Parham Attack
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The Parham Attack is an irregular chess opening beginning with 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5. It is named after the American chess master Bernard Parham, its leading exponent. Parham also advocates early development of the queen in other positions, as in his favored line as White against the Sicilian Defense, 1.e4 c5 2.Qh5?!.
It violates opening principles because it develops the queen too early and subjects it to attack, and will deprive the knight of its best square if the queen later retreats to f3. However, the Parham Attack causes black some problems. Left to his own devices, Black would probably develop with ...Nf6, ...Bc5, and ...Nc6. The Parham Attack makes this impossible by first forcing Black to defend the e-pawn (usually with 2...Nc6), then after 3.Bc4 forcing Black to either play 3...g6 (virtually committing Black to fianchettoing his king bishop), 3...Qe7 (blocking the bishop), or 3...Qf6 (taking away the knight's best square). Dutch grandmaster Hans Ree recently called 2.Qh5 "a provocative but quite sensible move."
As with the similar Napoleon Opening (2.Qf3?!), White hopes for the scholar's mate: 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5?? 4.Qxf7#. In both cases, Black can easily avoid the trap, but 2.Qf3 does not pose the impediments to natural development of Black's pieces that 2.Qh5 does. Incidentally, an amusing if improbable continuation is 2.Qh5 Ke7?? 3.Qxe5# (this line ties with a few others for the fastest possible checkmate by White).
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Popularity
Despite its amateurish appearance, this opening was recently played in two grandmaster tournament games. Hikaru Nakamura, the 17-year-old GM and U.S. champion, played it as White against Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran at the May 2005 Sigeman Tournament in Copenhagen/Malmö Denmark. Nakamura got a reasonable position out of the opening but lost the game due to a mistake made in the middlegame. He later wrote on the Internet, "I do believe that 2.Qh5 is a playable move, in fact I had a very good position in the game, and was close to winning if I had in fact played 23.e5." Sasikiran went on to tie with Timman for first place in the tournament, with Nakamura half a point behind.
The previous month, Nakamura had played 2.Qh5 against GM Nikola Mitkov at the April 2005 HB Global Chess Challenge in Minneapolis. That game ended in a draw after 55 moves.
More often the opening is adopted by chess novices, as when actor Woody Harrelson played it against Garry Kasparov in a 1999 exhibition game in Prague. Harrelson achieved a draw after being assisted by several grandmasters who were in Prague attending the match between Alexei Shirov and Judit Polgár. The next year Kasparov again faced the opening as Black, this time winning in 17 moves, when tennis star Boris Becker played it against him in an exhibition game in New York.
Possible continuations
The Parham Attack occurs rarely at master level play, so it is difficult to theorize about the best continuations. For example, because most games with this opening have been played at weak scholastic tournaments, 2. ... g6?? has often been seen, losing a rook to 3. Qxe5+.
2. ... Nc6
This is the most common (and most historically successful) continuation. Black defends his e5 pawn from the queen and prepares to meet 3. Bc4 with 3. ... Qe7 or 3. ... g6.
GM Saskiran played it against GM Nakamura in their game, and Nikola Mitkov played it against Nakamura's Parham Attack in 2005. Garry Kasparov chose this move in both his exhibition games against Boris Becker and Woody Harrelson.
2. ... Nf6!?
This uncommon move is the favorite of some computer engines such as Shredder 9. After 3. Qxe5+ Be7 4. Nc3 0-0 5. Bc4 Nc6, black is a pawn down, but has a lead in delevopment and stands to gain more time off the exposed White queen. The main advantage of this line is that it avoids the uncomfortable contortions black must get himself into with the main line (Qe7 or g6).
