Irregular chess opening

Irregular openings are chess openings with an unusual or rare first moves from White. Such openings include:

• 1.a3 (Anderssen's Opening)
• 1.a4 (Ware Opening)
• 1.b4 (Sokolsky Opening, also known as Polish or Orangutan Opening)
• 1.c3 (Saragossa Opening)
• 1.d3 (Mieses Opening)
• 1.e3 (Van 't Kruijs Opening)
• 1.f3 (Barnes Opening, also known as Gedult's Opening)
• 1.g4 (Grob's Attack)
• 1.h3 (Clemenz Opening, or Basman's Attack)
• 1.h4 (Desprez Opening, or Kadas Opening)
• 1.Na3 (Durkin Opening, also known as Durkin's Attack or the Sodium Attack)
• 1.Nc3 (Dunst Opening)
• 1.Nh3 (Amar Opening, also known as Paris Opening)

The above openings are all categorized under the ECO code A00. Openings that are not "irregular" comprise:

• 1.e4 (King's Pawn Game)
• 1.d4 (Queen's Pawn Game)
• 1.c4 (English Opening)
• 1.Nf3 (Réti Opening or Zukertort Opening)
• 1.f4 (Bird's Opening)
• 1.g3 (Benko's Opening) and
• 1.b3 (Larsen's Opening).

If White plays a regular opening and Black responds in an unconventional way, the opening is not categorized A00. For instance, 1.e4 a6 is classified as B00 (King's Pawn Opening).

See also

• Open Game (1.e4 e5)
• Semi-Open Game (1.e4 other)
• Closed Game (1.d4 d5)
• Semi-Closed Game (1.d4 other)
• Flank opening (1.c4, 1.Nf3, 1.f4, and others)
• List of chess openings
• Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

References

Because these openings are not popular with chess players, the standard opening references (see chess opening and Chess theory#Opening theory) do not cover them in detail.

• Schiller, Eric (2003). Unorthodox Chess Openings. Cardoza. ISBN 1-58042-072-9. 
• Tamburro, Pete (August 2009). "A Brief Chess Opening Glossary". Chess Life for Kids: 8–9. 

External links

• Unusual Openings
• Chess Archaeology: Openings classified under ECO A00