Unusual Openings by GM Magesh and GM Arun
We have studied several opening ideas in our past articles. All those plans and those tiny little nuances that we try to understand are all very important, but also important is the question of when to use them exactly and when to neglect them? The beauty of life is that no matter how rigid the rules are, there are always situations that demand we break them! Chess as we have mentioned in several of our articles, is just a mini version of life.
Today we have chosen a couple of games from the young and daring American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Both games involve Nakamura breaking some of the most basic guidelines of any opening. In chess, added to all the technical study in openings, middle game and endgame, there is one big factor that influences the outcome of a game, Psychology. Upsetting your opponent's mindset can justify different types of moves in different types of position.
You will start seeing what we are talking about when you scroll down and see the games.
Nakamura's plan definitely worked out in this game as the equally talented young Indian Grandmaster Harikrishna struggled out of the opening and got into a clearly worse middle game.
Our second game is when Nakamura decided to bring his queen out on the very second move, but this time he was not lucky with the result of the game. In my opinion though, he still managed to get a good middle game position out of the opening.
A game that got quite popular for white's opening choice. The simple fact in chess is that a very weak technical move can potentially be a great practical move. Playing a dubious attacking line against someone who does not like to be attacked can be a brilliant strategy. After all, openings are just a set of guidelines that help you get through the initial phase. The real difficulty is to know when and where to use the right psychological weapons.
