Scorpio forget playing 1. h4 -- it is a bad opening. You did not lose because your opponent played 1. h4 you probably lost just because he was a much better player and figured he could win even with a bad opening.
Moral of the story--just because someone beat you with a bad opening does not mean you also should play that bad opening.
1. h4 creates nothing but a slight kingside weakness (making them more likely to commit to the queenside, and play openings that lead to kingside attacks on you) and doesn't develop a piece. after 1.h4, whites position is hardly terrible by any means. You can't "take advantage of the situation" like you said, because it's not a big enough mistake to lead to more then a draw.
1. h4 is what I would refer to as a "technical" opening, which is a nice way to refer to a move that isn't perticularly good, but drives the game to the type of positions that a perticular player knows inside and out. Most chess players, upon seeing 1.h4 will be driven nuts, and get overambitious trying to punish it. The more you try to punish it, the more the game is driven into positions the other player does really well in, it's the chess equivalent of a finger trap. The safest strategy is to either copy him and don't occupy the center yourself, or occupy a "small" center with a strong pawn chain that can't be easily defeated with a hypermodern opening. I personally prefer to be more ambitious and put two pawns in the center if I can, but you have to be a certain kind of nut to get more ambitious then that against someone who basically said "i'm really good at destroying large centers". Also try to avoid a transistion into an opening where 1.h4 is a useful move as that can throw the initative back into whites hands. There is nothing technically wrong with being ambitious, but you have to have faith in your ability to destroy hypermodern players.
Don't play 1.h4 yourself. It's a rather lousy opening that basically throws away whites initative, it doesn't destroy whites position, but it makes it impossible to get any sort of advantage against a good player. It's incredibly unambitious, and if you want a somewhat "unique" opening where you don't need to memorize opening moves, and one where a kingside attack is common, I would play a more ambitious and dangerous opening like the colle system if you prefer traditional positions, or the kings indian attack if you are inclined towards hypermodernism.
But one thing to always remember is that openings don't matter unless both players are pretty high level. Games ultimately come down to who is better at tactics, and if they are both fairly even at tactics, who makes the first blunder, or who is better at positioning.
Thank you for all of your replies. However, I was looking more for how to play the opening, not wether or not I can play it. I may never play this opening but I am just trying to figure out what I should do if I end up using it.
Thank you all for your opinions thought.
Well... it would completely depend on what your opponent does as to how you'd follow up the move 1.h4 To answer the question we'd have to write a middlegame book :p
Hopfully you'd get to use it as part of some kingside maneuvers.
The way you play 1. h4 is you trick your opponent into leaving the d5 pawn undefended and generally play hypermodern, with the potential for a long run kingside attack.
So theres one unconventional idea, nh3 - nf4, and the attack on the d5 pawn. It's a bad line, but the desperez is a bad opening. I'm not really sure what opening advice you think you're going to get, the desperez is such a useless opening it's going to transistion to something else where black is pretending to be playing from the white side or turn into a hypermodern opening every time. You would, as somebody else said, need a middlegame book, not opening advice to play 1.h4 right.
I play 1.h4 in G/60, G/30 and G/15 events. Like MichaelBickley said in one of the above comments, it's a "technical" opening that I know better than my opponents. They try to punish me quickly and end up falling into a trap or allow me to get a better position leading into the endgame.
Longer time controls I stick to 1.e4 and wild gambits :)
hello all,
If playing an A00 opening like 1 h4 it is important to make it work to your advancement. My setup with this opening is 1. h4 .. (any response but g5 since that threatens the pawn) 2. g3 .. again any response but threatening g5 pawn will be acceptable.But most opponents will develop the center. and this is to fortify the opening: 3.Bh3. If black opened the center pawns, he most likely has the white field bishop in clear view of the white bishop. he can exchange which will develop into Kh3g in response. from there a castling can be done to strengthen the white center. And off course, moving King to the g2 field for protection of the knight.
If he blocks the path you gained some advantage: You made your opponent move involuntarily.
If however the black player moves 1 h4 g5 then the option to move the pawn to h5 would be the logical choice, building the diagonal pawn line from there. also if you continue with the pawn, i suggest to first position the queenside bishop on b2. That threatens kingside pawn on e5 and the rook when you continue with the pawn.
However I made some comments on above question, I do not intent to think i can beat anybody with a certain opening. Chess is a interactive game and like yourself each opponent will have a strategy which he/she will try to play.
So try and try again to master any opening you like to win your game.
i just played a h4 opening and won the game. my control pawn was the pawn which i moved to g3. i castled kingside and my opponent was not able to get through my defense because of the structure of it.
Kind regards,
Stroom
Today, I was playing a match against a strong German player. I was Black, and I was truly stunned to realize that the player began the game with 1.h4.
I ended up losing the game, much to my surprise. This opening seemed so primitive, so useless, that I would be able to take advantage of the situation. However, I did indeed lose, and I decided to do a little research on the opening. Besides the name, the first move, and the origin behind the name, I found no information on Wikipedia or any other website. So, I have a few questions I would like to be answered...
- How far should you advance the h-pawn? If I overextend it to the sixth rank, Black can simply play g6, and the entire advantage of h4 falters.
- Assuming I continue and push the pawn forward, when should I push? It becomes increasingly difficult to move the pawn as more pieces began to focus on the h6 square.
- What are some if the systems Black commonly tries to achieve? How can I fend against these systems?