Ware Opening
chess opening 1. a4
The Ware Opening, also known as Meadow Hay Opening, is an uncommon chess opening for White beginning with the move:
1. a4
It is named after Preston Ware, a U.S. chess player who often played uncommon openings. The Ware is considered an irregular opening; it is classified under the A00 code in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings.
Opening idea
The Ware Opening attacks the b5-square and prepares to bring the a1-rook into the game. The b5-square is non-essential and if Black plays 1...e5, the f8-bishop prevents the development of the white rook for the moment. The reply 1...e5 also gains space for Black in the center, a typical objective of most openings but one completely ignored by the Ware Opening. Noting all this, the Ware Opening is normally played only by players who are completely new to chess.
An experienced player using the Ware Opening will usually meet a response of 1...d5 or 1...e5 with 2.d4 or 2.e4, respectively, since a reversed Scandinavian or Englund Gambit would be unsound here. After 1...d5 2.Nf3, 2...Nf6 is recommended, since a reversed Fajarowicz can arise after 2...c5 3.e4!? dxe4 4.Ne5 where a2–a4 has some utility.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ware Opening” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.