A Complete Tutorial On The Bongcloud Opening
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Introduction To The Bongcloud:
The Bongcloud Opening is the best meme opening ever invented. If disrespect is your chess style, then this is your opening.
The Bongcloud exposes your King, blocks the development of your queen and bishop all at the price of a joke. To recover and crush our opponent, first lets go though all of the theory and ideas and then all of the possible lines your opponent could play.
The Bongcloud's Theory and Ideas:
Since the position is closed we can follow the principles of them:
- Pawn moves matter slightly more than piece movements.
- Pay attention to key squares! Even if you lose control over one square, whether that is in the center, your castled side, or the side that the opponent is playing on.
- Pieces should be rerouted to come onto active squares.
- Knights are better than bishops. (Which means you should try to trade off a bad bishop for a good knight.)
- You should try to play on the side your pawns point which is where you have more outposts and control over, ONLY if the center is under your control or is very tightly locked. If you do not have really good control over the center then first take some good control, and then play according to the side where your pawns point.
Along with some special rules because of our brilliant opening:
- Try to keep the position closed because of the exposed king.
- Since you will most likely play d3 in almost all the variations, The place where you should play should be the kingside.
- Try to get control over d5 or f5 since your e-pawn is able to control those squares and launch a good attempt to get back counter-play.
- Here is an example game:
In the above game:
- White kept playing actively as possible. The Bongclouder kept his position safe for his king and at the same time played as actively as possible.
- Black wasted a little bit of time (That does happen in real chess games too.) and white took advantage of every little inaccuracy. Don't miss a chance in your games, especially because you have a positional disadvantage.
- In the endgame, the knight helped white a lot and was one of the major pieces that led to the Monarch's downfall.
- White managed to use all of the principles of closed positions to his advantage, while black played casually.
Bongcloud Responded with the Best Replies:
From Black's perspective, here are all the moves that make some sense in the position.
Nf6, d5, Nc6, Bc5, Be7. These are the top five moves and Black is most lightly going to play any one of these. Let me also add Ke7 as an option because some players tend to play the Double Bongcloud as well. And if black plays d6 then just follow basic chess principles of closed positions and you will be able to win (Written above).
Nf6 - Engine's Best Line
Nf6 is the best line going straight for white's pawn, leading to a start of activeness for black. It isn't a bot like move, so don't rush to report your opponent if he plays this move, because it is the second most played move.
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Black also follows the basic principles of developing pieces, especially a knight before a bishop. This move tries to tempos to start a well played game of chess.
The very short line above is one of the positions in which many people could just simplify and lose all of their advantage. Remember: Always try to force trading the opponent's active pieces or force them back while retaining the activity of your pieces.
Nc6 - Most Popular Move
Nc6 looks more human like, and hence is the most played move. Its also the third best move so, its only 0.07 advantage points less that Nf6.
