Happy New Year 2024! When I started this blog last February, I intended to write a new article about every three days because almost everything had already been said about chess. However, reality proved to be different, which is, of course, gratifying – there are so many overlooked topics about this fascinating game that I managed to write articles daily, and I intend to continue in this trend this year. You can look forward to plenty of interesting things about chess and countless chess variants.
Let’s begin the year by discussing an uncommon opening that actually goes by many alternative names. My favorite calling is the Van Geet Opening, also known as Heinrichsen Opening, Baltic Opening, Funst Opening, Sleipnir Opening, Kotrč’s Opening, Meštrović Opening, Romanian Opening, Queen’s Knight Attack, Queen’s Knight Opening, Millard’s Opening, Knight on the Left, and (in German) der Linksspringer.
1. ♘c3
While certainly viable, this opening is seldom witnessed, as it doesn’t fall among the most frequently used ones. Moreover, it even less frequently remains in its pure Van Geet Opening form, often transitioning into a different game. For instance, 1. ♘c3 e5 2. e4 is actually the Vienna Game with a switched order of the first two moves.
Let’s take a look at a sample game, played by the man whose name the opening bears: