What I like about Basman is that he is particularly known for playing bizarre openings in his own games. Stuff like the St. George Defense (1.e4 a6), the Grob (1.g4), the Creepy Crawly (a3, h3 followed by a quick c4) and the Basman Defense, aka the Borg Defense (1...g5).
Besides the Grob which I have played for years, I also like the Basman Defense and play both of them a lot on Chess Hotel. Of course, they both severely weaken the K-side, but the Basman more so because black is already a tempo behind.
According to Modern Chess Openings black is only somewhat worse, but that doesn't seem right! One source I looked at asserted that the data gives white a very high chance of winning (almost 59 percent), while black only has a 41 percent chance of winning. That doesn't seem right either because the drawing percentage is zero!
Whatever the percentages are I'm convinced that against average players Basman's Defense is not all that bad because they often seem to get totally bewildered when they face it. All in all, it's not a bad defense to keep in your back pocket.
The following wacky game is a good example of the kind of fun you can expect when you meet 1.e4 with 1...g5.
A game that I liked (Komodo 14)
[Event "Chess Hotel"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2022.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Guest"]
[Black "Tartajubow"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B00"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "2022.??.??"]
{Basman's Defense} 1. e4 g5 {[%mdl 32]} 2. Nf3 {I have met this unusual move a
number of times. Stockfish thinks it's OK, but I am always happy to see it.} (
2. d3 h6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. g3 d6 5. Bg2 c5 6. Nge2 Nf6 7. O-O Nc6 {and a draw was
agreed. Zelcic,R (2540) -Palac,M (2545) Pula 1998}) (2. Bc4 e6 3. d4 a6 4. a4
Bg7 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Be3 h6 7. Nge2 d6 8. Ng3 Nf6 9. Qd2 e5 10. d5 Ne7 {and a
draw was agreed. Finocchiaro, G (2064)-Faraoni,E (2085) Savigliano 2009}) (2.
d4 {This is the usual move and I think it's probably the best.} Bg7 (2... h6 3.
Nc3 Bg7 4. Be3 d6 5. Qd2 Nc6 6. O-O-O a6 {favors white. Collins,S (2387)
-Williams,S (2427) West Bromwich 2004}) 3. Bxg5 c5 4. Be3 Qb6 5. Nf3 {Better
is 5.Nc3} Qxb2 6. Nbd2 cxd4 7. Nc4 {Now, of course, black should play 7...Qc4+
when white would be only slightly better. In the game I chose the crazy
Q-sacrifice 7...dxe3 and after many mistakes by both side I eventually won.})
2... g4 (2... h6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Bg7 5. Ne5 d5 6. Bxd5 Nxd5 7. Nc3 {Very,
very poor play by white! At least he realized he was quite lost here and
resigned! Reed,A-Beilby,K Brisbane 2006}) (2... Bg7 3. d4 {Yes, taking the P
was better.} d6 4. Be2 a6 5. O-O Nd7 6. Be3 c5 7. c3 b5 8. dxc5 dxc5 9. Qc2 Bb7
10. Rd1 Qc7 11. a4 c4 {White is better. Madsen,S-Andersen,D (1997) Esbjerg 2007
}) 3. Ng1 {Technically there's nothing wrong with this, but retrograde
development can't be good! The best try is 3.Ne5} (3. Ne5 h5 {Also acceptable
is 3...Nf6} 4. d4 d6 5. Nc4 Bg7 {White is slightly better.}) 3... d5 4. e5 {
Better was 4,exd5} d4 {I'm proud of this which is also Stockfish's preferred
move. Both Ps put a kink in white's efforts to develop his pieces.} 5. Be2 (5.
h3 {This is actually his best try, but after} Nc6 6. hxg4 Nxe5 {black is doing
quite well.}) 5... h5 {Hoping to eventually bust open the K-side and tear his
King limb from limb.} (5... Qd5 {looked inviting, but fortunately, thanks to
white's next move, it's even more effective on move 6.} 6. Bxg4 Bxg4 7. Qxg4 {
The g-Pawn is defended, so...} Qxe5+ {the position is equal.}) 6. f4 {His best
bet was still 6.,h3} Qd5 {The threat to his g-Pawn is a nasty one.} 7. Bf1 {
As with his 3rd move retrograde development can't be good so 7.Kf1 is
certainly better although white's position is pretty ugly after either move.}
d3 {Question mark! This move is over-finessing. Developing with 7...Nc6 or 7...
Bc5 were better options.} 8. cxd3 {This is just plain bad because his B is
locked in. Best is 8.Nc3 and if I retreat the Q white plays 9.Bxd3 and at
least the B is freed and he can develop the N. If I play 8...dxc2 after 9.Qxc2
and the Q has to retreat. White can then play 10.d4. In either case his
position would be slightly better.} Bf5 9. Nc3 Qd7 {[%mdl 1024] Black has
compensation for the loss of time. White's P on d3 hinders his development.}
10. Ne4 {With his position already cramped the sin of moving a piece a second
time in the opening is exacerbated.} (10. d4 Nc6 11. Bb5 {Black is a P down,
but has compensation in his active position.}) 10... Nc6 {Hoping to play the
juicy ...Nb4 which white prevents.} 11. a3 O-O-O 12. Ne2 h4 {This is in line
with the plan of busting open the K-side and tearing his King limb from limb
mentioned on move 5, but it was not the strongest move according to the engine.
} (12... Qxd3 {This attacks the N on e4 and there is really no good way to
defend it.} 13. N2c3 Qd4 14. Qe2 (14. Bb5 Bxe4 15. Nxe4 Qxe4+ 16. Qe2 Qxe2+ 17.
Kxe2 {black has won a piece.}) 14... Qb6 {Stockfish assigns black about a 1.5
P advantage here, but in reality it's probably about half that and there is no
clear way for black to continue. Therefore, practically speaking, I still like
12...h4}) 13. b4 Qxd3 14. N2c3 (14. Nc5 {was just a smidgen better.} Qc4 15.
Bb2 e6 16. Qb3 Qxb3 17. Nxb3 {White is getting untangled and the danger of an
attack on his K has disappeared.}) 14... Bxe4 {Of course retreating the Q to
d4 keeps the pressure on, but this crazy Queen sacrifice looked like too much
fun to pass up.} 15. Bxd3 {It was surprising to discover in the postmortem
that white's advantage is only about one Pawn according to Stockfish. Komodo
14 on the other hand puts white's advantage at two Pawns. That, too, was
surprising because Komodo's evaluation is usually about half ogf Stockfish's.}
Bxd3 {[%mdl 32]} 16. Ne2 {This is a mistake because now the evaluation by
Stockfish drops to 0.00.} (16. Qxg4+ e6 17. Qf3 Bf5 18. Ne4 Nd4 {White has
picked up a P and black has no real threats.}) 16... e6 17. O-O Nh6 18. Rf2 {
Better was 18.Bb2} Nf5 19. Qb3 {[%mdl 8192] This loses the game because it
leaves the N undefended. Black is now able to generate a very strong attack
while white has two pieces (the B and R) that are nothing but bystanders.} (19.
Bb2 g3 {This is what I would have played, but Stockfish likes 19...Be7 which
leads to nothing definite.} 20. hxg3 hxg3 21. Rf3 Bxe2 22. Qxe2 Rh4 23. Qe4 Be7
24. Rd3 Rdh8 25. Kf1 {Black has no effective way of continuing the attack and
white is just slightly better.}) 19... g3 20. Rf3 Bxe2 {Materially black has
two Ns and a B for the Q, more than enough compensation, but more importantly,
white's R, B and Q sontribute nothing to the defense.} 21. Re3 Ncd4 {Adding
the other N to the fray.} 22. Qc3 Nxe3 23. Qxe3 {I now have a R, B and N vs.
the Q...an even better material advantage than before.} gxh2+ 24. Kxh2 h3 25.
gxh3 Bg4 {Black can win in a number of ways.} (25... Rg8 {is also good.} 26.
Bb2 Nf3+ 27. Kh1 Rxd2 28. Bc3 {According to the engine best is 28.Qxd2, but
only because it avoids an immediate mate.} Rc2 29. Rc1 Rxc1+ 30. Qxc1 Bc4 {
and I'm informed that black has a mate in 11.}) 26. Bb2 Nf5 27. Qc3 (27. Qf2 {
eventually loses the Q.} Rxh3+ 28. Kg2 Nh4+ 29. Kg1 Be7 30. Bd4 Rg8 31. Kf1 Bf5
32. Ke2 Bd3+ 33. Kd1 Rh1+) 27... Rxh3+ 28. Qxh3 Bxh3 29. Kxh3 {The
complications are over and black, a piece up, can win as he chooses.} Rd3+ 30.
Kg4 {Black mates in 5, but retreating to g2 loses the B.} Rg3+ {Obvious. The
problem is I only had about 90 seconds left on the clock. The time limit was 8
minutes plus 2 seconds.} 31. Kh5 Rh3+ {This gained two seconds! Black still
has a mate in 5, but the B has to join the battle to pull it off.} (31... Be7
32. Rg1 Rxg1 33. d3 Rg6 34. a4 Ng7#) 32. Kg4 Rg3+ 33. Kh5 {Here I had to use
some of my remaining time to figure out that I needed the B in the action, but
I still didn't see a mate and my opponent, who had about 2.5 minutes, was
moving instantly. I began wondering if I was going to lose on time!} Be7 {
It's mate in 3, but I still didn't see it.} 34. Rc1 Rg6 {I had about 10
seconds left.} (34... Ng7+ {was my intended move, but I realized he slips out
of the mating net after} 35. Kh6 {and with only seconds left there was no way
I could move fast enough to avoid running out of time in a completely won
position.}) 35. d4 (35. Rxc7+ {delays mate one move.} Kxc7 {mate next move.})
35... Ng7# {Just for fun I ran a Chessbase Centipawn analysis on this game and
the scores were: White Centipawn loss = 72 (Average), Black Centipawn loss =
25 (Expert/Master). Pretty meaningless for one game, but interesting
nonetheless.} 0-1
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