I Officially Made Chess History. 

new theory just dropped 🐄

Ferdinand the Bull, the character The Cow Opening was named after, symbolized in his beloved children's book the idea that it's perfectly valid to not do exactly what's expected from society if what you're doing brings you joy. It really makes him the perfect symbol for an opening that's celebrating chess as an experience that's not intimidating, but something for everyone.

It's basically a matter of time before Magnus plays this OTB and crushes an opponent.

Variations: The Texan Cow, The Bovine, The Udder One ..

I used the cow opening multiple times and i won 80% of my matches, in fact it's my favorite opening now.

I immediately associated the Nd2-b3 and Ne2-g3 moves as two horns, pointing sideways to the front, with the d3 and e3 pawns as some fluffy hair on the head in the middle. I was actually pretty sure that this is what it was named after, the association is so obvious for me... 😢

Congratulations! I tried the cow opening for 2 games, and I won both 🐮

So... Tyler took your opening and the streamer award...

This is great news!!! I remember you playing your mom and dad with the cow opening and all the fun you had with it. This is a great honor. Congrats!!!!

The cow is like the King's Indian, where you let your opponent build up a big center and then work to undermine that center.

This is 1000x better than being named chess streamer of the year! Congratulations.

16:04 Mooooves LOL Happy for you Anna.

The real reason it is called The Cow is because in Anna's funny accent every time she says the word "move" it sounds like "moo-ve".

Congrats Anna! You are such a great ambassador for chess. The Cow is a beautiful opening in it's symmetry and simplicity and can be played with both colors. I play The Cow time to time. It is definitely a keeper opening for me. Love the story behind how you came up with The Cow as the name.

You should do an episode expanding the cow theory past the first few moves. Stockfish probably has some great lines for each of the top responses

The fact that the cow opening is named after tjuren ferdinand is so funny to me. I don't even know why.

Stort grattis, Anna! Toppen att du gör schack roligt för en massa människor. Särskilt gillar jag att du "tänker högt" även när det är lite galna tankar; du är inte rädd. Tack för en bra kanal!

Her excitement is contagious. I am so happy that this went official, viral, etc. I am happy for Anna. Not everyone can say they created something. Then she says "moooooves" and I literally laughed so loud the dogs ran in to check what was happening.

Here’s the thing, I started to play chess a few months ago. I started as a 350. So basically a noob. I saw the cow opening and now I’m 530 and it’s basically my favorite opening. I love it because it’s easy to remember and if the opponent does over-extend, they basically screw themselves.

This is so awesome, Anna literally made history by creating an completely new and unorthodox chess opening that will be remembered forever. It'll be studied, put in books, part of some training regimes, etc. She's literally made chess history in a way and had a positive impact on the chess community. I'm really happy for her!

I can understand why you’re so excited This is part of chess history now and that must feel awesome when you’re as invested in the subject as you are

I love the cow and chess. My dad tried introducing chess to us kids for over 40 years (now he is working on the grandkids), but Anna and the cow finally made me started play, literally. I remember like on 2nd or third day after Anna originally posted it, an opponent already recognized my opening moves as ”Anna’s cow”, us both giggling a lot. The cow is really fun, congratz!!! But the true work is your talent and your positive energy and the giggles. Keep on the good work as long as you think it’s fun and rewarding, because I enjoy your content very nuch

I love you. You're excitement is infectious. Congrats again - I've experimented several times since officially crowned The Cow and several times before honestly but now OFFICIAL THEORY!. It's solid all around the KO variant is particularly attractive.

Big congratulations to you and all lovers of the Cow opening. Hoping you take it further and would love to see some more explanation as it's weaknesses and strengths as an opening. You've also inspired me to create my very own opening. Tusen hjertelig takk Anna

I'm so happy for you, Anna! I follow you already for a year and have seen your amazing progress through! Its always a pleasure to watch you, you bring me a lot of positive entertainment and knowledge in a very fun and light style, which is very unique for you as a streamer. Thank you for this and wishing you lots of future success in chess! Muchos saludos desde Bulgaria 👋

You made this opening big. It's all because of how you act, with excitement, a lot of fun and giggles and most importantly the fact you give all of yourself. I have been watching you last year and it has been a joy and really fun to see your channel evolve. You made this opening bigger than just lasting for 2 weeks and you truly deserve it. Keep on the amazing work you do :)

thank you for explaining the cow theory and congrats for making it official. when i learned to play the game 60 years ago the theory was to control the center as much as possible as this would restrict the opponent movements. i consider your theory interesting but i am now too old to try it out now.

Congratulations Anna! Very happy and excited for you! Very cool!

Thanks Anna, you got me interested again in chess after a few decades and now as a beginner again I'm enjoying chess vlogs on youtube and particularly the chess puzzles on a popular online app to slowly slowly learn what my particular weaknesses are and to learn more about chess by practicing puzzles. Just finished a few days puzzling Pawn Endgames which I now sense I understand to a degree. Next Improvement Area to work on is Zugzwang. So far it is Defensive Move I have found most difficult but am confident something will 'click' in my head and I'll have more understanding about them. Pawn End Games were a mystery to me until I watched some vlogs and a few things 'clicked'. Maybe next year or the year after I'll be able to play at speed rather than 1 or 2 mins per move! Your narrations are both entertaining and instructive. Thanks

Am super impressed you came up with the opening. Would be jazzed if you someday come with another because The Cow is pretty good and you believe you could come up with one even better. You rock, Anna.

ive been using the cow opening since you introduced me to it, and its still my favorite opening of all time. went to central park and used it against one of the old-heads, and they laughed out loud that i told them it was called the cow

Its not stupid you are so happy. Its freaking great. Congratz with your awesome chess opening. 🙏🏼💪🏼 will try it.

I love the idea of giving openings more memorable names!

The best ideas come from people like you that leaves aside all pre conceptions and just don't care about what people think. Eventually it all comes around and new exciting stuff appears!! Congrats!

You can control a lot of the board and still defend each piece by moving your two bishops up one square after the initial 6 moves. There's so much you can do with this opening

I'm looking forward to Gotham's course on The Cow opening! 😄😄

Today was the first time someone played this opening against me.

I love the cow, it's so freakin fun, you and levy (my 2 favourite creators) truly show how fun and goofy chess can be, and I love that. Great video!!!

Congrats. Seriously happy for you. Now on to Cow Stampeed variation lol

Finally the COW is official i was waiting this day for a long time

Congratulations on inventing your own opening! I play The Cow all the time, because I can't remember all the intricacies of other openings! It was good to see you play it in this video, to have another example of how it can go. Thank you!

At higher level, I imagine opponents won't have much experience with it, so it may take them far away from their known/prepped theory and into yours.

Congrats Anna, I love the story of Ferdinand and inspiration for it. You should be proud, you are now part of chess history which is super cool!

wonderful stuff; such a great narrative and enchanting hostess!

congrats! The mark of a great idea is that it only seems obvious AFTER you reveal it. Well done. How cool that you created this opening and now so many people have adopted it.

That's amazing! Congrats!! Hard work pays off!

Bless you Anna, your endless joy is contagious as always, it's so nice to see. I'm happy for you!

Well done Anna ! At my low level of 500. I play ´the cow´ all the time and it´s great for me. My main challenge during the game is always to try to not make an obvious blunder - easier said than done. The cow is fun and often opponents will push their queen or bishops hard hoping for an early win, which I try to counter. I find it a great opening at my level - thanks

Absolutely brilliant. So happy and proud for you. This actually brought a tear to my eye!

I just learned it today and I love it. It destroys players who only rely on long opening theories and their variations. The fact that it works for both sides makes it even more solid!

Now the parents can play The Cow since it’s all theory 😂

I have started using it and it works well for me, its a great defence against Wayward Queen Attack. I also move my Bishops to D2 and E2.

Amazing job, Anna! It's so cool to see how it took over and seeing your excitement makes it all worth it. Maybe you should be spending more time studying at 2am.

Very happy for you :D put your own stamp on the long history of chess!

I love your final thoughts that everyone should just play the game and have fun without stressing about it. Thank you for your ideas!

It seems the Bull variation was pretty popular in 1925 🤔

Congratulations Anna amazing work am really happy for you keep up the amazing work well deserved ❤️❤️

I teared up too. I understand how important this is. You succeeded in your aim beyond your wildest dreams. This IS a beginner-friendly opening, and it IS played by beginners to have fun, AND lots of people win with it.

“Why hasn’t this been played” - Anna, you move the same piece twice in a row two times.

I see it now Anna. " Oh, playing the cow defence are we, ok...." Just wait until a Grand Master Champion wins the final match in the World Championships using the 'Cow bull variation LMAO

Thats so awesome congratulations Anna!

I remember the day you announced the cow opening. I'm so glad you are enjoying it

I play this opening exclusively using both colors in online rapid games for quite a while. It was then called Van't Kruijs as White and Lengfellner as Black. Still playing and winning many games with them. Very useful as Black against the London System (1 d4 e6 2 Bf4 d6) as it takes White out of the book.

Very Interesting. I luv this. I remember playing the "cow" when I was in 7th grade in Waupaca Middle School which is in Waupaca, Wisconsin USA. It may not have been my move until others had played it before me.

How amazingly cool Anna! Congratulations!

I love the Eval Opening icon: "!?" - Congrats on the "Cow" & Black Angus

Great work, Anna! This IS exciting news! You deserve the recognition. I've been playing the Bull variation of the Cow for several weeks now. I win most of the time with it, and I have not lost a game yet!

"A very standard animal . . . " That really made my day! 😂😂😂

Anna, please create a course on playing positions that will challenge the Cow Opening. For example, fending off attacks, positional game players, etc.

Congrats on your official Cow opening! I saw you talk about this opening in some of your recent chass games, but I really didn’t understand what this was all about, I thought maybe you found an opening in CessBase you liked or something :) But now I know the wholy story, amazing! :)

Hi I am not a player but watch chess because I respect the complexity of the game. I wanted to tell you I love your always happy vibe and am so happy for you that your cow opening is respectable and officially a real opening. This is something you can be very proud about. You know thousands of players and how many have their own opening? Exactly. I think the cow could be very successful especially in speed or bullet chess or whatever you guys call it because with time an issue it may throw opponents off because they don't have their first 15 moves memorized to play fast in typical openings . They will have to think very early and create time problems for themselves until the cow becomes so popular the chess world invents the bull defense to possibly counter a cow opening. Then you could really be proud but either way you have contributed to the game permanently. I see it being super effective in bullet chess because the slight disadvantage it has is still very solid and the unfamiliarity of it MORE than makes up for it. Unbalancing your opponent has to carry some weight right? I don't play but I think this makes sense.

I played that move during high school a lot. Even won a trophy and never play chess again since those days. Genia Anna.

The chicken is a noble beast, the Cow is much forlorner, standing in the pouring rain, with a leg in every corner (Spike Lee)

Congratulations dear Anna! You make chess so much fun and you truly make people smile! Keep it up! 🍀💚

Omg Anna, this is amazing! I'd be crying too hahaha. You had the guts to do it, you totally deserve this 😊

I need to play this!!

26:53 I think they were considering the pressure of having the bishop target the pawn and then bringing the rook, they looked at their low time, and forgot they didn't move the bishop yet.

that's one of the best random things. this might not be a good opening but also not bad and it is yours. you can be proud of that - at least in a way

congrats :) interesting opening to try

Amazing! Big congratulations on your contribution getting recognized.

So excited for you! I love the cow opening.

I'm just 1000 elo and I never played the cow but I think it's insanely cute and the way how you're happy about it definitely makes me smiling sincerily!

You know... that's an achievement. On second review: this is a very good defensive setup: you are two moves away from a kingside castle or three moves for a queenside castle. The resulting castle is quite secure and you have bishops/knights or bishops/queens in positions ready to attack.

This is great Anna! I hope Paul van der Sterren will include The Cow in an updated revision of the FCO! :D

I actually did the Cow opening when I was a kid just in casual play against friends, never really developed it as anything though because at the time I was just a casual player who knew not much of anything about chess, lol, never even heard 'opening' in reference to chess until my mid 20s playing online, 33yrs old now

completly deserved, that this is now yours

Congratulations on your opening!

I typically play Queens Gambit in casual games (the only games I play). Players at my (low) level are not used to it, and just knowing the one opening moderately well is enough to dominate in most of my games. The Cow seems like a fun opening, especially with Black. Even though it is a little harder, you are not giving up the initiative, you never had it, so White winds up attacking a structure that they are not familiar with.

Too cool! Congratulations and thanks for sharing the story.

this is hilarious, am so happy for you, congratz

I would call it the atheists' opening because it cuts out your bishops.

congrats anna 🎉🎉

The cow defense: calf variation 👌🏻

I would have called it the Unicorn, since it was a rare move and it involves the Knights with horses. Great job for the new move!

Passion usually returns some reward, but not always as big as this great official acknowledgment. Congratulations! Your passion will take you to further achievements, I'm sure.

You are amazing Anna and so smart!! Congrats!

Congratulations! You truly deserve the recognition

Anna has created her legacy. This is pretty cool, and we can feel her excitement.

Please post the video of the semi-final in that London tournament from the previous video.

now for advanced cow with a3, h3 so you can advance bishops safely