Putting pieces back on their starting squares in the opening

[Reg Clucas]

Not quite the same thing - undeveloping a knight to the other knight's starting square. This appeared in the December issue of Chess magazine.
[Event "Chicago"] [Site "?"] [Date "1989.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Rachels, S"] [Black "Gaillard, E"] [Result "*"] [Annotator "Sean Marsh"] [ECO "B00"] [EventDate "1989.??.??"] [SourceDate "2020.11.22"] [SourceTitle "Chess 2020 #12"] { "In the third round of the 1989 U.S. Open, a master played a funny opening against me." --- } 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nd7 { Black's play makes a strange impression, but he played quickly and Rachels didn't smell the rat. He chopped off the pawn with } 5.Nxd5 $2 { , but was shocked by the bizarre move } 5...Ndb8 $1 { . "I wanted to hide under a pile of coats. I'm losing back the pawn, the queens are coming off, and it's dead equal." The game was eventually drawn. } *

[Jonathan Bryant]

I seem to have a mental block and a dislike to put a piece back on its starting square after moving it.

I’ve seen it in grandmaster games, things like Bf8 ....

Ivanchuk, as Black once beat Kasparov with

1 e4 e6, 2 d4 d5, 3 Nc3 Bb4, 4 e5 b6, 5 a3 Bf8


Which I imagine amused Gazza not one bit.

[Roger de Coverly]

Ivanchuk, as Black once beat Kasparov with

1 e4 e6, 2 d4 d5, 3 Nc3 Bb4, 4 e5 b6, 5 a3 Bf8


Which I imagine amused Gazza not one bit.

It's an old Petrosian line, so he should have known it.

[JustinHorton]

And here we see Kasparov moving a piece back to its original square, against Petrosian. And losing.

[Jonathan Bryant]

It's an old Petrosian line, so he should have known it.

Yes and I'm sure he did.


rn1qk1nr/pp2b1pp/8/3p1bN1/3Pp1PP/8/PP3P2/RNBQKB1R b KQkq - 0 10

Nearly 10 years ago I reached this position as Black against John Hickman at Sunningdale. I remember not fancying ... Bd7 too much (not sure why now) and eventually coming to the idea of ... Bc8. Initially I wasn't even going to look at it properly - as per the OP's original point, it just felt too silly - but eventually I did and couldn't see anything wrong with it. So I played it.

HIARCS seems to think Black's doing well after 10 ... Bc8. Mind you, it doesn't mind ... Bd7 either.