Having recently felt inspired enough to at least think about playing some chess again I thought I'd better look back at some of my "less standard" openings I used to play in blitz games. The first one used to come as a shock to most people but I never felt it sound enough to play in a longer game, anyone got any thoughts either way?

1.e4 g6; 2.d4 Bg7; 3.Nc3 d5!?

Ok so White doesnt have to play Nc3 but I used to quite like this. 4.Nxd5 just runs into c6 which seems to equalise ok for Black. After 4.exd5 Nf6 then if White just allows Black to recapture on d5 then life looks easy enough, so the acid tests seem to be Bc4 or Bb5+. There are obvious similarities with Caro-Kann lines but here the c-pawns are still on the board so the question is who this favours.

My question here would be why white can't just push with 4. e5?

I don't think white would play 3. Nc3 just on the principle to guard what is being attacked even more. 3. Nf3 looks a lot more like a move white would play. 3...d5 would still be playable, but after 4. e5 c5 5. c3, it'd just be a French without ...e6 having been played.

Yeah, just 4.e5 seems to be to be really annoying for black. White has good central control and black's g8 knight is going to have a hard time developing. If it tries to develop to h6 then white has Bf4 or Bg5 threatening Qd2 and black has to start making some awkward moves to avoid losing a piece or a lot of time. ...e6 to allow the knight to move to e7 would be really undesirable in this position.

Additionally If white prepares to castle long and launches a kingside pawnstorm I think it would be very dangerous and there doesn't seem to be any reasonable plans for black castling long to avoid this.

...d5 seems dubious at best to me.

I think there was an article in New In Chess on this opening a while back. Can't remember the conclusion reached. Off the top of my head, I think exd5 and Bb5+ should be the critical test, leading to a Scandinavian like position which should be slightly better for white.

4.e5 c5 should be fine for Black imo.

I agree with JD, 4. e5 looks wrong. It gives black automatic pawn breaks like f6 and c5.

After exd5, i'd say the presence of the c-pawns benefits white compared to the Caro position, because black's c-pawn can't move without making the thing a permanent gambit. He doesn't have c-file counterplay and no scope for the Q.

I ran this opening through Chessbase last night and all of the 2600+ guys are playing 5.Bc4 and 5.Bb5+. Probably 80% of them are playing Bc4, and the rest are playing Bb5, so those look to be the real critical tests.

Also agree with ND that the presence of the c-pawns benefits white more. Black's c-pawn is necessary to attack the center (not just in the Caro-Kann, but also in the Grunfeld, which this resembles) and without it, black will probably have trouble in the center.

It's ok for Black and definitely a good line for faster time controls. Iirc there is a line where White keeps the d5-pawn but Black gets two bishops (maybe White plays Bc4 and Bg5xf6?), but even that one is playable if you are patient and have an idea about where to put your pieces.

Thanks for the comments - like I said I'd only ever played it in Blitz games or occasional 30min games because I never fully trusted it. Obviously if you take the surprise element away it loses some of its edge too.

I used to love 4e5 c5! - it's amazing how quickly White's centre can get destroyed. I still think the lines with either Bc4 or Bb5+ are the best way for White to get an advantage. The only other downside I found personally was after 4Nf3 there didnt appear to be a lot of good options other than c6 but then I much preferred White after 5ed cd; 6 Bf4.

A bit worrying it's got as far as a New In Chess article and a couple of 2600+ players using it!!

My repertoire book (for White) gives 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d5!? 4. exd5 Nf6 5. Bc4.

Now 5..0-0 6. Nge2! intending Nf4 and Black has difficulties in regaining his pawn, e.g. 6..Nbd7 7. Bb3 Nb6 8. Nf4.

So better is 5..Nbd7 6. Qf3!? [6. Bg5 Nb6 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8. Bb3 is the other option when Black might have some compensation for the pawn with his bishop pair.] 6..Nb6 [Not 6..0-0? 7. h3! Nb6 8. Bb3 Bd7 9. Nge2 with no compensation.] 7. Bb3 Bg4 8. Qg3 Bf5 9. Nf3 Nbxd5 10. Nxd5 Nxd5 11. 0.0 0-0 when White has returned the pawn in exchange for a small but definite advantage.