Wrecking noobs with Wayward Queen attack
Often, when playing bullet chess against people of low rating, I use the Wayward Queen attack. The Wayward Queen attack is characterized by the following moves:
Against higher level players this opening is generally considered unsafe, as it results in losing a tempo in retreating the queen.
However, against lower level players who do not generally know what they are doing, I find that the Wayward Queen attack is generally quite useful.
One blunder I hope for a player to make when struggling to respond to this unfamiliar opening is g6. This results in the loss of a rook and is a simple exploit of a person's unfamiliarity to this particular attack.
However, most players are knowledgeable enough not to let this happen, and once they have done it once they never make that same blunder again unless they forget for some reason. Generally, I hope for a scholar's mate and respond to the most common response Nc6 with Bc4
Here I generally hope for a player to blunder and allow the scholars mate. I generally maintain pressure on f7 by retreating my queen to f3 instead of fully pulling it back when the opponent plays g6 or Qe7. One game I played recently is a clear example of blunders made in response to this opening:
Unfortunately, blunders like these are relatively uncommon, although when they do occur it can quickly win you the game. More often, I generally use this opening to create major time pressure on my opponent in bullet chess.
In 1-minute chess games, players who are unfamiliar with this opening can sometimes take up to 10 seconds properly responding to the opening, which is a huge benefit. Plus, in bullet chess people move quicker and are more likely to make blunders, which makes the Scholars mate much more likely. People generally win or lose 1-minute games based on time instead of a clean checkmate, so the extra 5-10 seconds is extremely helpful.
I generally find the Wayward Queen attack to be a great mix-up option in my openings, but I generally do not use it for longer chess games, as people take more time to work out an appropriate response. However, players who use this opening must be prepared to retreat their queen if their opponent knows how to respond well to this attack.
If you feel like taking risks and enjoy the rapid pace of bullet chess, consider using the Wayward Queen opening to either get a cheap checkmate or help flag your opponent.
