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How many unknown openings are there?

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Avatar of volclus
volclus
Nov 2, 2022
0
#1

So earlier today I was having some dumb fun trying to find unknown and stupid openings, and I came across this. The Delayed Keoni-Hiva Gambit. I'm absolutely sure you have never seen this in your life, despite (atleast on Chess.com) it being officially named.

Now this opening if you couldn't already tell is hot garbage, but what really amazed me was how many times it has been played. Using the Lichess player database, there have 693 million games played. Out of every single one, despite this opening only coming on move 5, it has been played ZERO TIMES.
That to me is just absolutely ridiculous, and it brought up 2 big questions for me. First off, how did this opening get named, or any opening that has been extremely rarely played? Who is playing this dumpster fire opening and is somehow famous enough to have it officially named after them?
     My second and bigger question is how many more openings are there that have virtually never been played? If this extremely obscure opening is just out there, how many more are there? I'd like to know them!

Avatar of justbefair
justbefair
Nov 3, 2022
0
#2

http://www.learn-and-play-online-chess.com/keonihiva-gambit.html

Avatar of ThrillerFan
ThrillerFan
Nov 3, 2022
0
#3

There are two problems with the OP's post:

1) Nobody cares!  It is, as you said, hot garbage.  Why would anybody waste their time on such bulls**t?  I'd rather spend my time studying the Polish, French, Dutch, Strategy, Tactics, Endgame, GM Games, etc, not this "brown stuff".

2) The subject line is an unanswerable question.  To answer a quantitative question, like how many of anything there is, those items you are counting must be known.  That's like saying how many unknown types of bread are there?  We all know, even children, about White, Wheat, and Rye.  So they are clearly "known".  Well, before you can count pumpernickel, you'd have to know what pumpernickel is, that it is a bread and not a car or tree or state capital.  Once you know it is a bread and you start to count "one", you are actually back down to zero because now you know what pumpernickel is, that it is a bread, and you are still at ZERO unknown breads!