Why have I been encountering the Bowlder attack?

I've noticed the Bowlder attack being played a lot on this site as a response to the Sicilian. The bowlder is characterized by 2.Bc4, and is usually answered by 2. ...e6, or 2. ...Nc6. Looking through the game explorer, black has an immense advantage here, but I still encounter the thing more than half the time as a response to the Sicilian. Granted, I haven't been keeping tracks of the ratings of the players who are using this, but it seems really strange that such a (seemingly) misguided opening would be played with such overwhelming frequency. Here's a diagram:

Can anyone either shed a little light on why this is happening? Is there a strong line for White that can come from this? Is there a specific trap that White or Black can set up from this position that might make it seem like a good option?

Thanks very much guys.

My guess is, people near your rating play e4 and rarely see the sicilian, and so, playing their memorised opening lines or moves they 'know' are good, they play 2. Bc4. Obviously, this is an inaccuracy at best and is due to people not learning principles but lines.

These are people who think that Bc4 is a strong move after 1.e4 e5 (it is, but they probably think it is because of Qd1-h5xf7#). And they play the same thing after 1...c5.

And 2...e6 is the standard reply, since at least the 19th century. Black has an equal game.

i know I always play e6 in response.  be careful if he castles early so as not to get your king cought on an open file, but otherwise it's an easy game.

A friend on here used it on me and I told him it was a bad line but he said that he'd been winning with it.  No idea.  So then I made a Bowlder Attack tournament.  heh.

I've been intrigued to see this line so often too. Like you whitehat I usually reply to it with 2....e6. I think some players like e4 because they feel most at home in e4-e5 openings, so they are nervous about the Sicilian. They want to support the pawn on e4 with d3, don't want to restrict the B - so, Bc4 and then d3 it is.

In the introductory spiel about the Sicilian, MCO 11 said 'a player should refrain from 1.e4 unless prepared to confront it', and therein is the problem for some players.

I'm not sure why you're seeing this stone-age Sicilian variant so frequently, but there's not much to fear.  Black has a fairly easy plan to achieve equality in ten to twelve moves, and then can start looking for plans to achieve superiority.

The basic idea is to blunt White's LSB's scope, and further take space with tempo as the Bishop can be attacked by pawns and is also undefended on c4.  2. .. e6 is certainly strongest.

From there, 3. Nc3 (otherwise 3. .. d7-d5 equalizes immediately) a6 4. a4 (White is playing to mitigate the strategy outlined above; all other moves are met well by 4. .. b7-b5) and now 4. .. Nf6 offers no less than equality for Black.  5. e5 d5! is the key retort, as 6. exf6 dxc4 7. fxg7 Bxg7 8. Qg4 Bd4 leaves White lacking in space and initiative.

...that's what I was afraid of. I guess I can't fault them for trying, but how long does it take someone to learn to detect and avoid scholar's mate? That's one thing I learned long ago: never play strictly to a trap.

Totally agree with Whitehat.

I've heard people on this site refer to this as "bishop's opening" and they play it against any response by black. 

The actual Bishop's Opening is 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4. And indeed these are beginners who think that you can play that against any black response, and it's still good and still the Bishop's Opening.

I guess it means that they don't spend all their time cramming variations, so it's not really a bad thing, but... :-)

After  1e4 c5  2 Bc4?! black has 4 responses all scoring well over 60% for black, they are : e6, Nc6, d6, and a6.

When I were a young player, I used to play 2.Bc4, because I had no idea how to counter the sicilian defense. I lost almost all my games with it. I think I played 2.Bc4, because it seemed an ok move. I liked to play agressive. I still do nowadays. But on 1.e4 c5 I play Nc3 these days

If you mean my age of 17 and saying "when I were a young player", u have to realise that I started playing chess when i were 8 so with "when I were a young player" I mean when I was about 10 years old.

Goonusuke I'll take a stab richie is referring to this, more or less the same set up whatever white plays. 

http://www.vanrekom.nl/thelion/indexgb.htm

varies between a philidor and a pirc at times

Yeah, but much more so.

It's a Philidor/Old Indian style thing with d6, e5, Nbd7 and Nf6, with c6, Qc7, Be7 coming, followed by a h6, g5, Ng6, Nf4 plan. Often starting from a Pirc move order; the main line is I guess 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7!? 4.Nf3 e5. Or 4.f4 e5, et cetera. You can also play it as white, then it's the "White Lion".

It's got a sort of cult following in some regions of the Netherlands; two Dutch 1900-players have made their life work of it and have written books on it that have umpteen editions now; New In Chess have even translated "The Black Lion" book into English and it's apparently selling like hotcakes.

This is a website on it: http://www.vanrekom.nl/thelion/indexgb.htm

Tellingly, it's got the moves as a moving .gif that doesn't even show the White pieces!

And this introduction: "The Lion is an extraordinary chess opening. Playing with black you have an incredible strong weapon against all the white opening moves you can imagine. The Lion is an excellent response to 1.e4 or 1.d4, but the Lion is also the best answer for 1.c4 and 1.Nf3. Actually, it's more than just an opening. The Lion is also played in middlegame and endgame. With the Lion you get a whole new chess strategy and -philosophy."

And there you were, thinking it was just an opening! They make it sound like it will work at least half way decent in checkers as well.

Reportedly, not all the lines stand up to GM scrutiny. But you already expected that, didn't you?

That Black Lion website is hilarious!  I thought it was a parody for the first two sections.  What's with the black and white photo of the gleeful cowboy with bad teeth?  

The gleeful cowboy is John-Stuart Plant (sounds like a cross between a rock singer and a crooner, sort of Rod Stewart meets Robert Plant) who's games are shown on the website.

Hi guys,

I am so glad that Whitehat posted this topic.  I encounter this opening (on this site) all the time.  I wonder why?  Anyone got any ideas?  Is this just a fad or has some prominant GM started playing this line?

Watch your backrank.

The Lion is not an ordinary opening. First, black doesn't castle (except in the Lion's head).