And, yep, it’s the first couple of moves, so I know it is “an opening.”
It’s just one that I don’t ever recall facing before, and I can’t find a name for it. It doesn’t seem particularly great to me - the opponent did push a lot of pawns early, almost certainly loses ability to play Nc3, and took with his Queen on move 6 instead of a pawn. But it doesn’t seem completely and totally horrid, either, to me. (To push 2. b4, that is… the position below is virtualy undeveloped for White.)
Position after 3. a4 Nd7 4. c3 e5 5. e3 exd4 6. Qxd4 Nf6 7. f3 Bd6 8. b5
I entered these moves into Fritz. The evaluation just eight moves in is -1.79. I think that qualifies as “completely and totally horrid.”
Anyway, in answer to your original question, Fritz gives it the ECO classification “D00: 1 d4 d5: Unusual lines.” Which is the program’s way of saying, “No, it’s not a ‘real’ opening.” 2.b4 is such a non-response to 1.d4 d5 that the opening library doesn’t even list it as a bad move.
In the position on the last diagram, black is fine after 8. … c5 pushing the queen out of d4. Then all they need is to castle and develop bishop on c8 to e6 or f5 and they have huge lead in developement. White has to be very careful, there are not too many good squares for his pieces due to those pawn moves.
Now, I am not at all pronouncing this position lost for white, I am just pointing out that he created difficulites for himself, and if black develops the initiative quickly, white can be in trouble very soon.
White has shot him/her self in the foot. There are no good places to move his pieces to.
Only the King bishop can go to a square that can exert any influence on the center.
By the eighth move it is - and it goes downhill for White from there, more or less. I saw the ECO classification in ChessBase as well, but didn’t think about it being CB’s way of saying, “Huh???” A cursory review of MCO-14 and even Unorthodox Chess Openings didn’t give any data either.
IIRC, early washing through Fritz 8 showed an evaluation of an early half-pawn advantage to Black. I guess my initial conclusion is correct, that this pattern has nothing but (possible) shock value going for it. But I’ve still got a little more analysis to do with it.
Thanks for putting it through Fritz!
In the play of the game I didn’t see c5. (I think I was slightly concerned with the pawns racing down my Queenside.) I settled on 8. …Bd5 (and also considered Bc5.) Then after 9. Qd3 I responded Nc5, forcing the Queen back further, then castled and put the other Bishop on f5.
Proof that there are indeed lots of different openings I’ve never heard of. Maybe I should ask my opponent his name for this opening.
I’ve shot myself in the foot plenty of times - just glad I wasn’t White here, this time. Ne2 may have defensive center influence? But it felt like my opponent made a pawn move whenever unsure of what to do - it happened later in the game, as well.
A cursory review of MCO-14 and even Unorthodox Chess Openings didn’t give any data either.
Maybe I should ask my opponent his name for this opening.