Study of The Bongcloud Opening

The Bongcloud Opening 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2!! This unconventional and powerful opening is one of the starting positions with the most advantage for White. Modern chess engines, such as Stockfish, do not see the winning potential here, since they cannot compute the importance of humiliating the opponent, and instead focus on trivial and unimportant things like King safety and material gain. The idea of the Bongcloud is to use the undervalued attacking potential of the King early on in the opening. There is also a psychological factor to this opening: often, the very act of moving the King forward will be enough to scare Black for the rest of the game, and allows White to simply put the King back to e1. Experts today still debate on whether this strategy is optimal or whether White should keep advancing the King forward; this question is left for the readers to ponder by themselves. Although the Bongcloud is incredibly difficult to respond to, let alone refute, Black has some options. Let us get the obvious mistake out of the way first: 2... Nf6? may seem like a natural move, developing a Knight and attacking a pawn; however, it does not respond well enough to the psychological threat of the King's advance, and even if White will ultimately lose, they will look cool as heck while losing. 2... d5 has been tried by some players as Black, with the idea of striking the center and preventing the White King from advancing too much. This leads to some interesting variations where White will always lose, with varying degrees of looking cool while getting checkmated. Experts today agree with the unusual looking move 2... Ke7!, also called the Double Bongcloud Variation. Although it is difficult to play, especially at high level, Black maintains some pressure on the center and develops their King with a strong attacking potential, sometimes leading White to put their King back in e1. Example game: Magnus Carlsen (White) vs Hikaru Nakamura (Black), at the Magnus invitational online tournament, 2021; the flawless execution from both sides of the Double Bongcloud Variation lead to a draw by repetition. "When played perfectly, chess is a draw", as they say.

... will always lose, with varying degrees of looking cool while getting checkmated. Experts today agree with the unusual looking move 2... Ke7!, also called the Double Bongcloud Variation. Although it is difficult to play, especially at high level, Black maintains some pressure on the center and develops their King with a strong attacking potential, sometimes leading White to put their King back in e1. Example game: Magnus Carlsen (White) vs Hikaru Nakamura (Black), at the Magnus invitational online tournament, 2021; the flawless execution from both sides of the Double Bongcloud Variation lead to a draw by repetition. "When played perfectly, chess is a draw", as they say.