Unusual Chess Openings

This is a collection of over 60 of the most unusual Chess openings. They are not all necessarily bad openings, it's just that you don't play against openings like the Fred Defense every day. You might like to practise some of these to use if you play a lot of timed games where you only get about 5 or 10 minutes to play all your moves as your opponent is probably not going to know what to play against them and could easily make a mistake or waste a lot of time thinking about what moves are best to play. Also included are over 500 example games involving these openings.

Alapin's Opening

Unusual1

  1. e4 e5
2. Ne2

View 3 example games here

Anderssen's Opening

Unusual2

1. a3

View 30 example games here

Anti-Veresov Variation

Unusual3

  1. d4 d5
2. Nc3 Bg4

Barnes Defense (Fried Fox Variation)

Unusual4

  1. e4 f6
2. d4 Kf7

Battambang Opening

Unusual5

  1. Nc3 e5
2. a3

Blackburne Gambit

Unusual6

  1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Nd4

View 7 example games here

View my Blackburne Gambit page

Blackmar-Diemer Gambit

Unusual7

  1. d4 d5
2. e4

View 29 example games here

Borg Defense

Unusual8

1. e4 g5

View 4 example games here

Budapest Gambit

Unusual9

  1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 e5

View 41 example games here

View my Budapest Gambit page

Carr's Defense

Unusual10

1. e4 h6

Clemenz Opening

Unusual11

1. h3

View 11 example games here

Corn Stalk Defense

Unusual12

1. e4 a5

Crab Opening

Unusual13

  1. a4 e5
2. h4

Damiano Defense

Unusual14

  1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 f6

Deprez Opening

Unusual15

1. h4

Dresden Variation

Unusual16

  1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. c4

Durkin's Attack

Unusual17

1. Na3

Elephant Gambit (aka Queen's Pawn Counter-Gambit)

Unusual18

  1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 d5

View 17 example games here

English Orangutan

Unusual19

  1. c4 Nf6
2. b4

View 4 example games here

Englund Gambit

Unusual20

1. d4 e5

View 15 example games here

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Links to my other pages

Chess Puzzles
This is a collection of checkmate puzzles. There are sets of 12 puzzles for beginners, intermediate and advanced players.

Chess Openings
From this page you will find links to my various openings pages. There are pages about the Blackburne Gambit, Budapest Gambit, Hippopotamus Defense, Ruy Lopez, Slav Defense and St George's Defense and a collection of Unusual Openings. In total there are over 700 example games involving these openings.

Chess Opening Statistics
These are statistics compiled from over 2 million games. It shows for each opening and variation what percentage of matches were won by white, black and were drawn. Also included are white's and black's best and worst 10 openings statistically and what are the most and least drawn openings. There are statistics for nearly 300 different openings and variations.

Chess
Play Chess online against a computer opponent.

How to Beat Chess Computers
This page gives tips and advice on how to beat Chess Computers. It gives advice on what to do and what not to do against Chess Computers and includes example games that demonstrate a few key points.