Unorthodox chess openings

Hi,

Lately I have been reading about these unorthodox chess openings and well, I have found out that there are hundreds and hundreds of them… I was wondering if any player here who uses or has used these unorthodox openings has any recommendations on which one I could try out?

Thank you very much

It depends ofcourse on what unorthodox openings you are talking about.

But some explorers striving for creativity and unorthodox positions could be mentioned.

Tartakower
Nimzowitsch

Larsen

Ivanchuk

All these players mainly do play the mainlines though, but they have all pulled quite a few opening surprises on their opponents.

I suppose I’m not really looking for any specific style of unorthodox openings, rather I’m looking for the unorthodox openings (all inclusive) that people have been playing around with and have had success with.

Though thank you for the list of people who have used these methods of play, I will defenetly be checking them out!

I will occasionally playsomething that's very sharp, and very unorthodox in a bullet game.   The general idea being to force my opponent to waste precious seconds analyzing a position he's never seen before.   Even if the position favors him, the extra time he has to spend analyzing while I'm still in book is a pretty significant advantage in 1-2 minute long games :).

As white I like the Polish (1 b4) if I want to take an opponent out of book immediately, although I will occasionally use the Danish for the same purpose (the Danish is actually a far stronger opening, but the refutation is more widely known).    As Black I like the Englund gambit against queen pawn (1... e5) while the Latvian Gambit serves the same role against king pawn (1... e5, 2 Nf3, f5?!).

I would generally steer away from this sort of thing if you're playing anything slower than game 5.  For serious play I don't know how unorthodox you want, but both the Dutch and the Alekhine defense are not seen all that frequently, but offer black chances with aggressive play.  If you want something for white, your best bet is probably to reverse the colours of an Indian defense system, although that's a fairly passive approach, so I'd only reccomend it if you're either playing an overly aggressive black player who will attack into a strong defense even when he's a tempo down, or when you're looking specifically for a draw.

Thank you very much for your quick response, in regards to how orthodox I am thinking of in serious play situations - I was hoping to have at least a few good openings that would completely throw them out of book and be very unorthodox yet still rather strong?

In rapid games as black, i like to play the Petrov (1.e4 1...e5 2.Nf3 2...Nf6) and if 3. Nxe5, I like to play 3...Qe7.  This usually throws the opponent off guard. If 4.Nf3, then 4...Qxe4 and I usually end up castling queenside... I've found this opening gives me a solid start to the middlegame.

Check out this group:

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/unorthodox-openings

Vote chess is a great way to get into this stuff

For "unorthodox" stuff as white I usually will run a real Reti, not some crap transposing into a Catalan, but really do the whole shebang with c4 and b3 and a double fianchetto.  Or you can bust out Bird's 1. f4.

Thank you very much for the link to the group, I hadn't realized there was a group for the unorthodox openings!!!

Thank you very much for the input of everyone else as well - definitely I will be checking them all out!!

Birds 1.f4 is the unorthodox opening of choice if your looking for something "solid", but it does have SOME theory so don't just expect to be out of book from move 1.

I've been experimenting with the Grob (1. g4) lately, and while I haven't had all together much success (yet ;D) with it, it is incredibly fun to play. It leads to wide open positions, fast games and strong attacks for both sides. Really leads in to some sharp, entertaining games. In fact my middlegames with it usually last all of 6 moves..the whole thing is exchange after exchange until it's minor+rook left for both sides. Haha, really and truly fun.

I have had success with the Saragossa opening, 1. c3. I use this to take superior players out of their book. I beat Jude Acers, the well-known chess master, with this opening in a game with a $10 bet on it. I also drew another master, Neal Harris, in a club tournament game with it.

After almost any black reply, I follow up with 2. d3, following the advice given in the book "Baroque Chess Openings," which is a good source for unusual openings.

I normally try out the Bird opening: Dutch variation to throw people off a bit and I've played it alot to get the hang of it. Of course I know that its possible to get the fools mate but thats only if you don't study it a bit properly

Hi!

I tried in speed chess as White 1.b3, 1.Nc3 and even 1. c3, all with good enough results. I definitively included in my repertoire 1. b3, and wrote a post on my expereience with it, see link: Opening Repertoire: The Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack - Chess.com

Good luck!