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:
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“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)
“But every insight from this realm of thought is felt as initial, and promises a sequel. I do not make it; I arrive there, and behold what was there already. I make! O no! I clap my hands in infantine joy and amazement, before the first opening to me of this august magnificence, old with the love and homage of innumerable ages, young with the life of life, the sunbright Mecca of the desert.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)