Now I know this opening move has another name besides stupid ... of course but I have yet to hear about it. I call it Turtles Defense. I find it to be entertaining for me and thought provoking for my opponents. black A7-A6

I call it Turtles Defense for a number of reasons but mainly because I like turtles. Turtles are not great fighters and will run and hide before attacking and that's exactly what this opening sets up.

If nothing else it throws a curveball towards white and makes him think. Great for speed chess. Try it and tell me what you think

Pls don't ever try this in chess game.

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Karpov lost to this move. 

Followed by h6 on a next move, this defence will do wonders

Or perhaps not

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Yep. Annotations by Tony Miles!!

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Yes, Karpov lost to this move but the problem is we are not Anthony Miles..

It' not thought provoking, white is free to open however he wants -- of course it's not losing either, especially at the amateur level.  It is surprising a world champion lost to it, however it should be noted the loss had nothing to do with the opening' merits.

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I hear this a lot as well as you're an idiot and then they do something idiotic and lose and blame it on the mouse why is that?

Some call it St. Georges defence

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George_Defence

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ahh wonderful find but yeah I've grown to love the name "Turtles Defense" Been calling it that for months now

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Miles usually got crushed by Karpov, this is one of his very few wins over Karpov.

Out of 30 played games, Karpov has won 13, drawn 15 and lost 2.

Korchnoi used to claim that there was no chess player worse than Karpov at thinking up something on his own, and that being faced with something new, he would often go wrong. Maybe this game is a point in the direction that maybe Korchnoi was on to something?

Mmm, turtles.

They're delicious.

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Yeah, all first moves and many 2nd moves are perfectly playable, if you ever face an odd one and find yourself thinking "this guy's an idiot, I should win now" you've been fooled.  There's no first move that isn't playable IMO.

Exactly, but one shouldn't be fooled by statistics when choosing his first move

 

chessgames.com:

1. Na3

16

93.8%

1. Nh3

12

58.3% 16.7 25%

1. g4

258

57.4% 32.6%

1. h3

41

46.3% 24.4% 29.3%

1. h4

9

44.4% 44.4%

...

1. d4

192,349

37.1% 37.6% 25.3%

1. e4

270,565

37.6% 33.4% 29%

Yes, Dragec is right :)  The best move is Na3 :P :P

Point is, that is perfectly playable opening. I played vs that few times. But what I am saying, maybe Tarrasch could keep that isolated pawn on d5 for whole game, but I lose it every single time when I try to play Tarrasch defense. Maybe GM could beat Karpov with St. Georges, but lets be honest, we are not GM's.

If I'm playing someone rated 1300 it does not mater if I play 1.a4 2.b4 I would probably win. Exotic openings are for more advanced players.