The Desprez Opening is a chess opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

 characterized by the opening move

1. h4

The opening is named after the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 player Marcel Desprez. Like a number of other rare openings, 1.h4 has some alternate names such as "Kadas Opening", "Anti-Borg Opening", "Samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 Opening", and "Reagan's Attack". Gabor Kadas is a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 player. According to Eric Schiller

Eric Schiller

Eric Schiller is an American chess player, trainer, arbiter and one of the most prolific authors of books on chess in the 20th century.-Early life and education:...

's Unorthodox Chess Openings, the last name is because 1.h4 is "thoroughly unmotivated and creates weaknesses with only vague promises of future potential", a political gibe against Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

.

Like 1.a4, the Ware Opening

Ware Opening

The Ware Opening or Meadow Hay Opening, is an uncommon chess opening in which White opens withIt is named after U.S. chess player Preston Ware, who often played uncommon openings...

, 1.h4 is an irrelevant pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

 move which does nothing in the fight over central space, and does very little for development. The only piece released is the rook

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

, and this piece is usually not developed by moving it to h3. In addition, 1.h4 weakens White's kingside. For all of 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, and simple and sound development by 1...Nf6 is also possible. However, 1...g6, intending to fianchetto

Fianchetto

In chess the fianchetto is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward....

 Black's bishop

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

 on g7, is rare because White can undermine Black's pawn structure

Pawn structure

In chess, the pawn structure is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Since pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus largely determines the strategic nature of the position.-General observations:Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such...

 with 2.h5, making 1.h4 seem like a logical move.

Grandmaster David Bronstein

David Bronstein

David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...

 once remarked that he knew of a Russian player who always opened 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 and White has a good position. However, Black does not have to be so cooperative.

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

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...

.

Named Variations

There are five named variations in the Desprez Opening:

• The Koola-Koola continues 1...a5.
• The Wulumulu continues 1...e5 2. d4
• The Crab Variation continues 1...any 2. a4.
• The Borg Gambit continues 1...g5.
• The Symmetric Variation continues 1...h5.