Strange opening: 1.e4 c5 2.Na3

As played by Vadim Zvjaginsev to beat Ruslan Ponomariov:
http://www.chessliga.ru/viewer/club_che06-1.htm

Has anyone seen this before, or played it themselves? I'll be trying it myself first chance I get!

Originally posted by Fat Lady
As played by Vadim Zvjaginsev to beat Ruslan Ponomariov:
http://www.chessliga.ru/viewer/club_che06-1.htm

Has anyone seen this before, or played it themselves? I'll be trying it myself first chance I get!

Check it out at Chesslab.com 😉 :

http://www.chesslab.com/PositionSearch.html

Objectively it cannot be good, Black is equal after 2 moves, but it does have the merit of taking the game out of theory, which in the Sicilian there's a huge amount of.

Interestingly it can set up a trap for greedy little computers to fall into

[Event "Blitz:10',P600"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2001.06.24"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Nemeth, Eduard"]
[Black "Deep Fritz, 64Mb"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B20"]
[PlyCount "53"]
[EventDate "2001.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2004.11.04"]

1. e4 c5 2. Na3 Nc6 3. h3 Nf6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Bc4 Nxe4 6. Bxf7+ Kxf7 7. Qh5+ Ke6
8. Qg4+ Kd5 9. c4+ dxc3 10. Bf4 e5 11. O-O-O+ Nd4 12. Rxd4+ Kxd4 13. Nf3+ Kd5
14. Rd1+ Kc6 15. Nxe5+ Kb6 16. Nec4+ Kc5 17. Be3+ Kc6 18. Qxe4+ d5 19. Ne5+ Kc7
20. Nb5+ Kb8 21. Rxd5 Bd6 22. Nxd6 cxb2+ 23. Kxb2 Qf6 24. Rc5 Qxf2+ 25. Bxf2 b6
26. Nd7+ Bxd7 27. Qb7# 1-0

Originally posted by Siskin
Objectively it cannot be good, Black is equal after 2 moves, but it does have the merit of taking the game out of theory, which in the Sicilian there's a huge amount of.

I think that is the whole idea, to avoid theory. The sheer amount of theory that GMs have memorized almost makes following their tournaments and games meaningless for me.

in big database 2004 black wins 8 times and draws once. no wins for white.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
As played by Vadim Zvjaginsev to beat Ruslan Ponomariov:
http://www.chessliga.ru/viewer/club_che06-1.htm

Has anyone seen this before, or played it themselves? I'll be trying it myself first chance I get!

I was under the impression that this move while not normal has been played quite a bit, im sure theres some GM or another using it on a regular basis at the moment.

Edit oh yes, Zvjaginsev........I need more coffee, clearly.

Hes been doing it for sometime.

http://chessbase.com/eventarticle.asp?newsid=2811