26

I have heard the Bongcloud opening mentioned on chess.com, but I have never heard of that. Is this a real opening, and if so, what is it?

Rewan Demontay
  • 16,942
  • 4
  • 65
  • 109

3 Answers3

27

The Bongcloud opening is a joke opening that is meant to give your opponent a chance, and also it is meant to show contempt for your opponent. You play it because you think you are much stronger than they are. It is, obviously, not a good opening.

GM Hikaru Nakamura is one of the jokesters, who plays this from time to time. There are multiple YouTube videos showing him playing this. Here is one.

 [FEN ""]
 
 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2? {The Bongcloud!}
SecretAgentMan
  • 3,467
  • 2
  • 12
  • 44
PhishMaster
  • 32,397
  • 4
  • 102
  • 174
  • P.P.S. I was just thinking, and there is another such opening that we used to call "The Fred". It is just 1.f3, and 2.Kf2 (or f6 and Kf7 for black). – PhishMaster Dec 08 '19 at 16:12
  • 22
    Of course, advanced players will know the correct tactical response to this opening: 2... Ke7!! – Quintec Dec 09 '19 at 01:18
  • 2
    It's apparently also a chess tradition to annotate Bongcloud games "seriously", even though it's of course a joke. – Allure Dec 09 '19 at 02:06
  • 17
    -1: It's completely unacceptable to explain Bongcloud without bringing up the definitive guide, ["Winning with the Bongcloud" by BM Andrew Fabbro](http://web.archive.org/web/20150724002245/http://www.chessmastery.com/bongcloud.pdf) published in 2010. (It also mentions the alleged origin of its name, `Lenny_Bongcloud`.) Also the Botez gambit is irrelevant to the answer, which should be removed. –  Dec 09 '19 at 08:28
  • 2
    @Voile just wondering how you managed to downvote this, since your rep is below the limit. Does this site have different rules? – polfosol Dec 09 '19 at 09:48
  • 2
    @polfosol When you don't have the 125 rep, the downvote is registered, but it does not really do anything. It is more to make him feel good. – PhishMaster Dec 09 '19 at 11:33
  • First Voile, my answer is fine. You are free to provide an additional answer if you want to. Second, I did not argue anything. I stated a fact, and then added an opinion. Your whole attitude about my answer is disrespectful. – PhishMaster Dec 10 '19 at 01:37
6

The Bongcloud is an opening meant to

  1. Give your opponent a chance

  2. Show contempt for your opponent(if your opponent is terrible at chance)

  3. Create a lasting psychological effect, thus generating winning chances against much better players.

No, the Bongcloud is not a real opening, but it has a close cousin called the 'King David's opening'.

  1. e4 c5 2. Ke2[book move!?]
  • 4
    I don't think number 3 is correct. If anything you create losing chances against much weaker opponents – David Aug 06 '20 at 06:26
1

The Bongcloud is named that based of a chess.com user named Lenny_Bongcloud ( https://www.chess.com/nl/member/lenny_bongcloud ) who used it religiously in thousands and thousands of games.

Andrew Fabbro then wrote a hilarious opening book parody named Winning With The Bongcloud (PDF: https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1401479151063.pdf ) that catapulted Lenny_Bongcloud's obscure opening into popularity at places like Reddit's Anarchy Chess subreddit.

The rest is history.

RemcoGerlich
  • 27,663
  • 78
  • 120