Bongcloud Attack
chess opening 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2
The Bongcloud Attack (or Bongcloud Opening) is an unconventional chess opening that consists of the moves:
1. e4 e5
2. Ke2?
It is considered a joke opening because it violates all normal principles of good opening play, and is associated with internet chess humor. Former world champion Magnus Carlsen has used it in online blitz chess, including in games against high-level opponents and Twitch streamers, such as Grandmaster (GM) Hikaru Nakamura. The name has also been applied to other opening sequences in which a player moves the king on move two.
Background
The opening's name is thought to originate either from Chess.com user "Lenny_Bongcloud", who used the opening with little success, or more generally in reference to a bong, a device used to smoke cannabis, humorously implying that one would need to be intoxicated to view the opening as a legitimate strategy. The opening's usage in chess humor was furthered by Andrew Fabbro's joke manual Winning with the Bongcloud.
Analysis
The Bongcloud Attack violates several principles of opening theory by giving up castling rights, impeding the movement of both the queen and the light-squared bishop, leaving the king exposed, not controlling the centre or developing pieces, and doing nothing to improve White's position. The lack of any redeeming feature, unlike some other dubious openings, puts the Bongcloud well outside of conventional practice.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bongcloud Attack” as chess opening 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as chess opening 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q101111977. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bongcloud Attack” 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.