Cheap trick

Play 1.Nc3 and if black responds with 1...c5 or 1...d5 trash the game, if he plays anything else you have a good chance to win

Originally posted by ChessJester
Play 1.Nc3 and if black responds with 1...c5 or 1...d5 trash the game, if he plays anything else you have a good chance to win

yeah, why is that so great for white? not that i would know at my rating anyway, but . . .

so if everyone plays d5 or c5 then you wont have many people to play in a while.

Originally posted by ChessJester
Play 1.Nc3 and if black responds with 1...c5 or 1...d5 trash the game, if he plays anything else you have a good chance to win

Originally posted by ChessJester
Play 1.Nc3 and if black responds with 1...c5 or 1...d5 trash the game, if he plays anything else you have a good chance to win

Yeah I was just saying though that white can transpose with an advantage if black plays 1...e5 for example, but it is much harder to retain the initiative against 1...d5 or 1...c5 which is the main reason 1.Nc3 is rarely played.

I don't trash games like that btw :p

1Nc3 e5 Nf3 Nc3 d4 is a good game for white similar to center counter or the scotch which can usually lead to an easy advantage, the problem is black usually plays 1...c5 or d5 which can transpose in blacks favor... unless there are moves for white we haven't seen

Originally posted by BLReid
Or, as a radical alternative, you could simply learn to play chess instead of looking for cheap tricks...

I have played 1.Nc3 for quite some time now.

1. Nc3
...c5, 2. d4!? ...cxd, 3. Qxd4 ...Nc6, Qh4!? leads to even and highly unique games with many tactical possibilities on both sides if innacurate play.

1. Nc3
...d5, 2. e4!? ...dxe, 3. Nxe is fairly self explanatory and easier to understand than:
...d5, 2. e4!? ...d4, 3. Nce2 (Nb1! has been played before as well with the idea that black's pawn is no better on d4 than d7 The game where B. Spasky was black ended in a rather quick draw) A few ideas behind Nce2 below~
3...c4, 4. white can play~ f4, Ng3, Nf3, d3...
3...e4, 4. white can play~ a3 (a must before d3 because you want to keep your dark squared bishop), Ng3, I have not tried it, but I have seen white play e5 with f4 to follow for a rather interesting struggle on both sides (but I cannot comment on how sound it is as of yet).

P.S. ~ I ignored the other main variations seeing as they have already been covered.

P.S.S. ~ A Correspondance GM (Ove Ekebjaerg) recently won 6/7 games as white in the CC World Championships using 1.Nc3! That is a winning percentage of 85.71%!!! The game he did not win ended in a draw. This score ensured him AT LEAST second place in the tournament!! His competition was 100% other GM's.

yep...that sounds like a forced win alright...you could be teh next bobby fischer....ya should write a book.

nc3 is simply a transpositioin opening move....

I like 1.Nc3 too, but I am not so good at closed sicillian type games, and 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 d4 3.Ne2 has always been described to me as a white advantage in space