The Durkin Opening (also known as the Durkin Attack or the Sodium Attack) is a rarely played
chess opening
A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the "Sicilian Defens ...
.
:1.
Na3
The Durkin Opening is named for
Robert T. Durkin (1923–2014) of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. The name "Sodium Attack" comes from the algebraic notation 1.Na3, as ''Na'' is the
chemical symbol
Chemical symbols are the abbreviations used in chemistry for chemical elements, functional groups and chemical compounds. Element symbols for chemical elements normally consist of one or two letters from the Latin alphabet and are written with th ...
for the element
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...
. Similarly, the
Amar Opening
The Amar Opening (also known as the Paris Opening, or the Drunken Knight Opening) is a chess opening defined by the move:
: 1. Nh3
Analogous to calling the Durkin Opening the "Sodium Attack," this opening could be called the Ammonia Opening, since ...
(1.Nh3) is sometimes referred to as the "Ammonia Opening". White may follow up by playing c4, e.g. 1...d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nxc4.
Assessment
This development of the does little to utilize White's
advantage of the first move. On a3 the knight does not control squares, and White would have to move this knight again (e.g., to c2 or c4) for it to follow common rules such as controlling the center.
Angus Dunnington
Angus Dunnington (born 9 August 1967) is an English poker and online gambling specialist and former professional chess player with the title of International Master (IM). Dunnington is most known for his extensive work in chess opening theory, a ...
suggests that combining this with a gradual central expansion should give White a reasonable position.
Variations
*Durkin Gambit (1.Na3 e5 2.Nc4 Nc6 3. e4 f5)
See also
*
List of chess openings
This is a list of chess openings, organized by the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () code. In 1966, Chess Informant categorized the chess openings into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken down into one hundred subca ...
*
List of chess openings named after people
''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' lists 1,327 named openings and variants. Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names. The name given to an opening is not always that of the first player to adopt it; often an opening is name ...
References
Bibliography
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Chess openings
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