Na3 Opening for White 70%?

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Groucho26

Why does this opening show a 70% win rate for white?  What am I missing?  Could be missing a lot, like I do in my games.  Thanks for input.

LM_player
Statistically, Na3 (Sodium Attack) has only been played 10 times in chess.com’s master games list.

7 of those games resulted in a WIN for White.
2 of those games were drawn.
1 of those games resulted in a loss for white.

This is not a large enough sample to determine whether or not it is a good opening. These results could’ve resulted from chance alone. Sometimes, a master will play a strange opening just for the heck of it. But chess games are not always determined by openings alone, so we cannot conclude that the opening is good or bad by this data alone.

I wouldn’t choose to play it in a serious game of chess. But if you are playing casually, it can lead to somewhat unusual positions with plenty of room for exploration. I see those that play this sometimes move 2. Nc4 after 1...e5! I assume this is one of the main ideas of this opening, but I might be wrong.

Hope this helps! =)

-Lukay
Groucho26

Thank you, Lukay for your thoughtful and informative response.  That makes perfect sense.

Best Regards!

Keith

graywyvern

i still play it occasionally e.g. https://www.chess.com/daily/game/193581164

graywyvern

Still playing it. Recently i started the first ever recorded instance of the Celadon Variation. 

https://www.chess.com/daily/game/270085728

darkunorthodox88

analyzing openings with a database without looking at numbers of times played will mislead you.

Try this out, when you analyze mainstream openings with lots of variations, check which ones have a suspiciously high winning percentage compared to the main lines, and you will find obscure moves, trappy lines, or otherwise was merely played to trip someone's preparation. when you start "zooming in", you may notice that this is often also because its a higher rated player winning agaisnt a weaker player with a deviation.

This doesnt mean that those higher scoring lines are better than the main lines, and  there is almost always a reason why they are not main lines (except those very rare times you can find a worthy novelty, but that's usually for master level players)