I found a new opening move that's not in my database. Can you see what's wrong?

Question: I found a new opening move that's not in my database. Can you see what's wrong?

Answer:

Yes, probably, but it's better if you see for yourself. It it's a move that can be played very early in the opening, there's undoubtedly a good reason that it's not been played.

Almost every game eventually leads to a position that has never been seen before. This usually happens somewhere between moves 5 and 15, although some opening systems, like the Closed Ruy Lopez, may follow known paths even longer.

You have as much chance of finding a good new move ('a novelty') in the first five moves as you have of finding a new star in the night sky using binoculars that you won shooting plastic ducks at a county fair. No, that's an exaggeration. Your chance of finding a new star is better!

First, game databases are generally populated with games played by masters against other masters. The games you find there are good games played by good players, who have spent a lot of time working on their own opening repertoires.

Second, masters don't often make mistakes in the first few moves. If they've avoided a move that you think is good, think again. When you don't see an immediate tactical refutation of a move, chances are that it has severe positional drawbacks.

Third, the openings have been studied and mapped for hundreds of years by excellent players. Since the advent of the computer age, our collective knowledge of opening moves has increased as much as in all of the pre-computer years combined.

Give that new move of yours a good, hard look. If it is designed to panic your opponent into playing a weak move, what happens if there's no panic and your opponent develops normally?

There are many possible reasons why a master will reject a certain move. Perhaps the move develops nothing, meaning that it wastes a move. Perhaps it ruins the Pawn position on the side where the King should castle. Perhaps it releases the opponent from all pressure.

If you are sure that your novelty is good, then play it. If it works against the strongest player you know, then you have indeed found a new star.

One last remark : the later your novelty occurs in the opening, the more confident you can be that it has real merit. Even then, be careful. If masters have reached the position many times, and no one has ever tried your move, there may be a good reason.