Acuteness of openings

I find this interesting. But I have a very different view. I prefer 1-acute openings as long as they are not sub-optimal.

My view is that they force the opponent into a position I have played much, much more frequently and all their opening prep is useless. As such, I luv playing Alekhine's defense. This is one of the few openings where BLACK dictates the line that will be played. This is not true of most openings. True, I could play Sicilian defense but then there is SO MUCH theory I simply can't remember it all. With Alekhine's it doesn't take long before you are out of book and you just have to play chess.

Interestingly this view has affected how I play with white. Being an e2-e4 player I was constantly frustrated when having to face Alekhine's or the Sicilian. How do I solve this? Now I have adopted 1. Nf3 as a first move. The idea being to be flexible and respond to what they play and urge them to the lines I prefer. I don't know the acuteness of this opening but typical responses are d5, c5, or Nf6.

Anyway, I do find the idea acuteness interesting but I don't know that there are very many openings that will really result in the situation you describe; tricky positions where computer generated moves are required. These types of positions are usually 10-20 moves in and are (in my experience) hard to get to because with every move there is the possibility that the opponent will play a forcing move that leads somewhere else, or worse yet, that some joker like me has forced you to play against Alekhine's defense from the very beginning. :)

KostaPapanikolaou: Thanks for your insight! Yes, essentially,Alekhine is a sequence of 1- / 2-acute positions. Few main lines are indeed dictated by this opening. I constantly add new examples as soon as I discover them. Please look at the wonderful example by Phoenyx75 called Immortal Draw, going back to 1872, when the whole game is a sequence of 1-acute positions.

MegasAlexandros86: It's stupid to go against the technological progress not using available gadgets (when it's authorized). Don't U wanna become a prehistoric man again ?!?

StupidGM: Thanks for this interesting insight.

Bumping, I have now some additional ideas about acuteness and statistical acuteness.

#65
There may be something in it. If you can force your opponent into positions with acuteness 1 for him, then he must find only moves and he is more likely to err.