LiChess Tools openings that are/were not in Lichess

If you have installed the LiChess Tools browser extension you may have noticed that at some particular positions you get extra opening names. They come from the list of openings included in it. The principle - that sometimes I don't follow, but that's on me - is that if someone names a position that was not named before and makes the effort of writing detailed blog posts or create videos on how to play that position or plays it so much that a body of knowledge can be generated, then they deserve to get that name.

So, being curious on how these new openings fared, I wrote this post where I am trying to compare the evolution of a position from when it was added in LiChess Tools and today. I will take five random openings, in no particular order, and do a then-and-now kind of thing. Also, I am absolutely certain none of the increase in use for any of these openings can be attributed to LiChess Tools, but maybe the first "official" recognition for them can.

Alien Gambit

I will start with what is probably the most memable of them all. The Alien Gambit! Made famous by Bulgarian YouTuber Witty_Alien (CM Volen Dyulgerov). It goes like this: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Ng5

At the moment of the writing, there are 54 Masters games in the Lichess database and 761910 games in all of the user games there! But I've added this gambit to LiChess Tools in Feb 19, 2024 and until March 2024 we have 414720 games, 23146 new games per month. Almost double! Let's look in the Lichess openings chart:

Just Wow! It blew up! It was blowing up since November 2023. OK, let's try another.

Haggis Gambit

Made famous by GM Igor Smirnov in his popular Remote Chess Academy videos, the gambit goes like this: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Ng5 and was added to LiChess Tools on Apr 08 2024.

Today, with no Masters games, there are 2756606 games in the Lichess user database. But until Apr 2024 there were 1649065, 79110 new games per month! Let's look at the opening chart:

Seems it grew steadily since December 2021 and then started being used even more since November 2024.

Radagast Gambit

Popularized by YouTuber Adamisko (Adam Prikler), the Radagast Gambit goes like this: 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. dxe6 Nc6 and was added to LiChess Tools also on Apr 08 2024.

With no Masters game and 52000 games in the database, it's a pretty rare opening. Let's see how many games there were before April 2024: 40707, meaning 807 new games per month.

The chart shows that it was in decline until it started rising in popularity!

London Crusher 9000 Gambit

Basically invented by FM William Graif, the London Crusher 9000 gambit was added to LiChess Tools in Apr 08 2024 and goes like this: 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 c5 3. e3 Qb6 4. Nc3 Qxb2 5. Nb5 cxd4.

With no Masters game and 1834 games reaching the position before April 2024, it has reached today a number of 3592, meaning 126 new games per month, but a doubling of the number!

The chart shows it blowing up after wgraif demonstrated numerous victories in the gambit on his YouTube channel.

Cow Opening

This series wouldn't have been complete without the Cow Opening, a distinct invention of YouTuber Anna Cramling. It starts like this: 1. e3 d5 2. d3 e5 3. Ne2 and it was added to LiChess Tools on Mar 6, 2024, when it sported 499174 games. Now it shows one Masters game and 663737 games overall, meaning 11754 new games per month.

The chart shows an absolute explosion, on May 2023, when Anna started talking about the opening (and Chess.com started promoting it).

Conclusion

Only five openings, but a lot of them in LiChess Tools. Tell me if you want me to continue with this and which metrics you would be interested about.

Have fun!