Parham Attack:Why it works, and why it DOESN'T work.

If you are an amature player, like myself, you will eventually and frequently encounter the Parham Attack, or as I not so affectionately refer to it... the Patzer Opening.

The Patzer is:

 9/10 times bc4 comes on move 3 regardless of your response.

Now if you are trying to learn the game of chess, you may know that principles of a solid opening include Playing for the center, and not bringing the Queen out to early. 

This opening brings the Queen out on move 2, and to a side file. So you know it's bad, but let's just say that you fall to it anyway.

There are 2 BIG reasons that this thing works at our level:

1. You try to take advantage of it and move with tempo for example:

However, if you did this you know the result is pretty nasty. opponent responds:

Lost your center, and in check... now bad things happen very quickly. you also may have tried using the pawn to knock the queen back:

Which yields:

and again a lot of bad things start to happen very quickly.

So you decide to do some research and the advice your often met with is "don't try to punish the early queen right away, just develop attacking her at your leisure to gain tempo. Wich leads us to the second reason this thing works:

2. You can not adhere to all the opening principles and successfully defend the Parham Attack.

For example maybe something like:

Great now he checks you and can collect your bishop:

Blocking with the your Queen saves the Bishop, but then this happens:

 So in short it works because we are learning to play solid chess, and this attack violates everything we are taught. Further more it is worth noting that this attack may even actually be solid. It sees GM play sometimes, and has yet to be refuted the way something like "Damiano's Defense" has been refuted.

The Good news is that solid or not, there is only one solid defense for it, and it's very short, no lines. 

You play: 

The Knight defends your pawn and prevents the check. Your Queen stops the opponents Bishop and Queen duel attack, and from here you can go back to solid play. 

He voilates the early queen principle. Your defense has to meet him, and thus requires you to also break that principle.

From here on out you have a much easier time developing than he does.

I have not lost to this opening since I started playing that defense. Even if the Patzer is a valid opening, noone at the amature level plays solidly enough to use it right. So there you have it.

Hi! You took the time to write out quite a detailed post, but I noticed a significant number of errors and faulty recommendations. I just thought I'd take a few steps toward setting the record straight.

1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nf6, your second diagram. Actually I think 2...Nf6! is Black's strongest reply to the Parham. It's true that White can capture the e5-pawn with check, but Black replies 3...Be7 followed by castling. White ends up way behind in development, and Black even has opportunities to rip open the center and attack early, or to trap White's queen if he is not careful, e.g.

Your point about 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Bc5 was quite valid. Black however doesn't have to lose a Rook after 3.Qxe5+ Be7 4.Qxg7 Bf6.

Your comment that there is only one solid defense to the Parham is the most blatantly incorrect thing you said. Here are many:

 I am a an amature, so I probably do have imperfections in my diagrams, but the point I wanted to make is that the Parham preys on amatures, because proper defense requires you to break the fundamentals that are preached to you by every book and person you might ask.

The research I found stated that there are 2 well studied responses to the Parham, and that the one I posted is far and away the most solid, whilst the second (Kiddie Gambit) is under speculation.

I just wanted to show other amatures how to counter this in the simplest way, because it's played constantly at our level, and it sucks to lose over and over again to it while you try to find the defense. 

My hope is that we can counter it more often, and get back to trying to play "good" chess.

The Parham to me is like that one guy that goes "all-in" everytime when you try to play poker.

Did you have any comments on the line recommended in just about every chess book, which is 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 g6 4.Qf3 Nf6 5.Qb3? Nd4 6.Bxf7+ Ke7 7.Qc4 b5 and White loses a piece?

5.Ne2 is an improvement but Black has at least an equal game, provided he knows to trade off White's light-square Bishop for a Knight given the opportunity.

I have seen a game where Woody Harrelson draws Kasparov using this opening. What a legend! If anyone can find it and post it that would be cool.

 Well, expertise, your rated higher than me, and something like that might work for you. However, I am fan of the quote "everything should be made as simple as possible." 1.e4,e5 2.h5, Nc6. is pretty simple.

In the Kasparov game, Harrelson was being coached by other GMs.

There's nothing wrong with the Parham. The best black can do is get equal. And I agree with expertise, Nf6 is probably my favorite response to the Parham. Nc6 works too but it gives white a better position after 10 moves or so. There's never going to be a response that's going to give black the upper hand. But as I said before, you can get it equal.

I don't play 1...e5.

But if I did, I think I wouldn't hesitate to play 2...Nf6, letting that e-pawn drop, to surge ahead in development.

I'm cool with it cone. I know I don't have all the answers. I was just an amature talking about amature play nothing more.

That doesnt give black a "solid position". If anything white has a slight advantage

Why doesn't black just play 8...h6. The Parham is trash, because black can get away with silly stuff like early Na5s and gambiting the e-pawn for tempi. 

The Nd5 appears liable to getting lost. 

i used to fall for the traps a lot

a lot of people like to do parham

i usually respond like this

definitely not a joke

this is how i usually respond