The Cow
The Cow is a meme opening system popularized by content creator WFM Anna Cramling. Players can go for the Cow setup as both White and Black, and the game usually leads to a solid but possibly cramped position.
Starting Position
The Cow is an opening system characterized by a piece setup that rarely changes regardless of the moves played by the opponent. The Cow setup involves putting the central pawns on d3 and e3 and the knights on b3 and g3. Black can also play The Cow setup with pawns on d6 and e6 and knights on b6 and g6.
The Cow setup aims to develop the minor pieces and later attack the opponent's center. While The Cow is objectively not a sound opening, it still results in a playable position, at least according to chess engines.
Pros
- It's an easy opening system to play.
- There's no theory in this opening.
Cons
- Objectively, it gives the other player a slight advantage.
- You need to waste a couple of tempi to get your pieces out.
Main Variations Of The Cow
The Cow is a flexible system with no developed theory. In general, players facing The Cow play by controlling the center with their d- and e-pawns, sometimes also advancing their c-pawn two squares.
The player employing The Cow should, at some point, challenge their opponent's central control by advancing one of their central pawns.
History Of The Cow
The Cow opening was popularized by content creator WFM Anna Cramling. She wanted to create a new opening that would be short, easy to remember, and viable. With this in mind, she came up with the idea of bypassing heavily theoretical openings by adopting the setup with pawns on d3 and e3. She then realized she could develop her knights to the b3- and g3-squares to indirectly influence the center.
Cramling named her opening The Cow for several reasons. She was inspired by Ferdinand, a movie (loosely based on the children's book The Story of Ferdinand) that airs in Sweden every Christmas. In the movie, Ferdinand is a pacifist bull who doesn't like fighting other bulls. At one point in the movie, Ferdinand destroys everything in his path after he's stung by a bee.
According to Cramling, The Cow is also a fitting name because of the opening's slow but sturdy nature. Finally, she realized that the word "cow" is easy to say and understand, just like her opening.
Cramling published a video in the first half of 2023 going over the opening she had invented and analyzing a few of her games. She also streamed herself playing the opening on her Twitch channel.
The Cow gained traction when Cramling posted a YouTube short on May 14, 2023. At the time, League of Legends content creator Tyler1 was learning to play chess and found Cramling's short. He then started playing The Cow in PogChamps 5, bringing a lot of attention to the opening.
Around the same time, other content creators like WFM Alexandra Botez and IM Eric Rosen adopted The Cow and created content on it. Since then, other prominent content creators like IM Levy Rozman have published videos featuring the opening.
The Cow again went viral after a 2555-rated Swedish grandmaster, Platon Galperin, played the opening in a classical game against Cramling herself during the 2024 Reykjavik Open. Then many more videos about The Cow were published, including a game analysis by GM Hikaru Nakamura.