I played it so you don't have to: The Lemming

Introduction

The Lemming is 1.e4 Na6. This drunken knight move is probably one of Black's worst responses to 1.e4 (it's certainly worse than the Ware Defence 1. ...a5). I have no idea where the name comes from. My best guess is that it's an invention of Benjamin and Schiller, the authors of Unorthodox Openings. Why Lemming, I don't know. I can only suppose that the opening is supposed to be suicidal.

(Aside: the move 1.Na3 is known as the Sodium Attack because Na is the chemical symbol for Sodium, so I suppose the Lemming could logically have been named the Sodium Defence.)

Why not Bxa6?

The most obvious point about 1. ...Na6 is that it invites White to play Bxa6. This is not a bad move, but probably not the best one either. Now you might be thinking "but that smashes the pawn structure and gives Black a doubled pawn. It must be good!". But actually, the doubled pawn is not really a big deal, and Black should be happy to see White's light-squared bishop be exchanged off like this, because it's usually a very strong attacking piece. Getting the bishop pair is also a useful plus.

There's a classic game illustrating the flaws of this capture on a6. The game was played by Paul Keres. He didn't play the Lemming, but he did put a knight on a6 in a Benoni position and his opponent, Dunkelblum, was tempted to capture it. Keres subsequently unleashed a mind-boggling whirlwind of tactics and Dunkelblum eventually resigned in a position where... the a-pawn was about to queen! How's that for poetic justice?

Here's the game.

This game is the spiritual inspiration of the Lemming player. Unfortunately, after 1.e4 Na6, White can just ignore the knight, and Black is left with a rather silly-looking piece. So after White plays 2.d4, for example, what now?

The De Bruycker Approach

If you put the position into Stockfish, it will decide to play c6, Nc7 and fianchetto the king's bishop to g7. Black ends up with a kind of cramped, slow Caro-Kann position. In Unorthodox Openings the moves 1. ...c6, 2. ...Na6 and 3. ...Nc7 are called the de Bruycker Defence. De Bruycker, after some experimentation with 1. ...Na6, preferred to play 1. ...c6 first. (Perhaps the motivation was to respond to Bxa6 with Qa5+).

I don't want to get into the details of this because I don't feel that playing an inferior Caro-Kann is in the proper Lemming spirit. What I prefer to aim for is an inferior Benko Gambit instead. But anyway, here is one of de Bruycker's games.

Incidentally, de Bruycker may be the strongest player to have played Na6 regularly on the first move. Here he is punishing the capture on a6 back in 1978.

De Bruycker's long-term strategy was to get the knight to e6 via a6 and c7, which is logical because the move 1.e4 weakens the d4 and f4 squares. In many Black defences, the knight travels via d7 and f8 instead. De Bruycker's path to e6 may not be better, but it is no slower.

Birth of the Lemming?

De Bruycker may have been the strongest Lemming player, but he wasn't the first!

The earliest Lemming game I know of is Magee-Delmar, 1906. Black did fairly well out of the opening, but the game was later agreed drawn in a pawn ending which was losing for Black. I include it here as a historical curiosity.

Analysis

Now I will explain how I like to play the Lemming. Short version: Whether or not White takes on a6, I like to play c5 (possibly as a pawn sacrifice) combined with Bg7 and putting pressure on the dark squares. The idea is to get a kind of Dragon/Pterodactyl (if White takes on c5) or Benko (if White plays d5).

A Lemming tabiya

As noted above, after 1.e4 Na6, the best move is probably 2.d4. Then I like to play the moves c5 and g6 in either order. White usually supports the centre with c3 and Nf3. After Black fianchettoes the bishop, White has a very good developing move, Bc4. This makes it difficult for Black to play Nf6 because the d5 square is not available. (It also prepares Qb3, which is an awkward move to meet. Note that Black doesn't have Na5 as a response!)

The resulting position is, I really believe, best play for White, and therefore it is an important tabiya (a word meaning a standard position in an opening). Black is hard pressed to find a move here.

The computer's favourite suggestion is cxd4, but in playing this, Black has to acquiesce to some sort of inferior Sicilian, in which the knight on a6 looks very silly. Black can also try the snappy gambit move d5, but it ends up reaching similar positions (feel free to name this the "Turbotcharge Gambit" if you want... no?... Oh. OK then.)

I feel like I've tried literally everything else and none of it is any good. Maybe the idea of a quick c5 for Black just isn't feasible and Black, as de Bruycker discovered, has to be content with playing c6 first, in which case 1. ...c6 and 2. ...Na6 is a slightly better move order.

What if white plays d5?

But it's not all doom and gloom, especially in blitz! A lot of people won't play into the above "tabiya" position. They'll either take on a6, in which case you will win a moral victory and also get the same sort of counterplay as in Dunkelblum-Keres, or else they'll push the pawn to d5, in which case you get a Benoni structure. Now you will aim to play b5 (possibly as a gambit after white plays c4) supported by Nc7. The follow-up moves will be ...a6 and ..Rb8, and generally play in the style of the Benko Gambit. This can work out well for Black, because it's hardly what white expected when opening the game with 1.e4!

The Pirc Approach

Another approach which the computer likes is to avoid the move ...c5 and play into a kind of Pirc position with ...d6 instead. If you are lucky, white might play f4, and there are some lines in the Pirc and King's Indian in which black really does play Na6, and you might transpose into them.

Personally, I haven't had much success with this approach because I tend to get blown off the board if I neglect the centre altogether, but if you already like the Pirc, you might enjoy it.

The Pirc approach to the Lemming has some historical significance. It was used by 1893-rated Kevin Toon to defeat the computer Belle, which had controversially been allowed to play in the 1982 US Open. Here's the game.

Tactics to watch out for

The tactical ideas I came across when analysing the Lemming were mostly the same as in various other openings. However, there is one particular thing to watch out for.

The placement of the knight on a6 means that there is nothing deterring White from recapturing on d4 with the queen if Black takes on d4. It turns out that a White queen on d4 can be extremely powerful.

For example, after 1.e4 Na6 2.d4 c5 3.Nf3 cxd4 4.Qxd4, the computer recommends... Nb8. If this is the best move, then Black must indeed be in some trouble.

There's also this pretty tactical idea, which comes up in some other openings, such as the Dutch.

Somehow, the tactical ideas always seem to be for White. It's hard to find anything interesting for Black. This is not a coincidence. The Lemming is very bad.

I did find the following clever tactic from a game by Braun. Although the game starts with c6 rather than Na6, it could still have arisen from a Lemming by transposition. Black wins in seven moves!

Praxis

I played 32 games in the Lemming (as Black) and possibly more, since I played Na6 in reply to d4 a couple of times too.

My overall score was about 50%. I lost about 50 rating points and probably a few brain cells as a result of this experiment.

Here is a game showing what Black is aiming for in my preferred approach to the Lemming. White pushes d5 and builds a big centre. Paradoxically, this gives Black a free hand to successfully achieve a kind of Benko Gambit position.

Here's another game showing the kind of dark-square counterplay that you can get if the cards fall the right way.

Here's a game in which I get blown off the board trying to play a kind of Pirc Lemming like in the Belle-Toon game. My opponent plays quite a bit more aggressively than Belle did.

Unfortunately, at my level, most games are decided for better or worse by terrible blunders, so I don't have any other games which I feel are worthy of sharing. But you can look them up in the Lichess Opening Explorer if you are curious.

Verdict

What is the final verdict on the Lemming? Ein Springer am Rand bringt Kummer und Schand, as they say. Is that the case here?

Playability

The Lemming is not a good opening. I would rate it as one of the worst responses to 1.e4. Off the top of my head, probably only 1. ...f5,, 1. ...b5 and 1. ...Nh6 are worse moves, maybe 1. ...h5 too. However, at my level, I would not say that it's unplayable. It might gain you some time on the clock; I believe I did beat a Lichess 2500 player with 1.d4 Na6 in this way. I'd maybe give it a 2 or 2.5 out of 5 for playability.

Refutation

As White, you just need to reach the position after 1.e4 Na6 2.d4 c5 3.c3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bc4 and Black is in real trouble. But seriously, if you are learning lines to play against the Lemming Defence, please pause and reconsider how you are spending your life! You could be learning a musical instrument or something. Even without optimal play, White has nothing to worry about except for the potential embarrassment of losing to 1. ...Na6.

Theory

The Lemming is an extremely obscure opening. Unorthodox Openings gives one line, and it's a markedly inferior one for both sides. Probably the best information about 1. ...Na6 is Myers Opening Bulletin 25. One of my motivations for writing this post is that I found nothing about the Lemming online. It's a really really obscure opening which hasn't been analysed very much by strong players. (Even 1.e4 b5 was analysed by a player of the stature of GM Miles.) So I would give it 5 out of 5 on a scale where 1 is an opening requiring a lot of book knowledge, and 5 is an opening with no theory at all.

Final Thoughts

In spite of everything, I like the Lemming. If I enter a real-life blitz tournament one day, and I have no hope of winning, it's an opening I might play for fun, just to give my opponent a shock. But in the cold light of day, I have to admit that it's the equivalent of giving odds. White can get away with playing 1.Na3 and still be equal, but black can't afford to take the same kind of extravagant risks in the opening. The best black can hope for after playing 1. ...Na6 is an inferior version of some other opening such as the Sicilian, Owen, Caro-Kann or Pirc.

The Lemming is bad. Don't play it.

References

Unorthodox Openings, Benjamin and Schiller
Keres' Best Games of Chess 1931-1940, Reinfeld
Myers Opening Bulletin 25
Myers Opening Bulletin 35
Randspringer 37

The last three references were shared by Ed Gaillard.