Double Fianchetto Opening

All Things Chess
1

I played this recently on FICS. Obviously its a double fianchetto opening, but was having a hard time pining down its exact name (if one exists).

Or it just might be an offbeat double fianchetto opening without a specific name.

Chessbase seems to find a few games and lumps them under ECO code A01. Although it doesn’t technically start as the Larson Opening (or alternately the Nimzovich-Larson Attack), it quickly transposes to that. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fair amount of games in Chessbase, including one by Gata Kampsky.

Here’s my score. Its fairly unusual for me, in that I had 4 pawns all pushed to the 5th rank. I think the better pawn play on the queenside was of note. Obviously the last time he moved his knight was a blunder, but until then, I think the game was actually kind of interesting.

I’ll also post the Gata Kampsky score, just to show that the opening has had a Grandmaster play it.

[Event “unrated standard match”]
[Site “Free Internet Chess Server”]
[Date “2013.08.15”]
[Round “?”]
[White “GuestHHVW”]
[Black “jjamesge”]
[Result “"]
[Event “unrated standard match”]
[Site “Free Internet Chess Server”]
[Date “2013.08.15”]
[Round “?”]
[White “GuestHHVW”]
[Black “jjamesge”]
[Result "”]
[WhiteElo “-”]
[BlackElo “1463”]
[ECO “A00”]
[TimeControl “900+5”]

  1. g3 e6 2. Bg2 d5 3. b3 Nf6 4. Bb2 Nbd7 5. e3 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. O-O c5 8.
    Nc3 Qc7 9. Re1 e5 10. Na4 Rb8 11. Rc1 b5 12. Nc3 a6 13. Ne2 Bb7 14. c3 e4 15.
    Nh4 Ne5 16. d4 Nd3 17. Qd2 Nxe1 18. Qxe1 c4 19. bxc4 bxc4 20. Nf4 Bc8 21. Rb1
    g5 *

-not sure why the game doesn’t show my opponent resigning. :confused:

[Event “Dos Hermanas Blitz Final”]
[Site “ICC INT”]
[Date “2010.03.19”]
[Round “1.4”]
[White “Kamsky, Gata”]
[Black “Bortnik, Alexandr”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A01”]
[WhiteElo “2702”]
[BlackElo “2348”]
[PlyCount “177”]
[EventDate “2010.03.19”]
[EventType “k.o. (blitz)”]
[EventRounds “5”]
[EventCountry “USA”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2010.05.04”]

  1. b3 Nf6 2. Bb2 d5 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. d3 c5 7. Ne2 Nc6 8. O-O h6
  2. Nd2 e5 10. h3 Be6 11. Kh2 a6 12. f4 exf4 13. Nxf4 Qd7 14. Qf3 Rae8 15. a3 d4
  3. e4 Ne5 17. Qe2 Bd6 18. a4 b6 19. Nc4 Bxc4 20. bxc4 Ng6 21. Bc1 Qc7 22. Kh1
    Kh7 23. Bd2 Be5 24. Qf3 Re7 25. Qf2 Qd7 26. Rfb1 Qc6 27. Ra2 Rb8 28. Rf1 Rd8
  4. Raa1 Rf8 30. Nd5 Nxd5 31. exd5 Qd6 32. Be4 Ree8 33. Kg2 Kg8 34. g4 Bf6 35.
    Qg3 Be5 36. Qf2 Bf6 37. Bf4 Nxf4+ 38. Qxf4 Re5 39. Qg3 Rfe8 40. h4 Qd8 41. Kh3
    Qd7 42. Rf5 Rxf5 43. Bxf5 Qd8 44. Be4 Qd7 45. Rf1 Re5 46. Kg2 Qe7 47. Rf5 Rxf5
  5. Qb8+ Qd8 49. Qxd8+ Bxd8 50. Bxf5 Bc7 51. Kf3 a5 52. Ke4 Bd6 53. Bd7 g6 54.
    Bc8 Kg7 55. Bb7 Kf8 56. Kf3 Kg7 57. h5 gxh5 58. gxh5 f5 59. Bc8 Kf6 60. Bd7 Kg5
  6. Be8 Kf6 62. Bg6 Kg5 63. Kg2 Kf6 64. Kf2 Kg5 65. Kg2 Kf6 66. Kf3 Kg5 67. Kf2
    Kf6 68. Be8 Kg5 69. Bg6 Kf6 70. Kf3 Kg5 71. Ke2 Kf6 72. Kf2 Kg5 73. Kf3 Kf6 74.
    Kg2 Kg5 75. Kf3 Kf6 76. Kf2 Kg5 77. Ke2 Kf6 78. Kf1 Kg5 79. Be8 Kf6 80. Bg6 Kg5
  7. Ke1 Kf6 82. Kd2 Kg5 83. c3 Kf6 84. cxd4 cxd4 85. Ke2 Bc5 86. Kf3 Bd6 87.
    Kf2 Bc5 88. Kf3 Bd6 89. Kg2 1-0
2

The opening positions have similar characteristics to an opening known as the “Hippopotamus”. Usually, this is a formation set up defensively by Black against almost anything White plays. A “Reverse Hippo?” A “Hippo Attack?”

3

If you feel it must have a name call it the Benko opening after Pal Benko eight times US open champion. Benko’s Opening (1.g3) he introduced in the 1962 Candidates Tournament defeating Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal with it.

4

Interesting. I didn’t know I was playing a specific style defense. From my game perspective, I was merely trying to develop my pieces in a way that minimized any surprise moves. (In other words, trying to avoid any opening trap I wasn’t aware of.)

My first offense move was 7 … c5. Not that I had a particular attack in mind, but wanted to give myself, and especially my queen, some room to maneuver. Plus the move bodes well, since I often play the Sicilian Defense. I figured I’d at least be familiar with putting pressure on the d4 square via the c5 pawn… and the ensuing fallout if the opponent chose to liquidate that area of the board.

After that, the opponent wasn’t really doing much for opening the center of the board, so mostly my other queen side pawn play (and other moves), revolved around locking his knight down from being an offensive piece. Course I wasn’t trying to get a rolling pawn chain, it just kind of happened. His move 10. Na4 was puzzling, since it didn’t do anything but let me develop even more space.

I think that about wraps up my game analysis, since he kept making even more positional mistakes after that.