Owen's Defence - Guatemala Defence

Guatemala Defence

	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

Black's bishop occupies the diagonal a6–f1. Although the Guatemala does not evince high opening ambition, neither does it lose material.

Instead of fianchettoing, Black can proceed differently by playing his queen's bishop to a6, the Guatemala Defense, so named because the Guatemala Chess Club used the line in a 1949 correspondence game. Andrew Soltis writes that it has "no other discernible benefit than to get out of 'book' as quickly as possible". White gets the advantage with 2.d4 Ba6 3.Bxa6 Nxa6 4.Nf3 Qc8!? 5.0-0 Qb7 6.Re1 e6 7.c4.

The Guatemalan bishop deployment can also occur on Black's third move, from various transpositions. For example after 1.e4 b6 2.d4 e6, 1.e4 e6 2.d4 b6, or 1.d4 b6 2.e4 e6, Black will followup in all cases with 3...Ba6.