Napoleon Opening

Not to be confused with Napoleon Gambit.

The Napoleon Opening is an irregular chess opening starting with the moves:

1. e4 e5

2. Qf3

Napoleon Opening

a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Moves	1.e4 e5 2.Qf3
ECO	C20
Named after	Napoleon Bonaparte
Parent	Open Game

As with the similar Danvers Opening (2.Qh5), White hopes for the scholar's mate (2...Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5?? 4.Qxf7#), but Black can easily avoid the attack.

History

The Napoleon Opening is named after the French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who had a deep love of chess but was said to be a mediocre player.^[1] The name came into use after mid-nineteenth century publications reported^[2] that he played this opening in an 1809 game^[3] that he lost to The Turk, a fake chess automaton operated at the time by chess master and theoretician Johann Allgaier.^[4]

Assessment

The Napoleon is a weak opening because it develops the white queen prematurely and subjects it to attack, and deprives the white king's knight of its best development square.

See also

• List of chess openings
• List of chess openings named after people