King's Pawn Game - Rare Continuations

Rare Continuations

The remaining replies to 1.e4 are very rare, and have not received significant and serious attention by masters. MCO does not cover them, considering them so bad to not merit discussion. These openings sometimes lead to wild and exciting games, and are occasionally employed by weaker players to get better trained opponents "out-of-book". Some have exotic names, they are listed below along with instances where they have been used by strong players.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Fred Defense after 2.exf5 Nf6. Black has a lead in development.

• 1... a5, the Corn Stalk Defense. United States chess player Preston Ware played the Corn Stalk in eleven recorded tournament games from 1880 to 1882, winning four and losing seven.
• 1... Na6, called the Lemming Defense in Unorthodox Chess Openings, develops the knight to an inferior square. The line has been suggested against some older computers, hoping for 2.Bxa6 bxa6, when Black has the bishop pair and a quick fianchetto as compensation for the doubled pawns. However, Black has no justification for playing 1...Na6 if White avoids this line.
• 1... f5 is called the Duras Gambit in Unorthodox Chess Openings, and is also known as the Fred Defense. This is a pawn sacrifice which gives Black a lead in development after 2.exf5 Nf6. The line was played three times in an exhibition match between Ossip Bernstein and Oldřich Duras.
• 1... f6 is known as the Barnes Defense after Thomas Wilson Barnes. This move is clearly inferior, taking away the f6-square from the knight and weakening Black's kingside, although Barnes managed to defeat Paul Morphy with this defense in 1858.
• 1... h5, the Goldsmith Defence or Pickering Defense. All this move does is waste a tempo weakening the kingside.
• 1... h6, called the Carr Defense in Unorthodox Chess Openings. This defense has also been used by Michael Basman, and is likely to transpose to the Borg Defense (after 2.d4 g5).
• 1... Nh6, the Adams Defense or Wild Bull Defense.
• 1... b5, the Polish Gambit, simply loses a pawn to 2.Bxb5.