Erica’s Horde Diary 5 (Special): Why does this opening work?

1.Horde WC Update

As most people expected, mindhunter0101 beat Drooooid, they both played very well. I am too weak to comment on their games, but I shall leave the links here. The first game was a successful attempt at using the so-called "shuffle", but in the later games mindhunter0101 showed great accuracy and successfully won the match 6-1.

Meanwhile, in the loser's bracket, ravif is going to face hod-konem96 after beating wgoto744 and qpwoeirut, and thealmightygebaby is going to face Filippov_Anton who defeated Glasslinger. The winners of these two matchups are going to play against each other and then face Drooooid.

The closest match was ravif vs wgoto744, where the score went from 1-0 to 1-4 to 5-4 to 5-5 and went on till 9-7.

Here is the deciding game:

Filippov_Anton vs Glasslinger was also very interesting. For example, this game shows getting a queen in early on does not guarantee a victory.

Glasslinger vs PhilippeSaner featured some interesting positions, like this swindle:

2.The secret strong opening as white

I almost don't believe it's real, but the following opening is very strong:

1.f6 gxf6 2.gxf6 exf6 (or Nxf6) 3.f5

The idea is probably to sacrifice a pawn in order to stop the so-called "shuffle" idea. I know the idea is very annoying, it is like doing nothing and wait for a win. But I really cannot get the point of this opening.

If you check this opening in the database, white wins over 60% of the time, which is decent since most people agree that black is better in horde. I tried it myself but I don't know the theory and played h5-h4. Apparently after 3...Ne7, there is a trap move 4.c6 (Stockfish does not even like it). I also don't get the idea of this trap, but it is basically sacrificing pawns to make the black pawns doubled, or gain some time by attacking the black knights. White wins almost all games in this line. (Apparently even after the normal 3...d6, or even 3...h5, 4.c6 is still very strong. Apparently 3...a6 avoids the trap.) It is surely an interesting idea. I can understand why having doubled pawns can be a problem. But sacrificing two pawns early and opening up the position is something I hesitate to do.

There are enough games in these lines and it is not a coincidence that the 1.f6 2.gxf6 3.f5 4.c6 line works so well against almost every reply. So please, someone good at horde, tell me the idea behind it except avoiding "shuffle".

One of the recent examples, black almost refuted it but failed in the end.

Top level game using this line

My friend thinks that openings do not matter in horde, since most opening moves will not harm the position, but there are points in middle game where only one move is good. It makes some sense, but good players always have their typical openings. The exact moves may not be important, but I feel that some ideas are needed, like sacrificing rook to get the queen into the back row, or "shuffle", or Be7 h6, or other plans. I often lose quickly as white because I fail to come up with a good idea defending against some sacrifices.

3. Other stuff

Enjoy playing chess and for the HWC participants, good luck in your matches!