The Bongcloud Attack
Bongcloud Attack
The Bongcloud Attack is a "joke" chess opening that consists of the moves
1.e4 e5
2.Ke2?
The opening is primarily associated with the Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who has used it in online blitz chess and occasionally for humorous effect in high-level games. World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has also used the opening, and a variant 1. f4 (or f3) 2. Kf2 which has also been called the Bongcloud.
Background
The opening's name is thought to originate either from Chess.com user "Lenny Bongcloud" who used the opening to little success, or to more generally be a reference to a bong, a device used for consuming cannabis. The opening garnered a cult reputation amidst the rise of internet chess. Nigel Short played against a strong player on Internet Chess Club who used the opening; Short suspected his opponent of being Bobby Fischer. The opening's usage in chess humor was furthered by Andrew Fabbro's joke manual Winning With the Bongcloud.
From the usual perspective of opening theory, the Bongcloud is considered a bad opening because it violates nearly all principles. The movement of the king to e2 prevents castling as well as impeding the movement of both the queen and the light-squared bishop, in addition to leaving the king exposed and wasting a tempo. The lack of any redeeming feature, unlike some other dubious openings, puts the Bongcloud well outside of conventional practice. English Grandmaster Nigel Short dubbed the opening an "insult to chess".
High-level usage
GM Hikaru Nakamura has used the Bongcloud Attack in online blitz games. He streamed himself using the opening exclusively on a new Chess.com account with the aim of reaching a 3000 rating. In 2018, Nakamura played the Bongcloud three times against GM Levon Aronian during the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship, winning one of the three games and losing the two others. Nakamura also played the Bongcloud against GM Vladimir Dobrov and GM Wesley So during the 2019 Speed Chess Championship, winning both of those matches. On September 19, 2020, Nakamura used the opening against GM Jeffery Xiong in the final round of the online St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament and won the game.
On March 15, 2021, Magnus Carlsen, playing white, led with the Bongcloud in a game against Nakamura at the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. Nakamura mirrored the opening with 2. ... Ke7, leading to a position nicknamed the "Double Bongcloud". The game was drawn by threefold repetition after the players immediately repeated moves. The game occurred in the last round of the preliminary stage of the tournament, and both players had already qualified for the following knockout stage, making the game dead rubber. It marked the first recorded occurrence of 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2 Ke7 in a major tournament.
Despite its obvious disadvantages, usage of such a "joke" opening can also have a psychological impact: following Carlsen's win over Wesley So in a 2020 blitz tournament where he played 1.f3 (Check out my Blog Post on the Barnes Opening at https://www.chess.com/blog/ThummimS/barnes-opening) followed by 2.Kf2 – a variant which has also been named as the "Bongcloud" – the American grandmaster noted that losing the game after such an opening had a crushing impact.
