The Santa Claus Opening

SkyNakamaJ brings up a very interesting variation on post #170

The idea which SkyNakamaJ is thinking of is playing 2.Nf3 than after a 3.b3 later on.

In fact, If I remember correctly this same idea was recommended by Hsong1.

I remember Hsong1 was trying to do a similar idea by switching the move orders around.

Their are several issues which come from the move 2.Nf3 vs 2.b3.

The move 2.Nf3 right away does limit some of blacks lines.

However, it does cause brothersome issues for white.

• In some of our analysis people did on this thread we determinded it was good for white to be able to play the pawn push f2 to f4 against some of blacks responses.

• The move 2.Nf3 would block the mobility of the F pawn. Obviously we can't play f2 to f4 if we have a knight on f3 in the way.

Furthermore, the move 2.Nf3 does not force black to play 2...Nc6.

In lower level chess black players often play the move 2...d6

The move 2...d6 is the Philidor Defense.

In higher level chess black players have played 2...Nf6 

The move 2...Nf6 is the Petroff Defense.

If white plays the move 2.Nf3 and black continues with d6 or Nf6 it would no longer be in white's best interest to continue with 3.b3 any more.

You can see how playing 2.Nf3 limits black responses to only a couple against us.

However, it also limits our chances of playing the Santa Claus Opening.

Obviously if I played 2.Nf3 and my opponent played 2...d6 I would respond with 3.d4 which is the main line way of playing that position.

You can see how there is a give and take here.

We give black limited responses.

Black takes away our chance of playing b3 in some of those responses.

On the flip side

By playing 2.b3

You can see how there is a give and take here as well.

We give black more line responses.

Black can no longer take away our chance of playing b3.

This same thing happens in lines such as the Stone Wall Attack, Kings Indian Attack, London System, and Colle

You give the black piece more line options lol.

"Some cynical white side players often say by playing this way you give the black pieces more options than they deserve HA HA"

However, you are doing it for a reason lol.

You are doing it so you can get a cozzy/comfortable position which you might know better than your opponent.

This line is not the best of lines.

However, it is not that bad either.

Well of course black can counter attack e4.

We know black can attack e4 which is why we are discussing it in this forum.

Grinch Defense

Yeah lets talk about the Mainlines in the Grinch Defense.

I think this line might be one of the toughest lines to face against.

The move 2...Nf6 hits the undefended e4 pawn.

The move which I like to play is the move 3.Nc3

Bascially you develop the knight to c3 and defend the e4 pawn.

Everything to me seems perfectly fine.

At this point I think black has 2 main responses in the Grinch Defense.

3...Bc5 or 3...Bb4

Now the question you might ask is can black play other moves here?

The answer is yes black can play other moves here.

However, the "other moves" are not as demanding as these 2 specific moves!

Why are these 2 moves more demanding?

To understand the answer of the above question. You have to look at the position another way!

I want you to take a look at this position from a different prespective.

The prespective I am going to give you is of the white side.

What is white doing here in this illustration?

The move 2.Nf3 is hitting e5 which is undefended.

Black played 2...Nc6 to defend e5.

After which white can play 3.Bb5 or 3.Bc4

The move 3.Bb5 attacks the knight on c6 which is defending e5.

The move 3.Bb5 is indirectly attacking the center e5 pawn.

On the other hand

The move 3.Bc4 is attacking the center d5 square.

More Importantly, the move 3.Bc4 is attacking the weak f7 square.

Both of these lines The Spanish Game and Italian Game are very very popular lines.

Now compare this to what black is doing in the Grinch Defense.

Do you see it?

The move 2...Nf6 is hitting e4 which is undefended.

White plays 3.Nf3 to defend e4.

After which black can play 3...Bb4 or 3...Bc5

The move 3...Bb4 attacks the knight on c3 which is defending e4.

The move 3...Bb4 is indirectly attacking the center e4 pawn.

On the other hand

The move 3...Bc5 is attacking the center d4 square.

More Importantly, the move 3.Bc5 is attacking the weak f2 square.

Do you see why white might have some issues vs this line?

Black is playing very similar to the Ruy Lopez and Italian Game.

Now I showed you some of these similarities so that you can see how some of the ideas can be adopted from position's in the Ruy Lopez and Italian Game to the Santa Claus Opening.

Now I will show you some differences.

One major difference is in this line as white we have played the pawn push b3!

What is the mainline move black plays in the Ruy Lopez? Does anyone know?

Hopefully you have guessed it!

After white plays 3.Bb5 black has often played 3...a6 as the mainline move!

They play the move 3...a6 to put a question to the bishop.

Now I tryed to do this same idea in the Santa Claus Opening.

I am working on the move a3.

However, I wonder if the move b3 will cause a huge problem here or not.

My engine really does like taking Bxc3 after a3.

However, It is very tough to see if an advantage is actually happening or not.

Grinch Defense

We def need to discuss Bb2 in reply to the Grinch.

@finn416

In your diagram at move #192 black can not take the e4 pawn.

Yeah this same tactic happens in the Ruy Lopez.

Maybe next we should try a Jack Frost variation :)

I just thought what if there is queen's pawn game, and it is called Mrs. Claus variation

WOW

I wrote a long post and everything I said got deleted.

Gosh, They should have a save button on chess.com.

Well I will try to say some of what I said again.

However, it will be shorter sadly.

Yeah I was going to say at move 4.

White can play all the below moves:

All of those moves seem playable for white at move 4 against 3...Bb4.

I showed the interseting move 4.a3 in one example with Fin.

However, I do like the move 4.Bb2 for white as well.

A engine thinks this position is =/+ 0.56 at depth 26.

It thinks black is slightly better.

Which I think is a very normal evaluation for a hyper-modern position like this.

Black's goal in this position is to try and get 2 center pawns on d5 + e5.

The Santa Claus Opening 2.b3 is a hyper modern line which does allow black the chance to try and get 2 center pawns.

A engine will always side with black of course.

It places a lot of value in center pawns + space.

However, I like white's chances here to be honest.

click Join Group. It is a private group, I think, but no matter, you do not need to type in some fancy convincing script, don't bother. I almost never check my messages, so it is pointless. I check my alerts a lot tho so I will allow access for you to join.

Sure. Then we can build it up like this one.

Yeah Finn created a wonderful group page.

https://www.chess.com/groups/home/santa-claus-opening-team

Yeah I think it is open to anyone I believe.

We talk about the Santa Claus Opening in the group page and we talk about it on this forum as well.

We like to go over idea's on both.

It is pretty cool for sure.

Here is a screen shot of the number of games I have played so far with the Santa Claus Opening.

It will show my stats.

I have not checked out each opponent ranking.

However, it shows the total as of yet.

I have played it 9 times

Seems like I have won 6 or so times and lost 3.

Wow, I just made an enormous comment to LeBellman explaining how to create a  game on chess.com. Short answer: ask the legend X PLAYER himself. He has a forum on it.

Come check out an intense online game I'm playing using this opening: https://www.chess.com/daily/game/126653606

and https://www.chess.com/daily/game/125497962

Why such little activity?