When is it bad manners to play silly openings?

[IM Jack Rudd]

The opening 1.b3 f6 2.Bb2 Kf7 has been played twice in the Coulsdon internationals. Black won both games.

[Carl Hibbard]

Against a higher rated player at the 4NCL this weekend I played 1.e4 c5 2.Qh5 followed shortly after with f4 and g4. My opponent joined in the fun and sacrificed his knight for these three pawns. My question is would it have been disrespectful to play such an opening against a weaker player and on a serious note do the readers of this forum have any more wacky openings that I can try against strong players whom I would probably lose to anyway?

Hikaru Nakamura played that against at least one GM in the past!

Not saying it's a good plan though

[John Upham]

The Board six game from 4NCL, Div 4, Round 11 between AMCA Dragons and Athenaeum went

1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 f6?!

at which point I felt a need to laugh a great deal expecting 3. Se5:! but White played 3. d4 and went on to win in any case.

John

[Nigel Wright]

What does the S stand for?

[IM Jack Rudd]

Springer - the German word for a knight.

[Tim Spanton]

When you win

[David Robertson]

Springer - German for 'jumper' (not the knitted kind); hence, one that leaps (springs); hence, knight

cf Läufer - German for 'runner'; hence, bishop

And for your amusement, read this. I'll be testing you later

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Me ... eces.htm#T

[Carl Hibbard]

The Board six game from 4NCL, Div 4, Round 11 between AMCA Dragons and Athenaeum went

1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 f6?!

at which point I felt a need to laugh a great deal expecting 3. Se5:! but White played 3. d4 and went on to win in any case.

John

I put the following game forward on this line played by very young players so please do not be critical but it is quite amusing

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6 3.Nxe5 Qe7 4.Qh5+ g6 5.Nxg6 Qxe4+ 6.Be2 Qxg6 7.Qd5 Nc6 8.Bh5 thankfully I cannot remember how the game continued from here!

PS Carl is it possible to have a chess playing board on the forum?

Yes in time it is - but at the moment I am too busy at my "real" full time job and also very close to exchanging for a house move that it might have to wait until some more free time becomes available sorry

[Carl Hibbard]

Carl

Understood - good luck with the move - I don't envy you

David

Thanks but after 13 months and now 7 (seven...) chains I am not sure luck even enters into it

[Anthony Higgs]

Two years ago I made the leap of abandoning the openings I knew to start experimenting... I have played 1.Nc3 exclusively with White this season. Whilst this doesn't sound too outlandish, and is an old favourite of correspondence players, you get some excellent attacking positions if you defer d4 for as long as possible. The Tuebingen Gambit variant (1.Nc3 Nf6 2.g4!?) is objectively unsound of course but great fun in practical play.

I have also used the Clarendon Court a bit with Black (1.d4 c5 2.d5 f5!?) and also saw it used by a Hastings player in the Mid-Sussex League Div 1. Most of my openings with Black simply don't have a name/ECO code, I just play whatever looks original.

Unusual openings should be encouraged - I got so bored with trotting out the same moves with the Sicilian etc. Now I approach the board with an open mind, get a greater variety of types of positions and am probably a more rounded player because of it.

[Stewart Reuben]

A couple of anecdotes about showing contempt for your opponent.
In 1973 in the last round of the World Junior in Teesside, the Scot had won his section at the end and played an opponent from Guernsey. The game started for white b3, d3, Kd2, Kc3, Kb2. Of course White won and the Guernsey player never really recovered, even years later.
I remonstrated with the Scot at a later event. He said nobody would notice. I took him to meet Bent Larsen, then number 3 in the world. I introduced them and explained to Bent who the Scot was, without mentioning the game. Bent was very angry and turned to the Scot saying, 'You should never do anything like that.'

In the Lloyds Bank Masters 1988 a young man had black on a low board against a rather weak girl player. It started 1 d4 d6 2 c4 Kd7 3 Nc3. The boy was away from the game for about 10 minutes. When he returned I asked him where he had been. 'In the toilet.' 'Well, I'm defaulting you.' 'Why?' 'For showing contempt for your opponent.' He accepted it, did not appeal (he might have won) and played the next round. an alternative opponent was found for the girl. It was on ly later that I found out he had had bets about starting the game this way. Had he cut me in, well I might have thought differently!

So beware of such gestures when I am the arbiter!
Stewart Reuben

[John Upham]

So beware of such gestures when I am the arbiter!
Stewart Reuben

Perhaps you could reveal the details of the famous AD Martin - IR Watson game from the British U-21, 1980? which went 1. f3 f6 2. Kf2 and Kf7 and BOTH players were defaulted?

It was reported in the New York Times.

[Stewart Reuben]

Odd, I thought it was 1977. Perhaps that is a senior moment.
Andrew and Ian had told the arbiters they did not want to be paired in an early round in the British as they were friends. The arbiters no doubt responded it was a random draw and they would have to take their chances.
The game took place in the second round. First they moved all their pieces up one and then up another file and then agreed a draw. They were then forfeited. They asked to reply the game properly, but this was not allowed. My only difference would have been I would have forfeited them much sooner. I had no idea this was mentioned in the NY Times.
It was then some years before there was another such incident. it tends to be teenagers who do such things.
Stewart Reuben

[David Robertson]

Nice examples. But 'bad manners' is how you take it. Mention of Andrew Martin prompts me to recall a final round game in the Major Open many years back. Andrew & I were paired on something like 5/9 with nothing to play for. He was bored; me, too. The game went (DR, white) 1 e4 a6; 2 d4 h6 at which point I thought for a while. Was the proverbial being ripped out of me? Possibly. Who was the stronger player? I knew the answer. And did it matter? Not really.

I recall concluding that, if formal predictable development wasn't adequate to gain advantage, then either the basic principles of chess were wrong; or I wasn't good enough to apply them.

So the game proceeded, to the effect: 3. Nf3 b5; 4. Nc3 g5 - and I lost in 20-ish. Was I bovvered? Frankly, yes! Did I feel insulted? Absolutely not

David Robertson
Atticus CC

[Nigel Wright]

Why were the players forfeited for contempt? I don't understand what the issue is...