Is h4 any good?
1.h4 THE BEST OPENING EVER!
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Is this is a joke!?!?
After ...e5, black is already .36 better according to engines.
1. a4 is better. 
I play reversed openings with a4 quite often. 
gambitlover wrote:
Blacks extra pawn would not be worth much whereas White has his rook mobilized immediately. ( The same idea can be played too with 1.h4 )
Interesting a-pawn attack. 
U go against all opening principles. 
@riachuvspikachu @Yigor
How about having the first two moves as a4 and h4?
More often than not, having good opening principles are the norm when playing against stronger players as it will not be easy for them to bring out much advantage out of good positions. However, for weaker players who sticks to simply opening principles without understanding the relevant purpose (for instance they simply learn that 1. h4 is bad but do not know why), if they are not able to refute weird openings, these weird openings can become a very powerful tool, more so than standard openings.
In other words, the receivers of the weird opening must show that they can outplay the weird openings, or they may just get swallowed unexpectedly.
Against weaker players over the board in friendly games, I sometimes try 1. h4 and 2.a4 for fun, and my opponents probably think 'What is this guy doing??? Such a bad opening!', but subsequently their play appears to be affected by my weirdness since they have no idea how to tackle 1. h4 and 2. a4 efficiently.
F3 is best
Intermediateinoz: Nominating your #20 for Post of The Week. Excellent.
cjxchess16 wrote:
@Intemediateinoz your "90-degree chess" has been solved:
To make your variant more playable let's add a pawn to both sides:
It would be as though a pawn moves sideways instead of forward in an ordinary chess game.
Mecanicas wrote:
h4 goes against every opening principle, like a4. You give all the initiative to blacks while they develop and have the opportunity to castle quick to make the king be safe.
Maybe useful in bullet or faster time controls.
Which is why moves like 1. a4/h4 do not appear at higher levels of play on a regular basis. Occasionally though, such moves may catch weaker or overconfident players off guard, especially because they do not receive much practice on 'weird' openings. I do play such moves from time to time in fast time controls for a change.
Statistically (Chess.com Explorer, Master Games), it worked well against 1....d5 (60 percent wins for white; 27 percent draws; 13 percent wins for black) but not against 1...e5 (31 percent wins; 7 percent draws; 62 percent losses) or 1...Nf6 (33 percent wins; 67 percent losses). I've actually figured out the first six moves against weird openings (1. g3 had a good success rate--I play 1....d5, 2....c6 and I was nearly equal). It is helpful. I won against 1. g3 the first time I saw it.
1.h4 hasnt been tacticly proven to be bad
riachuvspikachu wrote:
1.h4 hasnt been tacticly proven to be bad
you white me black .. e4 c5, h4.. me happy
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h4 is still the best opening ever!!!
the best!
H4!