Desprez Opening

The Despréz Opening, also called the Kadas Opening is a chess opening characterised by the opening move:

1.h4

Despréz Opening

a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Moves	1.h4
ECO	A00
Named after	Marcel Després [fr]
Synonym(s)	Kádas Opening Anti-Borg Opening Samurai Opening Harry's Opening Reagan's Attack

The opening is named after the French player Marcel Despréz [fr]. Like a number of other rare openings, 1.h4 has some alternate names such as Anti-Borg Opening, Samurai Opening and Harry's Opening.

As the Despréz Opening is very rare, it is considered an irregular opening and is classified under the A00 code in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings.

Assessment

Like 1.a4, the Ware Opening, 1.h4 does nothing in the fight over central space and does very little in the way of development. The only piece released is the rook, which is usually not developed to h3. In addition, 1.h4 weakens White's kingside. For these reasons, 1.h4 is among the rarest of the twenty possible first moves for White.

Black usually responds by grabbing the center with 1...d5 or 1...e5. A simple and sound development by 1...Nf6 is also possible. The response 1...g6, intending to fianchetto the Black's bishop on g7, is rare, because White can undermine Black's pawn structure with 2.h5, making 1.h4 seem logical.

Grandmaster David Bronstein once remarked that he knew of a Russian player who always opened with 1.h4 and always won. His point was that after 1...e5 2.g3 d5 3.d4! exd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qd1 Nf6 6.Nh3! Be7 7.Nf4 0-0 8.Bg2, the f4-knight is well placed, leaving White with a good position.^[1] However, Black does not have to be so cooperative.

See also

• List of chess openings
• List of chess openings named after people
• “The Chess Opening 1.h4” by Edward Winter

References

1. McDonald, Neil (2001). Concise Chess Openings. Everyman. p. 301. ISBN 1-85744-297-0.

Bibliography

• Dunnington, Angus (2000). Winning Unorthodox Openings. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-285-4.
• Schiller, Eric (2002). Unorthodox Chess Openings (Second ed.). Cardoza Publishing. p. 237. ISBN 1-58042-072-9.