Bongcloud Attack
White walks the king to e2 on move two. This blocks the bishop and queen. It is a joke told with a straight face, and the internet's favorite way of saying the result doesn't matter.
2. Ke2 breaks every opening rule at once: it develops nothing, blocks the light-squared bishop and the queen, gives up castling forever, and parks the king in the center while the board is still full. There is no hidden idea. The point is that there is no point. The Bongcloud exists to be funny. White announces an intent to win on pure chess from a position of self-inflicted damage.
It grew up in online blitz, where Hikaru Nakamura made it a signature gag in serious internet events. The bit peaked in 2021, when Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen reached the double Bongcloud. Nakamura played 2. Ke2 and Carlsen answered 2...Ke7, facing each other in an online super-tournament. Both drew, both grinning. That moment did more for the opening's fame than any novelty ever could.
Underneath the meme there's a real lesson: White is clearly worse after two moves, but not lost, and punishing a bad opening still takes technique. Black's job is patient. Black should develop, open the center, and keep queens on while the king sits on e2. If you ever face it, treat it as a free tempo and an invitation to play your best chess, not your flashiest.
There is no plan, only damage control with a wink. White typically walks the king back toward safety by hand over the next several moves, keeps the center closed with modest pawn moves so the missing castling rights matter less, and develops normally a tempo down. The practical hope is psychological: an opponent so eager to punish the joke that they lunge, overextend, and hand the game back.
Take the gift without saying thank you. Develop naturally, claim the center with ...d5 when it comes with tempo, and open lines while the White king is still on e2. Checks and pins along the e-file and the a6-f1 diagonal all gain time. The one mistake is trying to win in five moves; the position wins slowly, and keeping queens on the board is worth more than any quick raid.
At club level (1600-2000 on Lichess) the joke gets told 46,462 times in our database. Next to over 502 million games reaching 1. e4 e5, it's a rounding error. Punishment is straightforward: the top replies 2...Nc6 (34% of games) and 2...Nf6 (22.8%) both score 62% for Black, and the greedy 2...Qh4 scores 73%. The mirror joke is 2...Ke7, the double Bongcloud. It appears in 4.4% of games and scores dead even at 50%. Of its 2,065 games, 703 are drawn, usually by mutual grin.
Hikaru Nakamura — Made the Bongcloud his signature online gag. He played it in serious internet blitz events and won with it.
Magnus Carlsen — Answered Nakamura's 2. Ke2 with 2...Ke7 in a 2021 online super-tournament. This created the famous double Bongcloud draw.
- Family
- Bongcloud Attack
- Category
- Open
- First move
- 1.e4
- ECO
- C20
- Line
- 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2