As is so often the case in chess, a basic surveil of the theory can open up novelties in GM games.<p>The seminal text 'Winning with the Bongcloud', is heartily recommended for anyone looking to understand this new opening.<p>Here is a pdf link: <a href="http://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1401479151063.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1401479151063.pdf</a>
While the name suggests you must be high off your bong to make this unconventional move, it may be named after Lenny Bongcloud[1].<p>1. <a href="https://www.chess.com/member/lenny_bongcloud" rel="nofollow">https://www.chess.com/member/lenny_bongcloud</a><p>Edit:<p>Here is a thread where Chess.com users apparently name the opening after him in 2008: <a href="https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/the-life-and-times-of-lennybongcloud---and-ratings" rel="nofollow">https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/the-life-and-times-...</a>
It obviously wasn't in this game, but if a stronger player played this against me I'd interpret it as an insult to my relative skills, like offering to spot me a knight. Or calling me a patzer (true). And then I'd try to beat them anyway. If they win the insult is deserved, and maybe they should spot me a knight too in the next game.
When one GM does it, yes, amusing.<p>But when both repeat to perform a Grandmaster draw they're kind of destroying the value to spectators, as in any other sport the fans
would revolt if both teams were so willing to not put up a struggle.<p>Some tournaments have had restrictions and incentives against this
at least e.g. you won't get invited back if you have too many
GM draws, or the game has to have a reasonable length and the
arbiter won't allow such a draw, or they reset the pieces and make
you start over if you draw too soon...
As silly as this is from a chess point of view, I really genuinely enjoyed watching Hikaru Nakamura's face as he sees the opening. Needed a good laugh!
Maybe it's just the faint phonetic similarity, but this strikes me as the chess analogue to Bogosort: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogosort" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogosort</a>
This reminds me of Bobby Fischer's (rumored) KF2 blitz game against Nigel Short:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B9p2PrsKWY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B9p2PrsKWY</a>
TL;DR: for "lolz".<p>Actually, it's not that long and a light-hearted read. It is nice to see a bit of humor inserted into what <i>is</i> only a game.