usually called Dunst Opening (after the New York chess master Ted A. Dunst); but there are also names such as Heinrichsen Opening , Baltic Opening , van Geet's Opening , Sleipnir Opening , Kotrč's Opening , Meštrović Opening or Queen's Knight Opening .
literature
- Harald Keilhack: The left jumper 1. Sc3, Schachverlag Kania, 2003.
Amar opening
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1. Ng1-h3
The Amar opening or the Paris opening begins with the edge jumper move 1. Ng1 – h3 ?! . The Parisian amateur Charles Amar played this opening in the 1930s. It was presumably called that by Savielly Tartakower , who used both names for this opening.
As with the Durkin opening, in this opening White develops his king jumper on an edge square, and such a development is usually not recommended. (As Siegbert Tarrasch used to say: "A jumper on the edge brings sorrow and shame."). After all, the development of the Königsspringer prepares the short castling . The most played black answer is 1. ... d7-d5, it intends to pawn structure on the kingside with second ... Lc8xh3 destroy. Therefore, on 1.… d7 – d5, White mostly plays 2. g2 – g3 to prevent this, whereupon Black can occupy the center after 2.… e7 – e5. There is a Gambit variant of this opening called the Paris Gambit . It is very doubtful, however, since according to his move order 1. Ng1 – h3 ?! d7 – d5 2. g2 – g3 e7 – e5 3. f2 – f4 ?! Black not only in the center, but after 3.… Bc8xh3 4. Bf1xh3 e5xf4 5. 0–0 f4xg3 6. h2xg3 also has a healthy extra pawn (first played in a game of Tartakower-Lilienthal, Paris 1933).
literature
- John Watson : Taming Wild Chess Openings: How to Deal with the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Over the Chess Board . New in Chess, 2015, ISBN 978-90-5691-570-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Irregular openings with theory tables including games accessed on June 19, 2019.
- ↑ David Guedult. Retrieved January 28, 2019 .