Irregular openings are chess openings with an unusual or rare first moves from White. Such openings include:
- 1.a3 (Anderssen's Opening)
- 1.a4 (Ware Opening)
- 1.b4 (Sokolsky Opening, also known as Polish or Orangutan Opening)
- 1.c3 (Saragossa Opening)
- 1.d3 (Mieses Opening)
- 1.e3 (Van 't Kruijs Opening)
- 1.f3 (Barnes Opening, also known as Gedult's Opening)
- 1.g4 (Grob's Attack)
- 1.h3 (Clemenz Opening, or Basman's Attack)
- 1.h4 (Desprez Opening, or Kadas Opening)
- 1.Na3 (Durkin Opening, also known as Durkin's Attack or the Sodium Attack)
- 1.Nc3 (Dunst Opening)
- 1.Nh3 (Amar Opening, also known as Paris Opening)
The above openings are all categorized under the ECO code A00. Openings that are not "irregular" comprise:
- 1.e4 (King's Pawn Game)
- 1.d4 (Queen's Pawn Game)
- 1.c4 (English Opening)
- 1.Nf3 (Réti Opening or Zukertort Opening)
- 1.f4 (Bird's Opening)
- 1.g3 (Benko's Opening) and
- 1.b3 (Larsen's Opening).
If White plays a regular opening and Black responds in an unconventional way, the opening is not categorized A00. For instance, 1.e4 a6 is classified as B00 (King's Pawn Opening).
Famous quotes containing the words irregular, chess and/or opening:
“My father and I were always on the most distant terms when I was a boy—a sort of armed neutrality, so to speak. At irregular intervals this neutrality was broken, and suffering ensued; but I will be candid enough to say that the breaking and the suffering were always divided up with strict impartiality between us—which is to say, my father did the breaking, and I did the suffering.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“The trick, which requires the combined skills of a tightrope walker and a cordon bleu chef frying a plain egg, is to take your [preteen] daughter seriously without taking everything she says and does every minute seriously.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“She tried to found a salon, and only succeeded in opening a restaurant.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)