meteologist i agree a bit because its not a developing move nor fighting for the center, on the other side you are not creating weaknesses in the center and leave white a little bit guessing what you do with your king (leave it in the center?!)
Its is a viable option if your normal repertoire is "too drawish" lol
Wow this thread has got active again. I see some posts in the past hr after what 10 days or so. Yeah for the record, I realised its not a great opening and have given it up. I have gone back to Nf6, but I am having another trouble.
I get a very good pawn chain going, but kill my own white sq. bishop as it is trapped behind the pawn chain.
so why do you push c4 if you realize your shutting yourself in that B on a6 could prevent white from castling and maybe you can exchange it for another minor
so why do you push c4 if you realize your shutting yourself in that B on a6 could prevent white from castling and maybe you can exchange it for another minor
Bingo !! changing your bad bishop for his good-one. Now if the OP compares the dark squared Bishops whites queen-bishop lockdown is a long term weakness as long as black maintains suffient control over (e4) and aggressively attacks Queen-side which is were your Space advantage lays.
I played this ‘bad’ h6 opening once( only the first h6 move, not the other g5 one) but I played it on a real chessboard so I can’t show it. But the game ended in me winning. I played h6 to prevent the trompowsky attack because I like my kings Indian structure and I did not want it to get ruined after 2 Bg4.
Actually I played that opening decades ago at our local chess club and of course got DESTROYED . Maybe White can get away with time wasting moves like ( 1.h3) because he has that extra tempo of the First move.But as black a time wasting move like (1..h6) u are now 2 TEMPI behind which is equal to a pawn on your FIRST MOVE !!