Amar Opening
The king's knight starts on the edge of the board, in an opening named twice: once for a Paris amateur, once for the ammonia molecule its notation spells.
1.Nh3 puts the king's knight on the least useful square it can legally reach. The names tell you how seriously history takes it: the Amar Opening, after Charles Amar, a Parisian amateur of the 1930s, and the Ammonia Opening, because NH3 is the chemical formula. From h3 the knight covers f4 and g5 and not much else. It gets in the h-pawn's way. There is no hidden positional depth here. This is a shrug at the theory book.
The opening's one genuine idea: the knight doesn't block the f-pawn. After g3 and Bg2, White can follow with f4 or reroute the knight to f4 itself. This reaches strange Bird-like attacking setups a tempo behind schedule. Nobody claims an edge; the claim is unfamiliarity. In fast games unfamiliarity is worth real rating points.
Black should simply build the center White ignored. The knight's oddness is not a trap. There is no venom on h3. Normal development with central pawns is both the safest and the most ambitious response. The Amar's real audience is blitz players who want the game out of book by move one and back themselves in the mess that follows.
White's best version of this is a kingside fianchetto: g3 and Bg2, castle short, and use the unblocked f-pawn to play f4 or hop the knight to f4. This can yield a Dutch-flavored attack a tempo down. The romantic version gambits a pawn early for open lines and confusion. In every version the true weapon is surprise. White should steer for the structures the h3 knight actually fits instead of pretending this is a normal opening.
Black should claim the center immediately: ...d5, and ...e5 too if allowed. Then develop to natural squares and castle. There is nothing to refute and nothing to fear, only a free tempo to spend on good development. The one thing to avoid is drifting into White's preferred fianchetto structures at White's pace. Keep the space, keep it simple, and make the h3 knight go find a job.
At club level (1600-2000 on Lichess), the Amar shows up in about 359,000 games, mostly from blitz adventurers. Black grabs the center with 1...d5 in 43.1% of games (scoring 51% for Black) or 1...e5 in 20% (scoring 52%). Those two center grabs are precisely the replies that put White under 50%. The quieter moves let White off the hook. After 1...e6 or 1...d6 White actually sits above break-even. The data agrees with the principle: take the center and the numbers tilt your way, if only by a point or two.
- Family
- Amar Opening
- Category
- Flank
- First move
- Other
- ECO
- A00
- Line
- 1. Nh3