The Durkin Opening (also known as the Durkin Attack or the Sodium Attack) is a rarely-played
chess opening
The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''op ...
that consists of the following move:
: 1.
Na3
The Durkin Opening is named for
Robert T. Durkin (1923–2014) of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. 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, mainly for chemical elements; but also for functional groups, chemical compounds, and other entities. Element symbols for chemical elements, also known as atomic symbols, normally consist ...
for the element
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the peri ...
. 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. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. Nh3, Nh3
Analogous to calling the Durkin Opening the "Sodium Attack," this opening could be ca ...
(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 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
*
Australian Defence
*
List of chess openings
This is a list of chess openings, organised by the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' (''ECO'') code classification system. The chess openings are categorised into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken up into one hundred ...
*
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
*
*
*
*
*
*
Chess openings
{{Chess-opening-stub