I think 1.b2-b4 is a best Chess Opening at www.chess.com!

This is another interesting Stats from chessgames.com

Black is doing well, here... Too good?

Tim Harding in his Kibitzer's corner on Chess cafe had this to say about this line

"Black, in my opinion, should resist the temptation to get
involved in a direct tactical fight with White, i.e. he should
avoid all the 1 b4 e5 2 Bb2 Bxb4 and 2...f6 lines. Instead he
should play 2...d6 3 c4 f5 or, more likely, one of the
positional lines with 1...Nf6 2 Bb2 e6 in which the
downsides of the white formation are more likely to be
exploited."

And

"It must be played “with a rage to destroy” because if
White gets to about move 15 with a “normal” position and no
obvious disadvantage then he’s probably better. Black must do
something violent, such as 8...Nf4 or 9...Rxe3, to justify his
choice of variation."

I've been playing 1.b4 for over a year now and I personally prefer to see Bxb4 then some of the other lines against it.  But then again, perhaps I just haven't played someone with a "rage to destroy".

What's everyone's opinion on the 1.b4 d5 2.Bb2 Qd6 3.a3 e5 line?

Contrary to this line, I think, that move a3 here is a bit waiste of time, and after that what white get plan to defense oneself, instead of attack!

in that line, AWARDCHESS, a3 is nessecary to defend b4. That is the excact same reason i play that line as black

MCO doesn't analyze all the lines in openings like this because they are played so rarely at master level.  So yeah, you can't really say that the b5 move is bad, just that it isn't explored in MCO.

I like that dog. 

Thanks for sharing AC!  I'm starting a b4 tournament soon, and this will be a big help!

Welcome!

Greg

1.Nc3 is definately a league above 1.b4 or 1. a3. An extremely well received book was recently written about it (or recently translated from German), most reviews accepted it seems completely sound..

I played 1.Nc3, since 1990...