The "Lion" is just some bogus name some author used for the Hanham Variation of the Philidor, going specifically through the Pirc move order to avoid certain problem lines after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 and there are problems with both 3...Nf6 and 3...Nd7. The Pirc move order was known before this stupid "Lion" name came about.
Not sure about 5.g4, but I know there are 2 Anti-Hanham lines if Black plays 3...Nbd7 (4.f4 or 4.g4) and one against 3...e5 (4.dxe5).
The "Lion" is just some bogus name some author used for the Hanham Variation of the Philidor, going specifically through the Pirc move order to avoid certain problem lines after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 and there are problems with both 3...Nf6 and 3...Nd7. The Pirc move order was known before this stupid "Lion" name came about.
Not sure about 5.g4, but I know there are 2 Anti-Hanham lines if Black plays 3...Nbd7 (4.f4 or 4.g4) and one against 3...e5 (4.dxe5).
The "Lion" name comes from the uncommon Lion Defense, with which the Lion Philidor shares some common themes. There are even some direct transpositions if I recall correctly.
Yeah, it's kind of funny to see all the different names that come up in the DBs when you look at openings. Added to that, different DBs use different names and different criteria for what names to apply to lines (Chess.com DB calls 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 the "French Variation of the Sicilian". What the hell is that? They just made that up!
).
Simon Williams is really funny. In his chessable course "The Black Lion" (not be confused with Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panther) he calls 3...Nbd7 the "risky lion", and 3...e5 the "tame lion".
This game is interesting, not so much for the chess, but for the goofy names that came up in the DB when I reviewed it. I wonder what the current assessment of the "Anti-Philidor, Lion's Cave Variation" is?
6 g4 is fun, but unsound.
6 g4 is fun, but unsound.
Yeah, I suspected that when I played it. But most of my games are peppered with unsound moves, so I figured I'd at least have the fun part. On my level, just about every game is some kind of experiment. Most of them, even the wins, wouldn't hold up very well under theoretical scrutiny.
Just for the record, what about 5.g4, the Shirov Gambit, as in the first game shown? It fares well in the DB, but there's only a few hundred games (646) compared to over 10,000 in the mainline, Bc4.
This line usually starts off as a Pirc, but transposes into a Philidor: 1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7. According to the DB, it's the "Hanham, Lion Variation", which I never even heard of. Anyway, 5.g4 (instead of the more usual Bc4) is the Shirov Gambit. It's interesting, and I figure anything with Shirov's name on it should be a lot of fun.
I've tried the line in a few games with mixed results. I think this is one of the more interesting tries. I interposed 5.a4 and then g4, but that probably made no difference.