The Belgian Attack is the fourth most popular German opening and comes in at 26th overall. It’s an openly pro-English and Russian opening and anti-French, which implies one of two things: that a Northern Triple is about to descend and wreak havoc on the board, or that Germany is about to die.
Usually the objective is to push the fleet Holland into position to help England into the Channel or possibly even push the German fleet toward the Mid-Atlantic. A bounce in Burgundy is OK, but a supported move by France is very bad news as the French position now looks very defensible – and where else is France going to attack? Ruhr is even a vulnerability in this case which is ugly.
Then there are the bigger problems. A hostile England bounces Germany in Denmark and it’s curtains; Russia, if given foreknowledge of the guarantee of Sweden, can easily pick an ally on the eastern side of the board and flood North in an alliance that is hard for the West to stop (imagine A War – Sil; A Vie – Boh; A Ven – Tyl given this German opening!). As with all bold, declarative openings it suffers from the weakness of giving other players all the options. While this opening has the advantage that a wise England would jump on board the England/Germany alliance, not all English players are wise.
Where this opening will work is against a weak French player. If Burgundy gets in and France only gets one build (For example, by A Spa – Mar covering the centre and sacrificing Spain) then a rare quick kill of France is possible, with Germany getting the lion’s share of the spoils. In most other circumstances, however, the opening is fraught with dangers and can safely be considered not worth the risk. If you’re looking for the right German opening, then keep looking.
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This opening works well if: (1) Germany has convinced Russia to open with a Squid or Octopus (http://diplom.org/Online/Openings/textversion/Russia.html#rus-northern) with the promise of “not bouncing Sweden” in Fall ’01; (2) England opens with a standard Northern Opening (http://diplom.org/Online/Openings/textversion/England.html#eng-north); and (3) France was not to be trusted about a Burgundy DMZ, and opens Pic/Spa/Bur. It actually works fairly well regardless of what France does, primarily because the threat of the Russian army in StP allows Germany to control the destiny of Denmark and Belgium without much fear of English meddling. It is pro-Russia, anti-France, and neutral to England. This opening should be utilized far more often than it usually is, in my opinion.
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