The Cornstalk Defense

Has anyone ever heard of this?:

there are several openings that exist only for maybe 5min(or less) games, that make your opponent have to think out of book to confuse them...

this looks to be one of them.

That is weird!

 I guess Preston Ware used to use this in tournaments a lot.

 I play 1 minute chess and its not uncommon to see moves like the following being played. They dont make any 'real' sense in how we understand openings but they are not intended to. They are moves that can be played very quickly yet wont cause you to lose too quickly when played with care. The idea generally is that if you play moves like either the white or black set up your opponent will try to punish the moves by thinking too much! in 1minute chess this isint likely and you will win on time because your opponent has tried too hard. Its fun to play but i wouldnt go doing it too often, fun for bullet chess tho.

i actually found taking a step away from book moves can actually improve you somewhat as you dont have any previous knowledge and must try read (analyze) the position carefully even it if is a bit out of the ordinary. ie. try identify mating patterns, combinations, spot weaknesses, good and bad pieces and so on.
Still, not something i would get into a habit of playing unless for fun.

 i meant the above post in response to what ckellygolf said.

Crap opening.

Conzipe- why not 2...Qb6 3.a3 a5 instead?

I have also seen 2...Qb6. But since the concept is the same and the a pawn is moved 1 move later i guess he tought it was enough to post a single example, the fastest one :)

1.b4 c3 2.Bb2 Qb6 3.a3 a5 looks much better for black at first since one might think that white is forced to either play the horrendous 4.c3 or lose a pawn. But white has the saving resource 4.c4! when after 4...axb4 5.c5! Qxc5? axb4 black finds to his horror that both the rook and the queen are attacked! Therefore black has to settle for something like 5...Qc7 6.axb4 Rxa1 7.Bxa1 and the position looks original and balanced.

EDIT: sorry pfen you posted when I was writing and so i repeated the same thing you said wothout knowing :P

My son had this played against him by a strong (1850) scholastic player.  The boy who played 1. ..a5?  had played against my son many times before and may have been "overthinking" e.g. "he knows my usual game.. I need to try something to SURPRISE him..." but really it is just a crap opening.  My son developed his pieces taking COMPLETE control of the center, and drove a huge wedge up the middle, dividing black's forces hopelessly and mating in about 24 moves.  There were many unusual positions and the game was rich with traps however... one mistake and the game could have gone the other way.

1.e4 a5 is a totally stupid opening.Good for bullet chess which needs less thinking than backgammon but nothing else.Of course there is nothing that is bad for bullet chess, just play all your pawns and pieces to the adjacent squares always  and avoid long , multi squared moves that makes you lose precious seconds.My friend Nick(we call him BEN, from Bullet Expert Nick) is an expert in bullet.The following  is a game he played recently annotated from him.

Great one Michael-G :D

I once saw an internet bullet game between Magnus Carlsen(yes, it was really him) and a 2000 dude, Magnus as white. the 2000 won after opening as black with 1.e4 h5? 2.d4 e5?. Just to further show the correlation between correct opening play and bullet results :P 

LOOOOOL