Bongcloud Opening Theory: The Definitive Guide

The Bongcloud Opening is an ultramodern, aggressive opening first popularised by the current top Blitz player, GM Hikaru Nakamura.

Nakamura has analysed this opening thoroughly, praising it for his recent success against top players, an example of which being his famous St. Louis Rapid and Blitz game where he crushed GM Jeffery Xiong using the Bongcloud. Nakamura has also reached a Blitz rating of 3000 using exclusively this opening on his smurf account, Clownpusher.

If this track record is not already respectable enough, world #1 GM Magnus Carlsen has expressed his fascination in regards to this opening, studying many variations and distributing his knowledge to the masses after Nakamura's aforementioned crushing victory.

Lines and Variations

Main Line 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2

To clarify this opening to anyone unfamiliar, the main line goes:

This line is considered the most aggressive set-up, controlling the centre with the e4 pawn and adding protection to the d3, e3 and f3 squares. This line also allows white to push f3, without having to worry about Qh4+ check, solidifying a future attack on the Kingside with g4 and h4. 

The general ideas are to move the king to f3 eventually, allowing development of the f1 bishop and pushing g3 to shelter from any kingside attacks, as in:

This is the book main line for the Bongcloud, following the ultramodern philosophy of allowing the opponent to get quick development, while the player takes up space around the kingside in order to attack.

Attacking Variations with 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2

The main line seems relatively slow, so the top Bongcloud players have developed sharp variations to create threats and attacks more quickly, the most popular example is the A00 Bongcloud Opening: Extended Variation:

This epitomises Hikaru Nakamura's strongly preached philosophy of attacking with the king. The extended variation allows the king to hold the crucial e4 pawn and its surrounding squares, while also incorporating the art of baiting the opponent into throwing in pseudo-threatening checks in the opening, ruining their position and allowing white to take control of the game later on. For instance:

Here we have a common mistake amongst grandmasters, hanging the queen in this razor sharp position, allowing white to win the game on the spot.

Another strong attacking variation is the A00: Bongcloud Opening; Tal-Lengyel Gambit:

Here white pushes b3, preparing to fianchetto the c1 bishop staring towards the kingside, and then pushing h4 in explosive fashion, gambiting the pawn in the centre and preparing Ke1, preparing to develop the f1 bishop and g1 knight for a monstrous attack, where white hopes for h5 in future, destroying black's kingside (just as much as white's will be). While neither GM Felix Lengyel or GM Mikhail Tal have never played this opening, they would definitely approve of the nomenclature.

Nakamura Variation

Some players are more defensive and prefer to actually have chess games longer than 10 moves. Bongcloud advocates would describe these players to be 'too passive', however it is shown that these more passive variations, centred around the Nakamura Variation, can be highly successful, as demonstrated in Nakamura's Bongcloud Speedrun to 3000.

The main line for the Nakamura Variation goes as follows:

This variation has a rather dubious reputation, being criticised by 800 ELO players (and grandmasters alike) for being too reserved and not following the original ideas of the Bongcloud, wherein you attack with your king and take space around the kingside with your e, f, g and h-pawns. 

However, recent analysis of this line has concluded that fianchettoing the king on g2, developing your knight to h3 and pushing e3 reveals a more hypermodern approach to the Bongcloud, controlling the centre from behind a blockade of unbreakable pawns, and preventing any checkmate ideas. An example of which can be seen in this game by Nakamura:

Here we see a slightly different approach, with Hikaru playing the A00: Bongcloud Opening; Nakamura, Accelerated Variation. As seen, he plays 1. f3 allowing quick development of the king, laughing in the face of a potential 2. Qh4+ check, blocking with the well protected g-pawn. Black attempts to crush his kingside by breaking the pawn chain with 9. exf3, but to no avail, as this simply allows white to develop the knight by recapturing on f3 and later fianchettoing his king to safety on g2.

Other Variations (Carlsen Improved, Carlsen Gambit, Northernlion Counterattack)

As previously mentioned, GM Magnus Carlsen has studied his own variations for the Bongcloud, with varying success. One of which is the dubious A00 Bongcloud Opening; Carlsen's Improved Variation, which follows:

Although it seems flashy, the position is slightly worse for white as the king has not been properly developed to the kingside, rather it has been swapped with the queen to the queenside. This limits any counter-attacking chances for white against black's complete development. After a minimal success with this opening, he instead forged the powerful A00 Bongcloud Opening; Carlsen Gambit, building upon Nakamura's more passive philosophy of hiding the king:

Where white gambits the f and h-pawns for safe development of the king on h1. In terms of Bongcloud theory, this is revolutionary; white is planning on using their freed kingside pieces to attack the opponent, rather than hoping to crush them with their king and kingside pawns.

There are many ideas in this position, unlike in the Carlsen's Improved Variation, as all the surrounding pieces are primed for attack, arguably already developed. The knight on c3 can re-route to h5 in future, supported by the rook on h1; the f1 bishop can come into the attack on e2, creating an absolute laser-beam towards the black king, and the g-knight can develop to f3 or h3, both of which create excellent attacking ideas towards potential weaknesses on black's kingside.

The famously strong Twitch Chat have also created their own variational approach to the Bongcloud for black, coined A40 Englund Gambit; Bongcloud Defense, Extended, Botez Gambit, Northernlion Counterattack due to it first being used against popular chess streamer, Northernlion. This hyper-aggressive line was used in Twitch Chat vs Northernlion, which went:

Here, black gambits the queen for the central pawn, achieving very sound compensation by having the king in the centre of the board, ready to attack any pieces white may carelessly throw at it. In this game however, white emerged victorious as black was unable to extend the king to the 8th rank, as the first rule of Bongcloud theory goes.

So, that concludes it for this fantastic opening. Let me know if you have any of your own lines, and remember to keep this in your repertoire, you will need it. Thank you very much!