Tricky openings are working well

Hey everyone,

Usually I do not post in this forum, but recently I tweaked my opening repertoire to more tricky and unusual one and so far, so well it's working VERY well.

I won youth blitz championship in my country with it and also did very well online (mostly outside of lichess though). Just woke up, played three blitz games, winning each in the opening.

en.lichess.org/Ji4LwBB5/black#1 It's like 3rd time someone falls into this trap. It even happend in 15+10 game. Traxler is very hard to deal with. And probably impossible in blitz, unless you know theory well.

en.lichess.org/PL2WbtUwMhkP 101 opening surprises was a great book :)

en.lichess.org/Pyexmqf1j703 not sure where found this, probably by browsing opening tree myself with engine. So far I guess I have record of 10-2 with it against simmilar or higher rated opponents.

I have a question. Anyone has suggestions how could I improve my opening repertoire? Any weird, but good variations against french, alekhine, scandinavian, etc? From the games I showed you should have an OK understanding of what I am looking for.

Actually improving your repertoire would mean to go towards mainlines and actually try for an advantage instead of setting up traps and tricks ;)

Qf3 in 2 is just a substandard move that doesn't accomplish much except setting up a trap. In 3 the white scheme is nice, but Black's play is quite compliant.

In my repertoire there is only one trap with the Black pieces, it has won me some dozen of blitz games (which is nice since i suck at quick time controls). After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Ne4 6.Nxe4 dxe4 White needs to pause a second and then play a sensible move like 7.Qd2. If he plays the "normal" 7.e3 instantly he loses a piece after 7...Qa5+.

French, Alekhine, Scandi, dunno. Against the Qa5 Scandi I like g3/Nge2 setups with an early b4 (which may come as a surprise for some Black players), followed by a queenside expansion. These are not so common, but pleasant to play for White, look for instance at this game:

[Event "EU-ch rapid"]
[Site "Warsaw"]
[Date "2010.12.19"]
[Round "11"]
[White "Jobava, Baadur"]
[Black "Gashimov, Sarkhan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2707"]
[BlackElo "2351"]

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.g3 Nf6 5.Bg2 c6 6.Nge2 Bg4 7.h3 Bh5 8.O-O Nbd7 9.b4 Qc7 10.b5 and so on

I do not like playing mainlines and doubt it is neccesary. There are very strong players playing unusual variations in somewhat high level and as I do not plan to play at VERY high level it is fine.

Qf3 variation is actually not bad. White by no means is not worse and black does not equalise if they do not know the theory VERY WELL. They will likely enter the middlegame with worse position or even lose in the opening. It looks a bad move, but you are totally wrong about only thing it does is setting up a trap. It pressures the weakest black spot f7 and there is no way to attack white queen winning tempos as oppose to center opening or scandinavian.

Just because variation is not fashionable and has traps it does not mean it is bad.

I play a3! after Qa5, a variation I invented myself and computer/results like it quite a bit. Though thanks for suggestion.

en.lichess.org/uT3nRhygDWYe
another traxler which 100% followed my preparation untill I won a queen.

Thanks for sharing.

@VernonHardapple #2
Thanks for sharing the recommendation of the g2g3 and Bg2 and b4 setup.

Just fyi, I just looked up the game, and imported it, and Stockfish doesn't think that white is doing so well there.
en.lichess.org/ebNDgQf4#19

In the game it looks like white gets even slightly in trouble with the 2 isolated queenside pawns at one point.

I play the Traxler in my main rep against the "fried liver" or whatever people now a days call it. I have played it in tournaments and won with it. I would consider myself a traxler expert. Nice to see others take it up. In your game he has to take with the pawn or he traps his queen.

You might like to try the Haldane Hack against the French - 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 Qh5!!?

Or the Milner-Barry with 9.Ng5 - 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6. Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Qb6 8.0-0 Nxd4 9.Ng5 - this one only really recommended at blitz as I don't think it's particularly sound.

not bad, i expected some complete garbage but it's actually decent sidelines.
you can also play 2 b3 against the french (respectable) and umm i can't think of anything else that i can recommend in good conscience. you'll sure find something though.

@Lightsss I thought about suggesting 2.b3 but thought it was a bit too respectable..!