As one who enjoys a good sacrifice, what are your favourite chess gambits?
Some of my favourite ones are the Budapest gambit and his sister, the Tennison Gambit:
en.lichess.org/86o2G0LARQWFThe Fried liver attack is great and all but have you seen the magnificence of the Traxler countergambit?
en.lichess.org/rIE3t3gD/blackAnd occasionally I sometimes would like to play those unsound gambits such as the Danish gambit during blitz.
en.lichess.org/b5kkWeHv2qgjWhat gambits do you consider shocking or amazing?
i'm playing a gambit repertoire nowadays. i guess i don't feel like going into detail :p
regarding the danish, i love it but the reason why i rarely play it is actually the declined line 3..d5. it's popular and nothing fun comes out of that.
Very nice thread. Have you tried haloween gambit? The name is really fitting, as your oponnents usually go "what the hell". I had great succes with it in blitz. Though I usually don't risk playing it against strong opponents, which may know theory. It is not very sound.
Traxler is amazing. In CLASSICAL OTB games I hold 7-1 record with it. And if we counted all blitz and online games. Holy crap, I have won a ton. Also, very fun.
Regarding danish, I dp not play it, but support 3. ... d5 or 3. ... Qe7 as Lightsss said. These just give black stabile, small adventage. Not what danish gambit player hopes for.
Cochrahane gambit is quite fun, but they usually know theory well, do does not work that well.
Urusov gambit is quite fun, expect they can transfer to Scotch gambit, which I am not very happy about.
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. d4! Is something I invented myself (though I am sure it already existed and was played), then I was a kid and still play occasionally.
yeah good comments.
halloween - very strong against unprepared opponents, but the amount of these gets lower every day :p a strong decliner is 5..Ng6 6 e5 Bb4
traxler - if you are willing to learn some pretty unintuitive theory, it should pay off well even up to a level somewhat above mine. (un)fortunately black already has a lot of active options against 4 Ng5, it would be nice to have something like that against 4 d3 :p
danish - at least against 3..Qe7 you can still sac two pawns with 4 cxd4 Qxe4 Be2 Qxg2 Bf3 (objectively dubious but still fun). 3..d5 is not fun at all..
cochrane - its about ok
urusov - good but you will usually transpose to other things and rarely get to actually play it. the good (?) part is that you can't be punished by playing the urusov move order (as in, opponent can't force you into a worse position)
e4 e5 Bc4 Bc5 d4 - definitely reasonable
for a good balance between soundness and aggressiveness, i'd recommend the wing gambits against french and sicilian.
also a honorable mention to the blackmar-diemer. i think d4 d5 e4 is ok, but after d4 Nf6 black can avoid the transpositions in strong ways.
Well, Im a beginner so I enjoy the Queens Gambit!!!
But also, can anyone tell me the purpose of the Englund gambit please?
the queen's gambit is a SHAM!! it shouldn't be called a gambit :( strong opening though
the englund main line with 3..Qe7 is just a bag of tricks. here's a notorious one: 1 d4 e5 2 dxe5 Nc6 3 Nf3 Qe7 4 Bf4 Qb4+ 5 Bd2 Qxb2 6 Bc3?? Bb4! 7 Qd2? Bxc3 8 Qxc3 Qc1#.
in the 3..d6 or 3..f6 lines black goes for more standard gambit compensation.
I quite like the Benko/Volga gambit and have played it for some time, though the lines with b6 are a bit annoying. Before playing the Benko I played the Budapest gambit, but after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 I didn't like the dry positions if White immediately returned the pawn with, say, 4.Nc3?!, but I also didn't like the line 4.Bf4 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bb4+ 6.Nbd2.
I haven't had the opportunity it much, but I'm really interested in the Smith-Morra Gambit:
www.wikiwand.com/en/Sicilian_Defence,_Smith%E2%80%93Morra_GambitLove Evans gambit
There is a lot of gambits in chess
I can advice you some of them that I play myself
With white, if you play the Italian u can play the early d4 against 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d4! which can transpose into the max Lange attack or the Morphy attack
If your opponent play 3... Bc5 instead of Nf6 u can try the wonderful Evans Gambit with 4. b4!
Against the scandinavian u can try the Tenisson gambit.
Against the french u can try the wing gambit or the Reti Gambit with 2.b3 or the Alekhine -Chatard (very strong one)
Against the Sicilian the smith-morra can be very strong if well-known (and very helpfull if u dont wanna learn all the sicilian theory)
With black, u can try the Benko/Budapest against d4 or the Traxler? against the Italian (I dont know them very well)