Can you help me with this opening?

First of all, I don't even know if it is a legitimate opening but I have been trying to play with it.

1.e4
2.c3
3.d4

All pawn moves by white. Does this opening have a name?

If the opening is no good, is there something similar (gets 2 pawns in the middle early) but better?

I'm new so any help would be appreciated. I know moving 3 pawns in a row in the opening probably isn't the best.

Originally posted by Gortron
First of all, I don't even know if it is a legitimate opening but I have been trying to play with it.

1.e4
2.c3
3.d4

All pawn moves by white. Does this opening have a name?

If the opening is no good, is there something similar (gets 2 pawns in the middle early) but better?

I'm new so any help would be appreciated. I know moving 3 pawns in a row in the opening probably isn't the best.

What are blacks first two or three moves? 😕

An opening is a two sided deal

go to this site to play around with openings

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/rerolpxe

I've only played it a couple of times, against pretty much anything.


1.e4 e5
2.c3 Ng8f6
3.d3 Bf8c5

Is how one of the games I am playing now started.

Game 3275316

Thats a really passive opening for white

white has better options.

You can make more of a push for the center right away, plus it has the possibility of hemming in either your queen knight or queen bishop

If you play something like that with c4 first, you get a reverse sicilian with a move in hand, which looks sort of like what you were doing

In most instances the knight belongs on c3.
After 1.e4...e5 2.Nf3 is the most rational choice, preparing for a KS castle & forcing black's response by attacking e5 & also staking claim to the d4 square.
After 1.e4...e5 2.c3 black can play an early d5 & then Nc6 & you're looking out of sorts already.

Originally posted by Gortron
First of all, I don't even know if it is a legitimate opening but I have been trying to play with it.

1.e4
2.c3
3.d4

All pawn moves by white. Does this opening have a name?

If the opening is no good, is there something similar (gets 2 pawns in the middle early) but better?

I'm new so any help would be appreciated. I know moving 3 pawns in a row in the opening probably isn't the best.

I use this pawn formation with good success out of the Italian opening. Once I develop the Italian my fourth move is 4. c3 then 5. d4.

I think moving the pawn to c3 on the second move is considered a bit premature and therefore is not done much. You want to see how black deploys his d and e pawns and wait for the right timing to spring this move.

A good book that explains the strategy of the c3 and d4 pawn attack for center control is, "Logical Chess Move by Move" by Irving Chernov.

Anytime the pawn comes to c3 early, that means the Knight won't be coming there soon. Which means that the center squares it normally covers (e4 and d5) are weaker. Which points to Black playing Nf6 or d5 early to equalize.

Against 1..e5, the opening 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 is called the Ponziani. It's not highly regarded as Black gets a fine game after 3...d5. 2.c3 looks like a weaker version of this, when d5 or Nf6 look great for Black. From a historical perspective, if 1.e4 e5 2.c3 were halfway reasonable, it would have been played a lot more frequently than it has. Of course you can play to gambit a pawn with the Danish Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3, but I don't think this is what you have in mind.

Against the Sicilian (1...c5) , 2.c3 is fine. I know it only as the c3 Sicilian but somebody has probably named it somewhere. One of the differences here is after 2...Nf6 the pawn can advance to e5 with a tempo on the Knight.

You can't play 2.c3 vs. the Scandavian (1...d5) or the Alekhine (1...Nf6) because it loses a pawn.

Against other openings like the Caro-Kann (1...c6), French (1...e6), Modern (1...g6), or Nimzowitch (1..Nc6), 2.c3 can transpose but mainly it just limits White's options. It's like showing your cards in poker. No benefit and possibly a big drawback.

If you're wanting to play with the c3 setup consistently, try 1.d4 and 2.c3. Then you decide whether to play the black B outside the pawn chain before playing e3, or keep it home. There are various names for these systems (London, Colle, Stonewall, Torre Attack).

Originally posted by Gortron
First of all, I don't even know if it is a legitimate opening but I have been trying to play with it.

1.e4
2.c3
3.d4

All pawn moves by white. Does this opening have a name?

If the opening is no good, is there something similar (gets 2 pawns in the middle early) but better?

I'm new so any help would be appreciated. I know moving 3 pawns in a row in the opening probably isn't the best.

In terms of having two central pawns, you'd want to have c4 and d4 or d4 and e4. This can be accomplished in a number of openings like the King's Indian where white plays d4 and c4 with black playing Nf6 and e6.

Definitely check out chessgames.com/perl/explorer for info on opening sequences.

Originally posted by Gortron
I've only played it a couple of times, against pretty much anything.


1.e4 e5
2.c3 Ng8f6
3.d3 Bf8c5

Is how one of the games I am playing now started.

Game 3275316

I don't think it's the opening you have to worry about.

Originally posted by Dies Irae
Thats a really passive opening for white

yes, playing for the center with pawns is good...
but black forces white to play her queen out after
1. e4 e5
2. c3 Nf6
3. d4 Nxe4
4. Qe2 Nf7
5. Qxe5+ Be7 and black will castle with pawn to d5 and play with slight advantage developmentally...