Unknown, yet powerful (Ruy López: Smyslov Defence)

Lol! Keep finding so called rare openings without seeing all types of databases like for online chess!
And what's your point after all.
The openings aren't bad but people found basic common ones and stuck to them, hence the case.

P.S.: I just checked on ChessGames.com and there's ONE game with this gambit in their database:
Arthur Bisguier vs. Alexander Kevitz – New York City, USA (1966)

@sheckley666 said in #6:
> Why does it have a name, if it has never been played OTB?

There are named King's Gambit lines that have never been played OTB or in lichess's 500 million game database. Most likely these were made by someone in the 19th century who drank too much whisky while analyzing and fell asleep chessboard, then woke to their cat nudging a piece over. Those were the glory days of opening theory, when any move that doesn't blunder a queen (and some moves that do!) gets named after you.

All this is a very roundabout way of saying: named openings aren't necessarily good. Let this guy have his thing. With some preparation, it could work as a surprise weapon at low-level chess. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

I've thought about playing a fianchetto as a reply to the Lopez. Admittedly it's positionally weakening, but it does avoid thery and black is mostly okay.

This is just bad though, Black is behind in development and blowing up his own kingside for no reason. White should be able to sustain an initiative for the rest of the game.

Just because an engine says a move is good doesn't mean you're as good as the engine.

#1: "Has only been played 19 times (!) on Lichess (53% win rate for Black);"

~ Lichess statistics aren't as reliable as OTB ones:

People don't have to travel to play on Lichess; Lichess players don't work as well as OTBers; and take it less seriously.

I get that you want to think "I have the secret sauce that no-one else has!" but here's the thing: Chess Openings are very optimised.

If it hasn't been played much, then there's probably a reason for that ;)

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#4: I believe PushWood is suggesting that if it *was* powerful, it wouldn't be unknown.