Non human openings V

This blog is just an appendix of Flanks attacks without intention to analyze amazing variations, just to show some experiences in positions where conditions for a flank attack are present. Like in 911 position, treated in former blog.
Positions will be 146 and 130.

position 146

position 130

Why did I choose these two positions so similar? Because both of them appeared recently in high-level tournaments and only one strong player chose 1.h4.

Position 146 was played in the Freestyle Grand Slam finals 2025 at the seventh round

Freestyle finals 2025 round 7th

Position 130 was played in the Freestyle Open 2025 at Karlsruhe at the second round. I will comment the game of your humble narrator with black pieces against Baadur Jobava who, for a casual fate, was the only player who chose 1.h4.

The only difference between positions is Qd1-Ne1 or Nd1-Qe1, as you can see above, however the first moves suggested by our short-circuited friend are not the same.

130 : the most normal moves 1.c4, 1.b3, 1.d4, 1.Nf3 are suggested.
146: besides normal moves like 1.d4 or 1.e4, in second place we can see 1.h4.
I found it shocking to me. Why module does not give 1.h4 in position 130 as it does in 146? Where is the difference? Is so much important the position of queen in e1 instead d1? I cannot give an answer.
Nevertheless elite GMs picked 1.d4 in their 146 games and not 1.h4 recommended by module, but Jobava, known for being an original and creative player, chose 1.h4 in position 130, not recommended by module. The conditions of games were different, in Karlsruhe Open there was no time to analyze position before game started and in Grand Slam players analyze without computer.

Let us follow 1.h4 as starting move in both positions, beginning with 130.
This position has been played 25460 times and 1.h4 121 times , a 0,47% of the games.

In position 130 I will show my game against Jobava in Open freestyle at Karlsruhe 2025. He began the game with 1.h4. I think that although king is already in a side, so classic castle loses one of its purposes, which is putting king away of center, however, its second purpose is still alive, connect rooks. Therefore, I discarded symmetry, 1...h5, and I wanted to take an strategy that consists in bringing game to center, where white can miss the rook connection. Additionally pawn h5 could be a weakness. In opposition to this, Rh3-g3 and Ba1 makes an strong pressure on g7 pawn with the king behind. Is it necessary h6 move? I did it in the game, but the question is still in the air.

Game with my comments Jobava-Beltran
In the opening I tried to drive the game to a 'queens indian' scheme where h5 pawn would be a weakness. 3...d5 was likely better trying to play like a 'queen's gambit' .After 5...c5 I look for a hedgehog plan but with move 9...Bf8 instead 9...a6 it was frustrated with 10.Nb5. 8...Re8 was a waste of time, better 8...d5 according to module's recommendation, it opens the center and makes reality the initial idea: isolates h rook and leaves h5 as a weakness, and changing queens as tip.
After dark squares bishop lose I think that the same pawn structure with two bishops in classical, with rooks connected and h pawn in its place white adventatge would be decisive. In this game white has the burden of a weakness in h5. 17.Rh4! brings rook to play and consolidates white's adventadge, I felt like a plumber closing holes in the pipes of my position.

The highest elo game with 130 position is the 5+8

A very balanced and symmetric game played like a Larsen or English opening decided by time.
1.h4 has been chosen by 32 of 11382 games, a 0,28% of games. What called my attention was that evaluation is -0,1 while in position 146 is +0,2 after move it, +0,4 before move it. It is not really a great difference for being a first move, but the reason of that remains a mistery to me. According to my search in the games of second round at Karlruhe no other game started with 1.h4 at least the matches played in boards with internet connection.

The games with the highest elo in Lichess with this first move are:

5+0 game where white flank strategy was rejected by center black attack. After 2...h6 Jobava started to play in center with 3.d4 as 'normal'
4+2 game rich in blunders from both sides, specially 12th move is a horrible one of your humble narrator followed by another one of my opponent.

Following with position 146, first move 1.h4 is played in 40 of 12000 games

The game with highest elo is this 5+2 game

. With fast bishop development in c5, black misses a weakness in e7 that white players takes profit to get iniciative. White missed a nice 21.c5! after black mistake 20...b4?. If 21...Bc5 22.Rc5 dc5 23.f4!
With 1.h4 this 3+2 game In this game, black plays on center and get a satisfactory position although it is a blitz...

How to justify a radical flank attack now? In both positions king is g1 and a bishop is in a1, but there is no weakness easy to attack, a2 is not important and 0-0 is easy to make. Maybe these two points are not relevant. In the other side 0-0-0 is so difficult that an early h side attack is logic taking this point of view.

I showed variatios in the current blog and my previous blogs that I do not understand completely. Chess is 960 times richer than I thought.