What is this chess opening called?

2 Comments

1. Poopoohead says:

   May 29, 2010 at 5:18 am

   The opening doesn’t have a name unless you specify what Black is doing. I’ve never seen an opening where those were White’s first 3 moves. Number 3 is especially pointless.

   At least a move order like

   1.Nf3
   2.g3
   3.Bg2
   4.0-0

   can be played against almost anything. It’s a King’s Indian Attack. You don’t need c3 and you certainly don’t need h3.
2. MDG says:

   May 29, 2010 at 5:18 am

   This opening could not serve you well once you start facing stronger players. Confidence is important, but it should be based in an objective reality. True, through practice you may gain familiarity with the types of positions arising from this opening, and that would be a source of real confidence, but the positions you would find against stronger players would take decidedly different turns.

   Essentially, this opening is dismissing the cornerstone opening principles of center-control, piece development, and king safety, so it’s already showing a confidence bordering on hubris.

   The first move 1 c3 does indeed take away that square for the Queen’s knight, but otherwise it might not be too bad if the intent is to maintain a strong center after d4 — aiming for a sort of reverse Caro-Kann Defence, though typically you’d probably end up in more of a queen’s pawn game where your freeing move c4 will come at a loss of tempo. This is Saragossa’s opening, and as White you already have the advantage of the first move so you can get away with just about anything. It’s worth keeping in mind that often a single tempo (that is, wasted move) can be disastrous in an open game (king pawn’s out), so these first three moves of yours pretty much force the course into a closed game; how much space are you going to let Black have, though, before you stake out your claim on the center?

   The second move 2 g3 with the idea of Bg2 and Nf3 is in pattern the King’s Indian Attack, which generally includes O-O, d3, Nbd2, and the push e4 with an aggressive game. It’s hard to see what c3 is buying you in that arrangement, but perhaps it’s not so bad.

   The move that I am most worried about is 3 h3, which does more than just waste time: it weakens your kingside. I can see a possible psychological strategy in presenting such moves to your opponent in the hopes that he will over-press trying to punish you — and maybe it’s a strategy that can be effective at times — but objectively a good opening must consist of good moves. Where h3 is asking to get checkmated on the kingside, the logical continuation might be to castle queenside with a kingside assault, but in that case g3 and h3 are rather wasted moves (since you would need to move them again) and the king’s bishop is misplaced. It’s a move that’s far too committal: you don’t even know yet where your opponent is castling. I presume that you’re playing 3 h3 so that you can push your king’s pawn without facing a pin at g4 on your knight; most often in such cases, the cure is worst than the disease.

   So, the bottom line is if you’re going offbeat just for the sake of offbeat, then the first two moves are OK but you should probably reconsider the third. You might also just look into the King’s Indian Attack.