History and Use
The Bishop's Opening is one of the oldest openings to be analyzed; it was studied by Lucena and Ruy Lopez. Later it was played by Philidor. Larsen was one of the few grandmasters to play it often, after first using it at the 1964 Interzonal Tournament. Although the Bishop's Opening is uncommon today, it has been used occasionally as a surprise by players such as Kasparov. Nunn uses it to avoid Petrov's Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6), and Lékó played it in the 2007 World Championship against Kramnik, known to consistently play the Petrov.
Weaver Adams in his classic work "White to Play and Win" claimed that the Bishop's Opening was a win for White by force from the second move. However, he was unable to prove this by defeating players stronger than himself, and later abandoned the Bishop's Opening for the Vienna Game, making the same claim. Grandmaster Nick de Firmian, in the 14th edition of Modern Chess Openings concludes that the Bishop's Opening leads to equality with best play by both sides, and notes that, "Among modern players only Bent Larsen has played it much, but even Kasparov gave it a whirl (winning against Bareev)."
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