Kangaroo Defense
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- This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
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The Kangaroo Defense, or Keres Defense, is a chess opening characterized by the opening moves 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+. White can respond 3.Nc3, 3.Nd2 or 3.Bd2 (the only other legal move, 3.Qd2??, loses the queen). The game often transposes to a Dutch Defense, a Nimzo-Indian Defense, a Bogo-Indian Defense, a Queen's Indian Defense, an English Defense, or a Queen's Gambit Declined. 3.Nc3 is likely to transpose into one of those openings: 3...Nf6 (Nimzo-Indian Defense), 3...f5 (Dutch Defense), 3...d5 (a slightly unusual sort of Queen's Gambit Declined), or 3...b6 (English Defense). Black has the same options after 3.Nbd2, except that 3...Nf6 4.Nf3 is a Bogo-Indian Defense. After 3.Bd2, Black can play 3...Bxd2+, 3...Qe7, 3...c5, or 3...a5. 4.Nf3 in response to any of the latter three moves transposes to a Bogo-Indian.
Although unusual, the opening is fully sound. Perhaps the only reason it is not seen more often is that most players of the Nimzo-Indian, Queen's Gambit Declined, and Dutch prefer not to give White the option, after 1.d4, of playing 2.e4, so they will tend to play 1...Nf6, 1...d5 or 1...f5 respectively. After 1.d4 e6 2.e4, Black must decide whether to play 2..d5 (the French Defense), 2...b6 (Owen's Defense), 2...c5 (the Franco-Benoni), or 2...f5 (the obscure Kingston Defense).
