My list of top 10 worst "official" openings

in reverse order, in my humble opinion. This list excludes;

-openings that immediately lose the game (such as Damianos defense or the lasker trap in the Albin Countergambit)

-Openings that have no meaningful theory (such as 1. a4 etc.)

-Any "fools mate openings" like 1. e4 2 Qh5.

10. Danish Gambit. This opening makes the list for one reason; Schuttlers defense completely nullifies it and there's no real plan for white if this defense it's used. The Similar Goring gambit has the advantage of preventing black using Schuttlers defense. 

9. Grob attack. I have some experience using this opening. Although it offers a lot of potential traps it has big issues with king safety, developing the g1 knight and general lack of consistency and structure to games. Games are very hit and miss, If you want to play 960 like chess in a classical chess game, the Grob is the opening for you.

8. Smith-Morra gambit. A weak gambit that doesn't get white enough compensation for the pawn. This is another one i've experimented with. It doesn't give either the tactical advantages of a gambit such as the kings gambit, or the long term positional advantages such as the Benko Gambit does. It gives something in between, but not much of either. Black simply has too many solid replies. 

7. Budapest defense. An ugly opening where black puts their pieces in weird positions just to win back the lost pawn, and ends up with an inferior position. I will bracket this with the closely related Englund gambit rather than put them both in this list.

6. Latvian Gambit. A very pale imitation of the kings gambit, where white easily gives back the pawn for a comfortable lead in development and space after a few moves. No obvious benefit to playing this. 

5. Polish opening. Like the Grob, it flings forward a wing pawn. But unlike the Grob, this opening does not offer any real traps so it ranks worse.

4. Kings gambit accepted; Bryan countergambit. This is the opening black used in the "immortal game." Not much worth saying say about this opening but it did at least prouduce that legendary game. Garry Kasparov once got very annoyed after being forced to use this opening in a thematic game, losing in under 20 moves. 

3. Halloween Gambit. With correct play from black, there is little white can do to gain enough compensation for the sacrificed knight in this opening, It relies purely on mistakes from black. There is a similar opening called the Irish gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 2. Nc6 3. Nxe5?) that has litte theory on it. 

2. Elephant gambit. Throws away a pawn for no compensation. White gets a nice positon early on along with the pawn. 

1. Queens gambit declined; Marshall Defense. Possibly the worst response to the queens gambit, black allows white to build an imposing centre and a lead in development, for nothing. It's pioneer Frank Marshall abandoned it after getting crushed in a game against Alekhine. 

Apologies if i've included your favoourite openings here, it's my my opinion  

I agree with everything except Budapest. I think Jerome Gambit should be on there.

Jeromes Gambit is so rare (i've never seen it used once in thousands of games i've played) i left that off. But yeah, terrible opening along with a few other obscure stinkers i've left off.

Ima religious Budapest player and ill tell you Budapest shouldn’t be on there. The only line where white pockets the pawn is when he gets a shattered queenside and black gets active heavy pieces.

the positional line fails to hand white the bishop pair

the f4 push in the alder variation gives black no troubles if he ignores it

Budapest is a good opening

The OP has no idea what he is talking about.

The Polish Opening should not be on the list either.  The Grob severely weakens the King.  Screw traps.  Traps mean nothing for any level above pansy level chess.  Chess pansies show no validity to any form of opening theory with their games and should be completely ignored along with their games.  Those that cannot reach at least 1600 over the board (1600 blitz here is not the same thing and not a valid basis for saying you know anything about chess) are not worth wasting your time on using their games to validate any opening ever!

The Polish is not ideal as it does not fight for the center.  White surrenders his advantage to going first, but maintains an equal game.  The Grob is already advantage Black from move 1!

#10, #8, #7, #5 probably dont belong on the list. They arent top tier openings to be sure but there must be worse openings out there.

I kind of agree the London from the Black side, the QG from white's side, the fools mate, and even the Tarrasch French from Blacks side most particularly Euwe-Keres Line are worse than #'s 5,8 and 10 on the list but probably not #7 on the list though !

#'s 7,5 and 1 don't belong on the list

Damiano's Defense is not a forced loss. Dr. R.F. McGregor (playing Black) drew a game against Bobby Fischer (playing White) in 1964 after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6.

As long as Black answers 3. Nxe5 with Qe7 instead of fxe5, his game is merely inferior, not lost.

I was thinking something like the icelandic gambit or the stafford  should be in there somewhere....a lot of tricks but if white is on top of things its a lost position for black.

Or if he avoids Damiano's Defence or Damiano's pawn loss and plays 1.e4 f6 2.d4 Nc6 the Neo-Mongoloid Defence or even 1.Nf3 f6 2.d4 Nc6 3.e4 or even 1.Nf3 f6 2.e4 Nc6 3.d4 

Elephant gambit is fine for black, I've yet to see a line that resembles a refutation. After reading "The Exhilirating Elephant Gambit" by Thomsen, I am satisfied that the Elephant Gambit is more than playable. Of course black will have a slightly worse position if white plays all the correct moves, but the opening is far from being refuted and to say black has no compensation isn't true.

Black can play 3...c6 4. dxc6 and has a choice between 4...Nxc6 and 4...e5. Neither of these hold up objectively, but here it is black who goes up in development, not white. Blacks score in practice here (on lichess database) is actually better than in most mainline defences to d4.

By the way, the Marshall defence isn't even as bad as people give it credit for, since the most natural 4.e4 is already an innacuracy, since black can get away with 4...Nf6 5.Nc3 e5. White should punish the Marshall with 4.Nf3

Neither of these belong on the list either.

Simply incorrect.

This is correct

Definitely agree with OP on the Grob. I've always liked slightly obscure or unorthodox openings but I think when I adopted the Grob when I was a teenager playing club chess that was a step too far. I'm sure some players can make it work for them but for me it's a stinker.

Tarrasch french as black is in the top 10 worst openings? LMAO that's a classic opening and besides e4 e6 d4 d5 Nd2 c5 is almost if not totally equal with best play.

all French's except for Mediterannean and St-George as Black, all French's except for Diemer-Duhm and Exchange Monte-Carlo as white, all Sicilians except for Brick (2.Nh3) and Staunton-Cochrane (2.c4) as white and all Sicilians except for Katalimov as Black are also included in the list of worst openings 

Oh that's sarcasm then

new players pay no attention to this list. what is good opening for you and what is good for masters is not the same.

the danish gambit has a much above average winning percentage among low and intermediate players and teaches the player to look for tactics. it is also not a cheap opening where you learn one trick and try to play for that over and over learning nothing. similar things can be said of the morra. both do terribly when played by masters because their games are often decided by a single pawn advantage but in low and intermediate games blunders and tactics decide almost every game

Umm :thinker

Where's the Englund gambit? Orangutan? Not even on the list, yet you say Albin counter-gambit is unplayable... Strange.