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Chess Openings - Flank Openings

Generally, the Flank Openings are considered to comprise all alternative openings to 1. e4 and 1. d4. It's fairly obvious to see that the vast majority of possible flank openings are quite horrible.

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The Desprez Opening
1. h4

Take the Desprez Opening (1. h4) for example. It is actually not that uncommon to see rank beginners make this move. It appears to allow white to bring out a powerful piece - the rook - while keeping white's pawn structure in the centre flexible.

In reality, the Desprez is complete garbage for several reasons:

No serious chess player plays the Desprez, except perhaps as a joke in a blitz game.

There are several Flank Openings, however, which are considered to be solid and respectable. We will consider the two strongest: The Reti Opening and The English Opening. For fun, we'll round things out with a quirky third: Bird's Opening.


How Common are the Flank Openings?

Green Flag

Common at the Master Level

Yellow Flag

Uncommon at the Novice Level

Flank openings make up about 10% of games overall. Novices are far more likely to play the more straightforward and logical 1. e4 and 1. d4.


Back - Next
Chess Openings - Table of Contents
Introduction
Open Games - Centre Game - King's Gambit - Bishop's Opening - Vienna Game - King's Knight Opening - Spanish Game (Ruy Lopez) - Italian Game - Scotch Game - Philidor Defense - Petrov Defense
Semi-Open Defenses - Scandinavian Defense - French Defense - Caro-Kann Defense - Sicilian Defense - Alekhine Defense - Modern & Pirc Defense
Closed Games - Queen's Gambit
Indian Defenses - Nimzo-Indian Defense - King's Indian Defense - Queen's Indian Defense
Flank Openings - Reti Opening - English Opening - Bird's Opening
Conclusion