Unconventional Openings - Just for Suprise and ...

I was looking through this chess database: http://www.gensunasumus.com and found a lot of really unorthodox moves, like starting with a2-a3 being played by 2200+ rated players. For example:

[Event "Asian-ch U20"]
[Site "Bikaner"]
[Date "2004.12.27"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Filippov, Anton"]
[Black "Nikhelesh, Kumar K"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2475"]
[BlackElo "2240"]
[PlyCount "58"]
[EventDate "2004.12.22"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "11"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2005.03.03"]

1. a3 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. b4 Bg7 4. Bb2 O-O 5. c4 c5 6. bxc5 Qa5 7. e3 Qxc5 8. d4
Qa5+ 9. Qd2 Qxd2+ 10. Nfxd2 d6 11. Nc3 Bd7 12. a4 b6 13. Ba3 Nc6 14. Nb3 Rfd8
15. Be2 Be8 16. O-O Rac8 17. Rfc1 Bf8 18. g4 h6 19. h4 e5 20. d5 Nb8 21. a5
Nfd7 22. Nb5 Nc5 23. Bxc5 bxc5 24. Nxa7 Rc7 25. Nb5 Re7 26. a6 Bxb5 27. cxb5
Nd7 28. Na5 Nf6 29. Bf1 Ra8 1-0

So are these strange openings solid or just meant to confuse the opponent by bringing him into unexplored territory?

... or just pure arrogance ... or just taking the mickey!

With a3 is White essentially saying, "come and have a go at me" to black, virtually swapping sides and giving him the initiative.?? I don't quite get it, maybe certain players feel they are better at playing as black and counter-attacking, or does it just take people out of the book?

Unconventional openings are less effective in correspondence chess, where your opponent has access to books and databases.

There is a reason they are not conventional, and that reason is usually that they are not very sound.

The person playing white is also over 200 points higher in rating than his opponent. He probably was giving his opponent a head start.

I think that while some unconventional openings may be good for taking your opponent by surprise, playing something like Grob's Attack(1.g4) will do you more harm than good in the long run.

Originally posted by mufin78man
I think that while some unconventional openings may be good for taking your opponent by surprise, playing something like Grob's Attack(1.g4) will do you more harm than good in the long run.

Eric Schiller has two opening books, I have both:
Unorthodox openings and regular openings, don't have them
both in hand, may not be the correct titles but he covers most
of the nutty openings un the unorthodox book, some pretty good
ones, better rep than just suprise value in 5 minute games.
I just googled in eric schiller and he has a home page.
It seems the USCF is boycotting his books, don't know why.
Anyway he has a bunch of books, and there are more than three
on openings, Unorthodox, Standard, and Gambit openings are the
general opening books. He also has gambits for white and gambits
from the black side as separate books. Check him out, pretty good
stuff. I also have Nunns Openings (NCO) and MCO which is up to
14 so far I think.
I have a few of the ECO's but like Nunns better because they are
listed by name, kings gambit, evans gambit, etc.
ECO only gives numbers so you have to have the index down if you
want to study specific openings.

I've had good results with the Hammerschlag, and related.

White plays 1.f3 2.Kf2

Originally posted by Wulebgr
I've had good results with the Hammerschlag, and related.

White plays 1.f3 2.Kf2

I was introduced to that at the Jerusalem chess club, the guy
there called it 'the fox'. It invites attacks on the king which seem
to get repelled easily, at the same time getting a better position.
So it looks like you ignore the checkable king and just develop
naturally and don't get drawn into premature checks.

Originally posted by exigentsky
I was looking through this chess database: http://www.gensunasumus.com and found a lot of really unorthodox moves, like starting with a2-a3 being played by 2200+ rated players. For example:

[Event "Asian-ch U20"]
[Site "Bikaner"]
[Date "2004.12.27"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Filippov, Anton"]
[Black "Nikhelesh, Kumar K"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ ...[text shortened]... openings solid or just meant to confuse the opponent by bringing him into unexplored territory?

All of the above.