The Bowdler 1.e4 c5 2.Bc4 ! >:(

that was my entire point throughout this thread and got called stupid : (

"They rely on their tactical abilities"

Those tricky SOBs! How dare they use their tactical abilities? How dare they play a variation I don't like? These people should be stamped out!

Oh yeah (I skim through a lot of the comments).  Seems like a troll. Actually I think that guy tried doing the same to me in a different thread.  You make sense though, just because you aren't playing the theoretically best move doesn't mean that you are dead lost. In fact if someone is just moving over to e4, Bc4 is a great way to avoid the hypertheoretical lines that black might know better than white.   

@Bowdler_Douchebag wins a lot of games, though

It is just bad. There are some tricks, but whatever.

@shamus - I was replying to the general “opening doesn’t matter” vibe. I just stated that a little prep helps (it does), white is no longer the one attacking (they aren’t), and that black has initiative (they do). I didn’t say it’s a won game. Maybe dubious is a little harsh, but I don’t think so. Any time white plays an opening that throws away all opening advantage with simple counters, and is put on the defensive, they should’ve played something else.

Naroditsky calls it the “scholastic opening” against the Sicilian because it’s played by beginners who only know the Italian game and “bad” and “easily punished” are his words, not mine.

Fair enough.  Does he specify if it is bad as in professionals are wasting their 1st move or bad as in there is a clean way for black to get a clean advantage?  

In his speed runs on twitch and YouTube, he faced it at least three times that I remember, and each time he called it bad. He basically said that it’s never played by anyone other than beginners, and that black has a simple plan to get an advantage. He makes simple moves and white is on the defensive all game. Obviously he destroys white because of tactical superiority in the middle game, but after the d5 push black moves all come with threats and tempo and white has no plan. Can white win? Sure. Can white win with Wayward Queen or the Jerome Gambit? Sure. But memorizing best replies is the best way to deal suboptimal openings.

If you lose after that, you have no one to blame but yourself, not the goddamned opening.

Well said Nikki... perfect.... I think this is safely "case closed".

@NikkiLikeChikki I went looking for that video and came across this

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/bowdler-attack

I'm ot saying that Naro is wrong by any means, but a couple of IMs disagree with some of the conclusions from this thread.

No they don't. 

Would you care to be more specific.

Well... Why don't you just go to the lessons on openings (or somewhere else) and find Simon Williams refuted this very exact opening, I think it was in the dragondorf, and he mentioned going e6 and a6 very early to punish this. 

Just because something is refuted at the GM level does not mean it is not playable at lower levels. 

I would lose to an IM because they are an IM, not because of the opening. I would lose to an IM if they spotted me a knight and played the Bowdler... doesn’t mean the opening is good.

Bc4 is basically equivalent to the loss of a full pawn. The evaluation switches from +0.67 to -0.31 as soon as the amateurish 2. Bc4 move is played (depth=20)

Which means diddly.  Its move 2

For sure, I think we all would. But I definitely value their opinion in most cases.   

It does not mean "diddly". The analysis can be used for every move and is seeing 20 moves ahead. Ever heard of centipawn loss? This is a 98 centipawn loss move. You can see which openings are best with the analysis. Even a 50 centipawn loss is quite a bad move. 

Here is the OP's latest debacle....I mean game against this horrible opening.  And once again, it wasn't the opening that decided the game.  It was tactics.