I am looking for a special offbeat opening that is not 1. e4 or 1. d4.

I want to be able to challenge my opponents straight away and not play a well-known standard opening that they can easily play.

Any ideas?

There are lots to choose from.  How about 1.f4 (Bird's Opening)?  It can be played like a reversed Dutch defence.  Or you could try 1.g4 (The Grob).

You can also try b4 (Polish opening) with further fianchettoing of the Bishop. This may cause certain problems for an inexperienced opponent because it will be difficult for him to develop his queenside Knight in the way he got used to. More inexperienced players may even develop their dark-square Bishop as usual and leave their g-pawn unprotected, so you sometimes can even win a rook. You can try as well c4 (English opening). This is not as tricky as b4 but for a not standard opening it will do.

However it often happens that trying to confuse your opponent by an

unusual opening, you get confused yourself. I think it's better to try to confuse your opponent further in the middle game or endgame but not in the opening. 

there are plenty of GOOD openings that are not theoretically difficult. like the kings indian attack. sure, you don't fight for an advantage, but you just get a good equal game. the problem with offbeats is they are not based on solid principles and someone who knows them will crush you...

Yeah, there are many good choices to avoid opening theory. Sometimes I will toss in 1. b3 every once in a while just to get away from always playing standard positions and structures. Also I will play the KIA (King's Indian Attack) against the Sicilian and other main black defenses. It is very solid and easy to learn without much memorization.

1.c4 can be tried as it has the ability to transpose into different openings.

well i liked Nf3   but its gained soo much popularity that most know it all to well

yhe grob is good and so is a few others but they may be hard to play and may lead to a draw

Just remember, if you can play an offbeat opening so can someone else, so if you decide to get into this area it is also a good thing to learn ways to defend against the very openings which you study. In particular, a5 can be used against 1.b4 (which is why the Orangutan isn't used often, even by my standards) whith good effect; the sacrifice of an edge pawn to develop the queens rook. Though, h5 can be used similarly against the Grob Attack (1.g4 ; a favourite of mine I daresay) black would be put to a disadvantage to castle king side which is frequently desirable in such uncertain games. Hence this defense is not in as common use as its mirror against the Sokolski (or Orangutan).

Bird Opening (1.f4) the mirror image of the English opening (previously discussed, no?) can also be used to good effect, being able to reach a very nice position via 1.f4 d5 2.d4 etc. I forget the exact terminology, but I think I'ts a "stonewall" or something like that. As well as preventing an immediate e4.

Also some others that I like to use are the Ware Opening for shits and giggles as well as Anderssens Opening, which was emplopyed brilliantly (and successfully!) against Paul Morphy. Larsen and Benko openings are also quite useable facilitating early castling and a strong fortification thereof.

If you are truly interested than look up some of the classic games employing these openings. For example the games of Grob, Bird, or Anderssen etc. are very interesting and worth review.

Maxwell843 wrote:

I am looking for a special offbeat opening that is not 1. e4 or 1. d4.

I want to be able to challenge my opponents straight away and not play a well-known standard opening that they can easily play.

Any ideas?

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How about the Larsen attack? 1.b3

Easy to develop and a big surprise for your opponents!

You can play off-beat openings that start with d4 or e4 too...