Is the Dunst Opening (1. Nc3) hypermodern?
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Classical openings control the centre with pawns whereas hyper modern openings control the centre with pieces. If 1.Nc3 isn’t considered a hyper modern opening my guess would be because it doesn’t control the centre at all lol
Nov 9, 2017
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#3
It's probably going to depend on the definition of "hypermodern." Part of hypermodernism is being noncommittal, and 1. Nc3 would certainly be that. Although Black's best response seems to be 1...d5, which transposes into a Queen's Pawn Opening, which immediately slightly misplaces White's QN (which ideally shouldn't be blocking his c-pawn in a d-pawn opening), White could still justify that placement by saying he intended to transpose into a Chigorin Variation (1. d4 d5 2. Nc3), or something along those lines where White does normally have his QN blocking his c-pawn.
Also, 1. Nc3 does definitely influence the center with a piece from a flank, unlike say 1. a3, which is said not to be hypermodern since it doesn't involve piece development (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermodernism_(chess)).
I don't think there are any definitive definitions of hypermodern, though the main idea is controlling the center with pieces from the flank.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/hypermodern
https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/12282/hypermodernism-definition/12448
1. Nf3 is considered hypermodern, but I have not found any mention that 1. Nc3 is also hypermodern, although (of course) it is a flank opening (https://hyper-db.de/monopedia/wiki/index.php?title=Flank_opening) like 1. Nf3. Any references or opinions on this?