Opening Bomb Diary #28: A New Line in the Two Knights

These days, my favorite opening ideas are the less glamorous ones. It is nearly impossible today to find an opening bomb that is like Excalibur, some magic sword that leads to an advantage. Rather, it is far more possible and fun to go "dumpster diving", to take some forgotten line, or the engine's interesting fifth suggestion, and to polish it up until it is "playable". Even better if it has never been played before. 

On good hardware, the neural network engines seem to think practically everything is "playable" (well, maybe with the exception of the 2.c5 Modern Benoni ), and this can lead to some pleasant surprises when analyzing. For example, here is a new line I found in the Two Knights that is incredibly chaotic and suspicious, but the engines seem to think it is okay for Black.

The New Idea:

A move that's never been tried at the high level. There are now two main options: 7.Nxf7 and 7.cxd4. The following lines are really just a brief survey, but hopefully the highlight some interesting possibilities.

7.Nxf7

7.cxd4

Hope you enjoyed the idea. It's surprising that no high-level player has tried it yet, as the complications are quite new and interesting to analyze. It could be useful as a surprise weapon. Sometimes surprising the opponent as early as possible is even more important than booking up on known theory. With the new neural net engines, it is more possible than ever to craft an early surprise like this one.