The Global Opening

What to do if you are a retired GM, making a comeback to tournament chess after a break of a number of years? In the case of English GM Matthew Sadler, avoiding opponents more up to date opening theory was one consideration. So borrowing from IM Michael Basman's bag of tricks he employed the Global Opening (Reversed).
The Global Opening can be played against pretty much anything as with White you simply start with h3 and a3, and employed as Black (as Sadler did), you being with h6 and a6. For Sadler this seemed to be a pretty effective strategy as he won the tournament he was playing in, in Haarlem, with a score of 5/6. And the field was quite strong, with 7 GM's playing. Possibly the most drastic example of the success of this opening was his quick win over IM Chiel Van Oosterom.

IM Van Oosterom,Chiel - GM Matthew Sadler
NOVA college schaaktoernooi 2010 Haarlem, 03.07.2010

1.e4 a6 2.d4 h6 3.Bd3 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.Be3 Qc7 6.b4 Nc6 7.c3 d6 8.cxd6 Bxd6 9.Nf3 Nf6 10.h3 g5 11.a3 g4 12.Nd4 Ne5 13.Be2 Nxe4 14.hxg4 Bd7 15.g5 0-0-0 16.gxh6 Bc6 17.Nxc6 Qxc6 18.Qb3 Bc7 19.a4 (D)
19. ... Ng3 20.fxg3 Qxg2 21.Rf1 Nd3+ 22.Bxd3 Rxd3 0-1