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why do you play the bongcloud opening? What’s the benefit?

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spideypowers
Why would people play the bongcloud, it’s useless. It’s just getting your king exposed. And also a major thing is to castle! I don’t get why people play this opening unless they don’t want to get better. It’s a waste of time for both the players. Please point out why to we have to play THIS opening of all the other ones. Why is it created as an opening? Couldn’t they just counter it as a blunder? Please help.
spideypowers
You can only win if your opponent makes a ton of blunders.
spideypowers
I am confused
spideypowers
And confident that it should have not been there
MisterWindUpBird

Amusement value. It came into being based on the pre-medieval combat related fantasy of the king leading the army from the front in a heroic manner... consider the implication intrinsic to the opening's name (It's literally a pipedream.) The supposed theory is that you 'should' be able to make it playable (in it's original variation where you keep pushing the kingside pawns to support it, and if you trade everything off your king is well positioned for the endgame. That's all according to the once popular, if deceptively named 'Winning with the Bongcloud,' book you'd often see on coffee tables around the time Kasparov started losing games to computers, and everyone thought 'Oh well, chess is dead, how can we keep it amusing?' Interestingly, you can win the odd game with it. People look at it, feel over-confident, and seem to lose their mind. It's a kind of interesting exercise to try to support that exposed position, and heaps of fun to pull off a win. wp.pngwk.pngwp.png

icfwyll

it’s just for fun lol 

LM_player
As others have stated, some find it entertaining to throw their king into the midst of danger for the heck of it, even though it is clearly a terrible strategy.

One could argue that there is also a little bit of psychology to it. If you play something that’s so obviously bad, your opponent may become overconfident and attempt a premature attack, creating weaknesses, and allowing the user some counter play. But if the opponent knows what to do and plays accurately, the plan backfires and wreckage ensues.

It could also be taken as a form of mockery, (as in “haha! I can play like garbage and still beat you! lolololol xdddd” etc.) which may be distracting and affect the opponent’s ability to play accurately.

But besides that, it’s just a bad move with a silly name.
tygxc

@1
This is the good way:
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1228244 
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1255422 

Nesath_the_sheep

Hikaru Nakamuru Got his rating to 3000 by playing the bongcloud opening 

LochaSog

Nesath _the_sheep, it’s not because of that that it’s a good opening! (It’s actually garbage)

Nesath_the_sheep

Ik

Uhohspaghettio1

Intentionally disadvantaging yourself is generally bad sportsmanship though. It'll also mess up ratings. In association football "showboating" is a similar kind of thing where you aren't playing football the best way, you are more showing off and taunting or humiliating the opponent. It's punished immediately and rarely seen. So it's kind of bad. But I'm up for trying to expose the bad play, though I don't think it's quite right. For Nakamura/Carlsen things are a bit different since they face a lack of competition all the time, if they don't give some kind of odds it'll be too easy.

bpappas95

I play bongcould especially in bullet for a multitude of reasons as black & white:

As white;

  • When combined with Birds opening (1. F4 . ... 2. Kf2) you get your King to a position that has 8 viable positions to move offensively, protectively, defensively, or evasively.
  • This strategy is to use the kings Indian attack pawn chain, to close the center down & point the pawn chain at the opponents castle. This is amplified by the king not needing a castle, using evasion & foxhole tunnels to escape danger. This chain is supported by the advancing king & focuses on closing files leaving single small entrances that funnel the attack towards their king or weakness. 
  • This strategy uses back rank for rook coordination & will as you evenly expand the chain outwards use the 2nd rank. 
  • This is designed to allow the whole mass to move by shutting down the board, slowing down tactics & continue focusing on removing good moves from their board while slowly owning territory. 
  • A king is worth 6 points power wise in hand but can be as powerful as a queen in closed game positions.
  • A queen can be reduced in power dramatically the same way. Therefore making any neutral or negative space possible closed game creates limiters & power boost zones for the king. 
  • The kings secret power is its ability to be amified dramatically by surrounding pieces (good & bad) while continually being the focal. 
  • To create protected pockets that are fortresses for the king & pieces to pass through as you expand your camp & fortify the outer structure, until the structures funnels are owned like the Spartans of Thermopoly.
  • By this point most spirits are broke, you're 20 to 30 moves in & they haven't taken anything because you've focused expansion, evasion & suppression.
  • They often become desperate as you aim discoordinate their pieces by trapping a flank.
  • This strategy focuses on freezing opponents with pins, mutual pawn wall chains. Creating containers; multiple squares that are void of escape due to the pawn chains or rudimentarily for visual a supported rook with a king in any quadrants in a similar container.
  • The endgame of this strategy focuses on smother the opposition with a combination of its own pieces, the king that's matured to the otherside of the board with a pawnchain & minor piece backup, while the queen, minor pieces & rooks come either inside our camp on a file or work their way around a campaign through the kingless wing dispersing offensive & creating coffin where if they want a chance to mate, they will have to continue to surround their king with their offense, defense, & if fighting traditionally, have their king in on the wall near a corner already.
  • It's weaknesses are reliance on structure, requires deep understanding of piece safety & ability to defend through evasion. So it requires a high level tactical prowess to use effectively. 
  • Pros: flexibility, maneuverability, unique & hard to plan against. Intimidating &,seductive. Likely to draw your opponent into a bad attack. 
  • The king when combined with the Hippo as black, in the world championship style. Solid 3rd word (black its 6th rank) pawn wall, fianchettoed bishops, Pirc small center knights, the queen side knight drops behind your king that's sitting on f5, symmetrically across you have queen on C5.

Another combinations that run incredibly with it is the Danish Gambit/Carro Cann sacrificing pawn structure on the queen side for early development. The hippo & Kings indian attack bongclouds will teach you how to maneuver the king with a full board of pieces kept til end game (where things become hyper sacrificial in attempt to break open the clam or smother it)

The Danish bongcloud hybrid teaches how to fight with an exposed king & how to wrap your king in an offensive blanket of smoke.

Overall it can be used as training, but I feel its onto pushing chess to its limits & that at the heights of chess, we will see there be no reason for non forward king movement, it's too critical of a wasted tempe by endgame at the absolute heights

spideypowers

looking back at his post after 2 years...

Legendary22551
Lo
Legendary22551
lol
superkid2021
bpappas95 wrote:

I play bongcould especially in bullet for a multitude of reasons as black & white:

As white;

  • When combined with Birds opening (1. F4 . ... 2. Kf2) you get your King to a position that has 8 viable positions to move offensively, protectively, defensively, or evasively.
  • This strategy is to use the kings Indian attack pawn chain, to close the center down & point the pawn chain at the opponents castle. This is amplified by the king not needing a castle, using evasion & foxhole tunnels to escape danger. This chain is supported by the advancing king & focuses on closing files leaving single small entrances that funnel the attack towards their king or weakness. 
  • This strategy uses back rank for rook coordination & will as you evenly expand the chain outwards use the 2nd rank. 
  • This is designed to allow the whole mass to move by shutting down the board, slowing down tactics & continue focusing on removing good moves from their board while slowly owning territory. 
  • A king is worth 6 points power wise in hand but can be as powerful as a queen in closed game positions.
  • A queen can be reduced in power dramatically the same way. Therefore making any neutral or negative space possible closed game creates limiters & power boost zones for the king. 
  • The kings secret power is its ability to be amified dramatically by surrounding pieces (good & bad) while continually being the focal. 
  • To create protected pockets that are fortresses for the king & pieces to pass through as you expand your camp & fortify the outer structure, until the structures funnels are owned like the Spartans of Thermopoly.
  • By this point most spirits are broke, you're 20 to 30 moves in & they haven't taken anything because you've focused expansion, evasion & suppression.
  • They often become desperate as you aim discoordinate their pieces by trapping a flank.
  • This strategy focuses on freezing opponents with pins, mutual pawn wall chains. Creating containers; multiple squares that are void of escape due to the pawn chains or rudimentarily for visual a supported rook with a king in any quadrants in a similar container.
  • The endgame of this strategy focuses on smother the opposition with a combination of its own pieces, the king that's matured to the otherside of the board with a pawnchain & minor piece backup, while the queen, minor pieces & rooks come either inside our camp on a file or work their way around a campaign through the kingless wing dispersing offensive & creating coffin where if they want a chance to mate, they will have to continue to surround their king with their offense, defense, & if fighting traditionally, have their king in on the wall near a corner already.
  • It's weaknesses are reliance on structure, requires deep understanding of piece safety & ability to defend through evasion. So it requires a high level tactical prowess to use effectively. 
  • Pros: flexibility, maneuverability, unique & hard to plan against. Intimidating &,seductive. Likely to draw your opponent into a bad attack. 
  • The king when combined with the Hippo as black, in the world championship style. Solid 3rd word (black its 6th rank) pawn wall, fianchettoed bishops, Pirc small center knights, the queen side knight drops behind your king that's sitting on f5, symmetrically across you have queen on C5.

Another combinations that run incredibly with it is the Danish Gambit/Carro Cann sacrificing pawn structure on the queen side for early development. The hippo & Kings indian attack bongclouds will teach you how to maneuver the king with a full board of pieces kept til end game (where things become hyper sacrificial in attempt to break open the clam or smother it)

The Danish bongcloud hybrid teaches how to fight with an exposed king & how to wrap your king in an offensive blanket of smoke.

Overall it can be used as training, but I feel its onto pushing chess to its limits & that at the heights of chess, we will see there be no reason for non forward king movement, it's too critical of a wasted tempe by endgame at the absolute heights

How long has it taken you to do that.

BigChessplayer665

Cause it's fun to play it

Sometimes playing bad positions helps you learn how to defend and attack when losing

spideypowers

uhh

joehodes
It’s also helpful in king of the hill chess