Chess: The Boring Opening

It isn't a chess opening--it's an endurance test. Every now and then you have to wake up your opponent. Or not. Just let him put his head down on the table and go to sleep. Listen to him snore. Most players don't have the patience or the knowledge of what to do with the Boring Opening. Usually they attack where there is no attack. In this game I watched--half amused--while my opponent allowed his pieces mindlessly to wander into my territory and get themselves trapped. I kept thinking, "Why does he think he has an attack pending? Doesn't he know this is the Boring Opening?" There is no attack. There is nothing to do. Usually the best that White can hope for is to get a good knight outpost somewhere... sometime...zzzzz.

The Boring Opening comes out of the Colle. It's great because supposedly the King's Indian is supposed to be the anti-Colle. I can see why they say that because one of the key features of the Colle is the bishop on d3. Because of the pawn structure of the King's Indian (with the pawns on f7, g6 and h7) the bishop is blunted. For more on the King's Indian you can watch the video below. It certainly contains plans. But then, after the video, we will look at the deadly dull Boring Opening where the challenge is to come up with some plans for White. The good news for Black--if you play it--is that you already know this about the system and can prepare ahead of time for a long, dull game. If this isn't for you I suggest studying lots of Greco Games.

OK, that was a little too exciting. Now back to the Boring. When you play the Colle as White, Black (unless he tricks you by taking some circuitous route) will signal his intentions to play the King's Indian early enough that you can switch your plans immediately. Just bring out the dark-squared bishop, play Be2 instead of Bd3 and make sure you play h3. Not to stop Black from putting a piece on g4 but to be able to tuck your dark-squared bishop away on h2 in case Black tries to trade his knight for it (doubling your pawns). Of course if you haven't castled yet you can also offer to trade while opening up the h-file by placing the bishop on g3. But they usually won't let you do that. They will usually wait, making you either give up that option by playing h3 or taking the rook off the h-file by castling.

The reason you want the bishop on e2 instead of d3 is, for one thing, it isn't really doing anything there and for another, Black can sometimes fork your bishop and knight if he gets his d- and e-pawns rolling.

Then after you have developed your other knight to d2 (your second move having been Nf3 in the Colle) just settle back. I usually play Re1, Bf1 and then try to hold the center playing f3 if I have to. He will try to get something going with either his c-pawn or e-pawn break. Just sit tight. He's got nothing.

The Boring Opening is not exactly the same as the London System though they both do bring their dark-squared bishops out before playing e3. The difference is the Boring waits to see the King's Indian first and the London brings out the Bishop to g4 no matter what. The dark-squared bishop waits to be developed in the Colle thus becoming one possible weakness in the Colle--that and the fact that it is considered too passive. I like the bishop on c1 because once you push the e-pawn you free that bishop anyway. And often you will get both the light- and dark-squared bishops aiming at the kingside with no black pieces available to get over there. But once the King's Indian is played there is no point in keeping the bishop on c1. It will just be out of play. There is a system called the anti-Indian Colle where you play b3 and fianchetto the dark-squared bishop but that is a totally different approach and one that I haven't tried that many times. The few times I did, I didn't like what it got me. However, it is a respected system and recommended in several Colle books. For lots more on the Boring opening I recommend Jeremy Silman's Red Book.

Most of the time when I play the Boring a strategy is admittedly hard to find. It changes a lot through the game as I do a lot of waiting to see where his pieces are going to be. The bishop on h2 isn't usually doing much although it can be an annoying peek-a-boo bishop sometimes. But against lower-rated players or overly-aggressive players who don't know how to deal with the Boring system I often just sit and watch them self-destruct, which is what happened in this game.

There is a lot more to this opening and this kind of strategy. I will write more hubs about the Boring Strategy in the future. Feel free to ask questions about this game in your comments. As you can see in this game he ventured into territory where he couldn't stay and then he got trapped trying to gin up an attack where there was none--as is often the case in this opening.