Play the Clemenz Opening!?

    The Clemenz Opening (1.h3) is named after Hermann Clemenz (1846–1908) an Estonian player who played it in a tournament in St. Petersburg in 1873. He was born in Dorpat which today is Tartu, Estonia. He began his chess career in his native town, then lived in St. Petersburg, where he participated in several tournaments. 

    The opening achieves nothing in terms of development or control of the center and it makes no attempt to exploit white’s first move advantage. By playing in the center and gaining a slight lead in development black can try to exploit the fact that white has wasted time with 1.h2, bit there is no refutation. The Clemenz is probably best described as indifferent. 

    Nevertheless, IM Michael Basman has experimented with it and sometimes follows it up with 2.g4 as in the Grob Attaxk (1.g4) or 2.a3 followed by a quick c2–c4, a line that has been dubbed the Creepy Crawly or the Global Opening. The 1990 Great Britain Championship was held in Eastbourne anf was won by James Plaskeyy with a 9-1 score. 

    The participants in this game were: Michael Basman (2370) who finished wit a 6-4 score which left him tied for places 22-32 (out of 74) and Niall Carton (2220) who scored 5-5 and tied for places 46-51.

 

 

[Event "British Chamo, Eastbourne"] [Site "Eastbourne ch-GB"] [Date "1990.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Michael Basman"] [Black "Niall Carton"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [Annotator "Stocjfish 17"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "1990.??.??"] {A00: Clemenz/Anderssen Opening} 1. h3 {The Clemenz Opening.} e5 {Here are the top four Stockfish replies. All result in complete equality, so there appears to be no refutation to white's strange beginning.} (1... e5 2. e4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Ba5 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 Re8 7. b4 Bb6 8. O-O d5 9. d3 c6 10. Bg5 d4) (1... d5 2. d4 c5 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nf3 g6 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. Be2 Bg7 7. O-O O-O 8. c3 Bf5 9. Nbd2 Qc7 10. a4 Rc8) (1... Nf6 2. d4 d5 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Qb6 5. Nc3 Qxb2 6. Nb5 Na6 7. Rb1 Qxa2 8. Ra1 Qb2 9. Rb1 Qa2 {White can repeat moves with 10.Ra1 or play 10.dxc5. Either way the evaluation is 0.00}) (1... c5 2. e4 g6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Bc4 Bg7 5. c3 e6 6. d4 d5 7. exd5 exd5 8. Bb3 cxd4 9. cxd4 Nge7 10. O-O Be6) 2. a3 {The Clemenz Opening is combined with the Anderssen Opening (1.a3).} (2. c3 d5 3. d4 f6 4. dxe5 fxe5 5. e4 Nf6 6. Be3 {Black is slightly better. Prohaszka,P (2331)-Pilgaard,K (2415) Budapest FS09 GM 2005}) 2... g6 {A novelty, but any reasonable move is playable.} (2... a5 {Weird. It makes no sense, but the position remains equal.} 3. c4 Nc6 4. Nc3 g6 5. g4 h5 6. gxh5 Rxh5 {Black is a wee but better. Basman,M (2365)-Quinn,M BCF-ch 79th Plymouth 1992 (2)}) (2... f5 3. g4 d5 4. gxf5 Bxf5 5. d3 Nf6 6. Bg2 Bc5 {B;ack is better. Kaplan,A (2146)-Djokic,M (2192) Titled Tue, chess.com INT 2023}) 3. d4 Bg7 4. dxe5 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nxe5 6. e4 {Even with offbeat opening general pronciples are still valids. With this move whte stakes a claim in the center} d6 7. Nf3 Nxf3+ 8. Qxf3 {In spite of his bizarre opening play white ha incurred no disadvantage.} Be6 9. Be2 h6 10. Be3 Ne7 11. Rd1 a6 12. O-O Nc6 13. Qg3 h5 {Black is taking the wrong approach and ends up leaving his K in the center too long...a violation of general principles.} (13... Bxc3 $14 {is superior.} 14. bxc3 Qe7 15. Rb1 O-O-O {with about equal chances.}) 14. f4 {White is more active.} h4 {Black could still have played in the note to the last move. After this his troubles multiply.} 15. Qf2 {His best tey was still 15...Bxc3} Bd7 16. Nd5 {The N is destined to do some damage.} Be6 17. c4 {White has two good plans. This advance on the Q-side and the advance of the f-Pawn.} Qd7 (17... Bxd5 18. cxd5 Ne7 19. Bd4 Bxd4 20. Qxd4 {followed by f5 when white's attack will prove decisive.}) 18. b4 {Can black castle out of trouble? Let's see.} f5 (18... O-O 19. f5 {...ripping the guts out of black's position.} Bxd5 (19... gxf5 20. exf5 Bxf5 21. Qxf5 Qxf5 22. Rxf5 {Black has lost a piece.}) 20. exd5 Nb8 (20... Ne7 21. f6) 21. f6 Bh8 22. Rd4 {and white is winning.}) (18... O-O-O 19. Rb1 Ne7 20. b5 a5 21. Rfd1 Bxd5 22. cxd5 {and if black tried to stop the advance of white's b-Pawn with...} b6 {wite wins with...} 23. Bxb6 cxb6 24. Qxb6 Qb7 25. Qxa5 {The K has to flee.} Kd7 26. b6 Ke8 27. a4) 19. exf5 Bxf5 20. Bf3 {Also good was the immediate 20.c5} Kf8 21. c5 Re8 (21... dxc5 22. Bxc5+ Kf7 23. Nb6) 22. cxd6 cxd6 23. Nb6 Qc7 24. Nc4 Qe7 {Losing a piece, but his position was hopeless anyway.} 25. Rfe1 Nd4 26. Bxd4 {Black resigned.} 1-0