an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 03/17/21 at 08:44:42:


oops, typo!  Nbd7 first and then Nf6+g6.

Rat is the Canadian name for ...g6 and ...d6. English Rat doesn't make any sense. It sounds like something Schiller would have made up. In fact Schiller (1998) Unorthodox Openings page 374 calls 1.e4 d6 2.d4 f5 both the "Rat Defense" and the "Balogh Defense". Balogh is correct, Rat is incorrect and annoying.

Barsky (2010) A Universal Weapon 1.d4 d6 is the one you want. Did you see the below chesspub discussion? 
https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1551111664

I understand the lichess database doesn't let you filter by time control. Probably most of the games you are looking at are 3-minute games, that won't in any way indicate popularity in OTB or correspondence play. I have also used 1.d4 d6 as a move order to the King's Indian, e.g. 2.Nf3 Nf6. Your move order 1.d4 d6 2.c4 e5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 g6 loses a pawn, twice.

I have had a lot of success playing this variation with the Black pieces, yet I still do not know what it's called.  Versions of this queenless middlegame also arise from the Sicilian (after Nxc6 dxc6, e.g. in the Taimanov) and with reversed colors in the English, as in the symmetrical line that goes ...d5 cxd5 Nxd5 e4 Nxc3 dxc3 Qxd1+ Kxd1.

The structure is that of an Exchange King's Indian (Soltis calls this the "Rauzer Formation" in Pawn Structure Chess) and the side that has lost the right to castle usually gets a pretty good game with c6+Kc7, f6+Be6, a5+Nc5, and focusing on the d4 square or the a4 break to take advantage of the opponent's advanced c-pawn.

Lichess and chess.com both label this the "English Rat" but I can't find any sources that actually call it that.  In fact I have not found any books that give serious coverage to this setup at all.  There are plenty of books recommending 1...d6 systems but they all simply hand-wave it away with one sample game.  For instance, GM Yrjola dedicates a whole 3 pages to it in "An Explosive Chess Opening Repertoire for Black."  You would think, based on this lack of coverage, that it would not be commonly played, but lichess gives that in master-level games on their server dxe5 is played more often than Nf3.  I personally have had several IMs and even GMs play it against me so if it is a known mistake then the knowledge is not so widespread.

Anyway, was wondering if anyone knows what this is actually called, or the history behind it, as well as any books (or ChessPub releases) that cover it.  I have begun playing it as my move order to reach a King's Indian (1. d4 d6 2. c4 e5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 g6) and there's just something really fun about giving your opponents the opportunity to make a "mistake" on move 3 especially when high-ranking players will go for it.