Shuffleduck

There are some odd opening moves in chess, such as 1 a3 and 1 g4. The former was used by Adolf Anderssen to win a game against Paul Morphy in their 1858 match, while the latter has been developed into an entire system by the English international master Michael Basman. Perhaps the weirdest of all is 1 h4, the topic of a new book, Shuffleduck, by Ken Norbury. It is conceivable that it might be possible to weld 1 h4 into a kind of system, as Basman has done with 1 g4. However, this book points out how an early h4 can form part of a strategic design, in particular when Black has fianchettoed his king’s bishop. This week I annotate the earliest example I can find of this strategy.
 
Steinitz-Paulsen; Vienna 1873; Dutch Defence
 
1 c4 d6 2 d4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 Nf3 f5 5 g3 Nh6 Interestingly, this eccentric development of Black’s king’s knight was also to be adopted in later games by the same Michael Basman who espoused 1 g4. Here Black is operating with the extra risk that White can launch an immediate strike down the h-file. This Steinitz promptly does. 6 h4 A cognate example by a subsequent world champion was the game Botvinnik-Gligoric, Moscow Olympiad 1956 which went 1 c4 g6 2 g3 c5 3 Bg2 Bg7 4 Nc3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Nh6 6 h4 d6 7 d3 Rb8 8 h5 Bd7 9 Bxh6 Bxh6 10 hxg6 hxg6 11 Qc1 when Black’s position is defensible, but difficult, given that 11 … Bxc1? fails to 12 Rxh8 mate. 6 … Nf7 7 h5 e6 8 e4 Nd7 9 Bg2 a6 10 Be3 Nf6 11 hxg6 hxg6 12 Rxh8+ Nxh8 13 e5 Energetically driving a wedge into the black position. However, Black can still maintain his head above water.