I’m playing a match this Tuesday against somebody on my high school team for first board (it is 1-1 right now, next game wins and I am white). He knows I always play English so I figured I might as well learn something new and unorthodox to throw his game off. I’m not sure if it helps but I like to play defensive and he is the type of person that will trade off as much as possible to jump to end game (he knows I’m fairly week there).

hmmmm my suggestion is e4

e4 is the most orthodox opening there is. Do you mean unorthodox openings?

My bad, for some reason I thought orthodox meant unordinary.

well you could start off with c4 and then lead into something that has c4 in the opening but is not the english that way he thinks you're going with your old standard

 

maybe something like a queen's gambit where you follow up with d4

or do the bird's opening.. just like the english but flipped

f4, kn-f3, b3, b-b2

i'm a fan of the english, but i find that the bird's first move, f4 discourages black from opening with e5

if you found he usually likes his e-pawn to e5 this may throw him or try being a little more agressive.. try ruy lopez

Bird's opening sounds good, he loves E5 but I'm not exactly sure how he will react if I start with F4.

With f4, he can reply 1... e5?! (as you said, his favorite move) otherwise known as From's gambit which leads to a tactical game.

My suggestion is the opening I use, the Ponziani (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3!?) as it is tricky, confusing, and has many opening traps.

I prefer to play e4 e5 g3. I've never seen anyone else play it it allows you to get your bishop out by g2, and you can d3 to defend the pawn without blocking your bishop

Hungarian will slow things down

---

Why C3? What happens if he does NF6?

Here are a few Nf6 lines of the Ponziani. It appears to be a gambit, but you earn the pawn back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Were you being serious? You probably were joking, but I just want to make sure.

---

No, he is not joking, I witnessed a game today on Live Chess where HoboKombat played  a5 and h5 as his first two moves, whilst playing the Black pieces.

p.s. http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/never-posted-a-game-before-thought-you-guys-might-enjoy-this-one2

Play the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez (if he lets you): 1 e4 e5; 2 Nf3 Nc6; 3 Bb5 then exchange.  He will have two bishops (a middle game advantage) but you will have the pawn majority on the kingside (an endgame advantage) while his pawn majority on the queenside is ruined.  If he moves quickly into the endgame with exchanges you will have the advantage.

---

 I agree. As long as your middle game is good, then this opening works well. All you need to do is play it smart, make good choices, and it's an easy win (For highschool) I just recently won mine a couple weeks a go. First 10th grader ever to win. =)

---

OK, well as wonderful as that strategy is I certainly won't be using it any time soon .

 

p.s. I didn't look at the link because I was worried my eyes would start bleeding!

---

what th heck???????? the link leads to chess.com forums

---

Yeah that happens to me loads of the time when I try and click on a thread it just takes me straight to the forum options instead of the thread I clicked on.

When I posted last night it took me to HoboKombat's game, I checked it (as I always do). Now it does as you describe... let me investigate.

 

EDIT: Ok, it seems our rather gung-ho friend (HoboKombat) has suddenly become a little gun shy and taken down his previously posted game, hence the blind link.

---

It happens with me on lots of other threads too, so I think it may just be a site bug.