Yeah. My thoughts entirely.
How to defend this opening?
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You're probably pretty inexperienced, right? Still I've seen some pretty strong tactical players use these uber-direct ideas for White and it's bothersome to be in your shoes even when you're certain the opening really is silly and lacks strategic value.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Opening
Wikipedia calls White's effort the Napoleon Attack, but I've always called it the scholar's mate attack and haven't even dignified it with any capital letters . . . it's so bad.
I believe that after 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4, and also 1. e4 e5 2. Qf3 that Nc6 is the correct move and avoids all silly scholar's mate continuation ideas based upon the Black King-Pawn being unprotected. In your line with 2. ... f5 played, 3. ... Nc6 after either the 3. Bc4 or the 3. Qf3 move looks even stronger to me!
Went to the Game Explorer on this site which shows your 2. ... f5 as the most successful 2nd move percentagewise but only 13 games are available so it's probably 11 or 12 games of the 13 games played by Patzer vs. Master or Patzer vs. Semi-patzer which means that not really the highest quality master games are being played in this line. The move Qf3 wasn't one of White's 3rd move options but I clicked and made it anyway and the transposition that popped up showed that two games in this new line had been played with one win for black and one draw which is not bad. The two games diverged immediately with White capturing the Black Knight on its home square in the loss and moving Ne2 in the drawn game. Black was rated 157 points higher than White (2571 to 2414) in the Black win; and White was rated 137 points higher in the drawn game (2415 to 2278) so it looks like the line as played by White could be a real turkey (much like all the scholar's mate ideas). Good luck!
Here are the two games:
A.
| White: | Dimitrov, Pa (2414) | ||
| Black: | Belov, Vl (2571) | ||
| Event: | IX EICC | ||
| Site: | Plovdiv BUL | ||
| Score: | 0-1 | Date: | 2008.04.29 |
Opening: King Pawn Game: Napoleon Attack (C20)
1. e4 e5 2. Qf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 f5 4. Bxg8 Nd4 5. Qd1 Qg5 6. g4 Rxg8 7. c3 Ne6 8. gxf5 Nf4 9. Qf3 d5 10. h4 dxe4 11. hxg5 exf3 12. Nxf3 Nd3+ 13. Ke2 Bxf5 14. Nh4 Nf4+ 15. Kf3 Bd3 16. b3 O-O-O 17. Na3 Ne6 18. Kg4 h5+ 19. Kg3 Nxg5 20. Nc4 Nf7 21. Nf3 e4 22. Nd4 Rd5 23. Bb2 Be7 24. Ne3 h4+ 25. Kh3 Rh5 26. Rag1 g6 27. c4 Ng5+ 28. Rxg5 Bxg5 29. Ne6 Bxe3 30. dxe3 Rf5 31. Nf4 g5 32. Nxd3 exd3 33. Kg2 Rgf8 34. f4 gxf4 35. e4 Rg5+ 36. Kf2 f3 37. Ke3 f2 38. Rf1 Rg3+ 39. Kd2 Rg1 40. Ba3 Rf5
B.
| White: | Dimitrov, Pa (2415) | ||
| Black: | Stoinev, M. (2278) | ||
| Event: | 7th Georgiev - Kesarovski Mem | ||
| Site: | Sunny Beach BUL | ||
| Score: | 1/2-1/2 | Date: | 2008.09.11 |
Opening: King Pawn Game: Napoleon Attack (C20)
1. e4 e5 2. Qf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 f5 4. Ne2 Nf6 5. d3 f4 6. h3 Na5 7. b3 Nxc4 8. bxc4 Bb4+ 9. c3 Ba5 10. Nd2 d6 11. c5 g5 12. d4 exd4 13. cxd4 Qe7 14. cxd6 cxd6 15. O-O Bxd2 16. Bxd2 Qxe4 17. Qb3 Qd5 18. Nc3 Qxb3 19. axb3 Bd7 20. Ra5 h6 21. Rfa1 a6 22. b4 Rd8 23. b5 Bc8 24. Na4 axb5 25. Nb6 O-O 26. Rxb5 Bd7 27. Rba5 Bc6 28. Bb4 Rf7 29. Ra8 Rxa8 30. Rxa8+ Rf8 31. Ra5 Rd8 32. d5 Be8 33. Ra7 Bf7 34. Ra5 Kh7 35. Kf1 Kg6 36. Ke2 h5 37. Kd3 g4 38. hxg4 Nxg4 39. Kd4 Nxf2 40. Nc4 h4 41. Ra2 Ng4 42. Bxd6 Kf5 43. Rb2 Ne3 44. Rxb7 Bg8 45. Nxe3+ fxe3 46. Bb4 e2 47. Ke3 Bxd5 48. Rh7 Re8+ 49. Kf2 Re4 50. Rh5+ Ke6 51. Be1 Bb7 52. g3 hxg3+ 53. Kxg3 Bd5 54. Kf2 Bc4
I have been running into an opening that works on the same principle of the Parham. I will keep my comments to myself about people who play these openings. I could use some guidance on defending this. I already see that once I saw his Qf3 I should have moved either f6 or nf6...I think.