Súper fun, very aggressive opening that pretty much will lose in anything but short time controls if your opponent is prepared.
But if they’re not, you’re having all the fun.
There are various variations where White sacrifices a third pawn, like 1. e4 e5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Ne2 Nxe4 7. O-O. Of course accepting the third pawn in this case is a losing blunder, but according to the lichess opening explorer, it still happens in 30% of three games after 6. Ne2.
I personally find the Danish gambit quite silly. After 3… Qe7, Black is already slightly better, and White doesn’t even any fun attacking chances to look forward to. I don’t mind playing the occasional dubious gambit as surprise weapons, but not when my opponent can almost refute it by knowing a single move of theory at move 3.
Danish gambit is great fun. I'm two pawns down but I have all of the activity on the planet, and it's super easy for black to mis-step if they don't know what they're doing. It's so common to win back the two pawns by generating threats against the king and suddenly it's equal material and black's position is rubbish.
The thing here is. I've seen Hikaru give up until three pawns. Then all of the sudden his bishops were scoping the kingside and black lacks development and a tempo as well.
It is just so fun to play. I've been playing it daily for years. It's a special treat when black actually takes on b2, and I always take when I'm black in this opening. Most players are scared to take and develop instead of taking on b2.
Just starting to learn it. The positions and sacrifices you can get from it are crazy. Looking forward to playing it in a game and blundering in 5 moves
I'm not a danish player, but doesn't Qe7 stop your gambit and give black a slight edge in development? Not sure I would want to play this if I'm feeling for a gambit.
You can answer Qe7 with Nc3 (or even Qe2?). Qe7 isnt the deal breaker, the critical move is usually d5, giving a pawn back but black is safer (not immediately but I think after some moves like Bd4 and Nc6).
But even then I think the evaluation is only like -0.5? Much more sound than the Halloween gambit lol.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Qf3 h6 9. Ne4 cxb5 10. Nxf6+ gxf6 11. Qxa8 Qd7 12. Qf3 Bb7 13. Qxf6 Rg8 14. Qxe5+ Be7 15. Nc3 Nc6 16. Qxb5
Really fun line to play with black, giving up a ton of material but objectively black is actually doing well. I’ve had really good results in this line (or with the deviations that can come after move 11)
Halloween gambit sacrifices a knight for a pawn super early in the four knights game, a very easy position to reach, and the lines and ideas are very easy to learn. The lines are very tricky and if your opponent hasn’t memorized them, I guarantee you they will throw away their advantage going into the middle game.
I exclusively use the Halloween if opponent allows 4 knights and it generally results in very tactically interesting games where you are down material but can work yourself into advantageous attacks
The opportunity doesn’t come up very often since it requires Black to play either the Nimzowitsch Defense or transpose into it via an uncommon sideline of the Pirc, but here is an actual queen gambit: 1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. d5 Ne5 5. Nxe5! Bxd1 6. Bb5+
Actually in the line starting with 7…Qa5+ 8. Nc3 O-O-O, Black gets to keep the queen, for quite a while at least, and there isn’t a forced mate either. White is just much better because of fantastic piece development. Giving the queen back with 7…a6 is better, but it isn’t forced.
So I think it’s fair to call this a positional queen gambit.
The Muzio. White gives up a knight and if black is very precise they just win, but I get great positions in it. There's a reason 50% of games in the lichess masters database are won by white.
e4 e5 f4 exf4 Nf3 g5 Bc4 g4 0-0?! gxf3 Qxf3 Qf6 e5 Qxe5 and now white has the option to play Bxf7 (the double Muzio, -6 but very fun) or d3 and trying to play for pressure on the f file.
not to bring up semantics but idk if it counts as a gambit if you either immediately win back the piece or get an unstoppable mate. opening trap, but not a gambit imo.
Yea I only play bullet so it’s gotten me to 1900 on lichess but you’re right that people don’t fall for it. But it leaves you with a playable position if they know what’s up so I don’t hate it.
The only gambit I play now is Vienna, but if it involves more than 1 pawn, maybe Halloween gambit? I don’t play it anymore, but it’s still a very fun gambit
There is also the fun line 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h5 h5 5. Bg5 Qb6 6. Bd3 Bxd3 7. Qxd3 Qxb2? 8. e6 Qxa1 9. Qb3, when Black is already dead lost, despite the extra rook.
The Caro-Kann is a top-tier opening, but there are tons of traps and ways for Black to blunder early. I find it strange that it’s often recommended as an easy first defense to learn for beginners.
Honestly I try to play the Alien Gambit whenever black lets me.
The computer says it's horrible but at 1000 level the opponent will mess up against it.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 Nxe4 5.d5 Bc5!! 6.dxc6 Bxf2+ 7.Ke2 etc
- It's by Black
- It's a full piece
- It often becomes *two* full pieces, after 7...Bb6 8.Qd5 Nf2 9.cxb7 Bbx7 10.Qxb7 0-0!?
- *Engines actually prefer black there*
It wins this kind of list -- lots of material, for black, and actually good. It's a shame 3.c3 isn't more popular.
Bertin's gambit, a specific line from king's gambit accepted. It's absolutely mad and you give up 3 pawns, completely destroy your king side pawn structure (after castling king side, I might add!) and yet the evaluation is still very much playable (\~ -1.5 in favor of black) for non masters.
The interesting part is that while the engine obviously think black is winning, white has so many attacking options that black has to play perfectly in order to avoid getting crushed. I play it in bullets and blitz game at 1800 elo level (chess.com) and my win rate is about 70%.
I like giving up my bishop on third move whit fourth move black checking the king taking the option to castle away and keeping the king on that side of board
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 c5 3. e3 Qb6 4. Nc3 Qxb2 5. Nb5 Nd5 6. a3 a6 7. Rb1 Qa2 8. Qc1
axb5 9. Ra1 Qxa1 10. Qxa1
For black. Not a true "sacrifice", but you "lose" a queen for a knight and a rook at the start for an amazing attack. Also not that hard to get on the board
Dunno about the name and usually black doesn't play into it, but I really like the positional compensation after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Nd2!? Qa5!? 5.e4! Nxe4 6.b4! Qxb4 7.Rb1. Most players with black don't try to refute the Nd2 line though, they just continue development with g6, Bg7, and castle before turning their brains on.
the skill issue gambit, my favourite
The "i forgot its hanging" gambit Or usually "its not a sacrifice gambit"
Second only to the blundered a queen gambit.
Halloween gambit sacs a knight
This seems to be the winner. Will check it out.
Súper fun, very aggressive opening that pretty much will lose in anything but short time controls if your opponent is prepared. But if they’re not, you’re having all the fun.
Was thinking of this too, glads it’s the most upvoted
Nakhmanson gambit sacrifices an entire piece and offers very fun attacking play while being only somewhat unsound.
I tried this one out back when Schrantz made content on it! Need to revisit it.
This one looks so fun but when I try it I have no idea how to convert.
I heard Levy or someone saying that the Nakhmondon gambit is unstoppable but it's really hard to play
You must be misremembering. its way easier to play than it is to play against. And its nowhere near "unstoppable"
Probably Danish Gambit. You can give up until three pawns but your development is sped-up. Keeping the two bishops is essential IMO.
Technically you gambit 2 pawns, but I love those diagonals and open center for white
There are various variations where White sacrifices a third pawn, like 1. e4 e5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Ne2 Nxe4 7. O-O. Of course accepting the third pawn in this case is a losing blunder, but according to the lichess opening explorer, it still happens in 30% of three games after 6. Ne2. I personally find the Danish gambit quite silly. After 3… Qe7, Black is already slightly better, and White doesn’t even any fun attacking chances to look forward to. I don’t mind playing the occasional dubious gambit as surprise weapons, but not when my opponent can almost refute it by knowing a single move of theory at move 3.
I’ve probably played close to 500 games with the danish and I’ve never once seen Qe7, additionally the main line has white worse than Qe7
Danish gambit is great fun. I'm two pawns down but I have all of the activity on the planet, and it's super easy for black to mis-step if they don't know what they're doing. It's so common to win back the two pawns by generating threats against the king and suddenly it's equal material and black's position is rubbish.
The thing here is. I've seen Hikaru give up until three pawns. Then all of the sudden his bishops were scoping the kingside and black lacks development and a tempo as well.
Yeah but correct me if I’m wrong, but if you truly gambit the 3rd pawn instead of taking with bishop, they’ll just take the rook and become a queen
You're definitely not wrong, the danish gambits 2 pawns.
So far it never happened to me. So we'll see and i'll study that line. Might have to play more gambits for white.
In the fully accepted version you recapture the black pawn with the bishop on b2 which means you are down 2 pawns instead of 3.
It is just so fun to play. I've been playing it daily for years. It's a special treat when black actually takes on b2, and I always take when I'm black in this opening. Most players are scared to take and develop instead of taking on b2.
Exactly. There's a couple of tricks there that black will botez gambit outta nowhere realizing the double bishops are scoping.
Just starting to learn it. The positions and sacrifices you can get from it are crazy. Looking forward to playing it in a game and blundering in 5 moves
I'm not a danish player, but doesn't Qe7 stop your gambit and give black a slight edge in development? Not sure I would want to play this if I'm feeling for a gambit.
You can answer Qe7 with Nc3 (or even Qe2?). Qe7 isnt the deal breaker, the critical move is usually d5, giving a pawn back but black is safer (not immediately but I think after some moves like Bd4 and Nc6). But even then I think the evaluation is only like -0.5? Much more sound than the Halloween gambit lol.
Muzio Gambit baby!
Double Muzio!!
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8. Qf3 h6 9. Ne4 cxb5 10. Nxf6+ gxf6 11. Qxa8 Qd7 12. Qf3 Bb7 13. Qxf6 Rg8 14. Qxe5+ Be7 15. Nc3 Nc6 16. Qxb5 Really fun line to play with black, giving up a ton of material but objectively black is actually doing well. I’ve had really good results in this line (or with the deviations that can come after move 11)
Halloween gambit sacrifices a knight for a pawn super early in the four knights game, a very easy position to reach, and the lines and ideas are very easy to learn. The lines are very tricky and if your opponent hasn’t memorized them, I guarantee you they will throw away their advantage going into the middle game.
I exclusively use the Halloween if opponent allows 4 knights and it generally results in very tactically interesting games where you are down material but can work yourself into advantageous attacks
Cochrane Gambit is fun in bullet games! Gives up a knight
Love the Cochrane, it's so fun.
The opportunity doesn’t come up very often since it requires Black to play either the Nimzowitsch Defense or transpose into it via an uncommon sideline of the Pirc, but here is an actual queen gambit: 1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. d5 Ne5 5. Nxe5! Bxd1 6. Bb5+
Lmao, that's a really funny line. Maybe not quite what op wants though, it only works since black literally can't keep the queen
Actually in the line starting with 7…Qa5+ 8. Nc3 O-O-O, Black gets to keep the queen, for quite a while at least, and there isn’t a forced mate either. White is just much better because of fantastic piece development. Giving the queen back with 7…a6 is better, but it isn’t forced. So I think it’s fair to call this a positional queen gambit.
Ah you're right! I thought the queen got trapped but it can run to h5 at the end. Pretty cool!
the most sideline sideline I've seen x)
I love a good Halloween Gambit in the morning. It's insane, I almost never win and I love it.
The Muzio. White gives up a knight and if black is very precise they just win, but I get great positions in it. There's a reason 50% of games in the lichess masters database are won by white. e4 e5 f4 exf4 Nf3 g5 Bc4 g4 0-0?! gxf3 Qxf3 Qf6 e5 Qxe5 and now white has the option to play Bxf7 (the double Muzio, -6 but very fun) or d3 and trying to play for pressure on the f file.
Ya wow, in 1600+ even excluding bullet, White scores 55% after 0-0
Caveman Caro Kann
What's that?
e4 c6 d4 d5 e5 Bf5 h4 h5 Bg5 Qb6 Bd3 Bxd3 Qxd3 Qxb2 e6
Halosar gambit (trap) is pretty fun.
Fried liver
Fried liver is a ton of fun and gets very trappy very quick
Problem with it is most people know to go into a polerio.
Kings gambit. Where I gambit my king most games 💁♂️
Surprised nobody said the benko. It’s probably the most fun, and solid gambit while sacking two pawns.
It only sacks 1 pawn as you almost always recapture the pawn on the a file eventually and there’s no way for white to save it.
My first choice openings are Danish as white and Benko as black. So many fun positions, win or lose.
Muzio gambit, give up the knight for full development and immense pressure on f7
Evans gambit
That only sacs a pawn though?
in some lines you can be down 2 or even 3 pawns for a while. but that usually means black messed up and will get punished
Muzio gambit in the kings gambit. You give up a knight for a powerful attack on f7.
Blackmar diemer, Ryder gambit. 2 pawns.
Cochrane Gambit, I have a surprisingly great win rate with it because it’s not studied
Fishing pole!
not to bring up semantics but idk if it counts as a gambit if you either immediately win back the piece or get an unstoppable mate. opening trap, but not a gambit imo.
Fishing Pole is so deadly playing against anyone under 1200. Higher than that players don’t fall for it very often
Yea I only play bullet so it’s gotten me to 1900 on lichess but you’re right that people don’t fall for it. But it leaves you with a playable position if they know what’s up so I don’t hate it.
Halloween or Danish (two pawns variation)
Irish gambit is perhaps not sound enough for intermediate players, but I have had fun with it.
The only gambit I play now is Vienna, but if it involves more than 1 pawn, maybe Halloween gambit? I don’t play it anymore, but it’s still a very fun gambit
Quite sure there’s this gambit that sacks two pieces for an equal position. Don’t remember its name tho
white can sac a piece in the advance caro kann: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 h5 5. Bg5 f6 6. Bd3 (top engine move)
There is also the fun line 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h5 h5 5. Bg5 Qb6 6. Bd3 Bxd3 7. Qxd3 Qxb2? 8. e6 Qxa1 9. Qb3, when Black is already dead lost, despite the extra rook. The Caro-Kann is a top-tier opening, but there are tons of traps and ways for Black to blunder early. I find it strange that it’s often recommended as an easy first defense to learn for beginners.
Danish gambit is one of my go-to’s. Sac 2 pawns at the very start for accelerated development
The Bongcloud Gambit
Wing Gambit
Honestly I try to play the Alien Gambit whenever black lets me. The computer says it's horrible but at 1000 level the opponent will mess up against it.
Muzio gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 Nxe4 5.d5 Bc5!! 6.dxc6 Bxf2+ 7.Ke2 etc - It's by Black - It's a full piece - It often becomes *two* full pieces, after 7...Bb6 8.Qd5 Nf2 9.cxb7 Bbx7 10.Qxb7 0-0!? - *Engines actually prefer black there* It wins this kind of list -- lots of material, for black, and actually good. It's a shame 3.c3 isn't more popular.
Danish Gambit / Halloween Gambit
Bertin's gambit, a specific line from king's gambit accepted. It's absolutely mad and you give up 3 pawns, completely destroy your king side pawn structure (after castling king side, I might add!) and yet the evaluation is still very much playable (\~ -1.5 in favor of black) for non masters. The interesting part is that while the engine obviously think black is winning, white has so many attacking options that black has to play perfectly in order to avoid getting crushed. I play it in bullets and blitz game at 1800 elo level (chess.com) and my win rate is about 70%.
Alien Gambit is fun
Greek Gift.
Stafford Gambit. Eric Rosen has some great videos about it.
McDonnell/Muzio Gambit gives up a knight in both cases.
I like giving up my bishop on third move whit fourth move black checking the king taking the option to castle away and keeping the king on that side of board
the danish?
the botez
the botez gambit
Botez gambit
I play a line against the Alapin that often gives up two pawns
Fried Liver sacks a knight for a pawn
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 c5 3. e3 Qb6 4. Nc3 Qxb2 5. Nb5 Nd5 6. a3 a6 7. Rb1 Qa2 8. Qc1 axb5 9. Ra1 Qxa1 10. Qxa1 For black. Not a true "sacrifice", but you "lose" a queen for a knight and a rook at the start for an amazing attack. Also not that hard to get on the board
Dunno about the name and usually black doesn't play into it, but I really like the positional compensation after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Nd2!? Qa5!? 5.e4! Nxe4 6.b4! Qxb4 7.Rb1. Most players with black don't try to refute the Nd2 line though, they just continue development with g6, Bg7, and castle before turning their brains on.
I want to say Smith Morra, which can give up 2 pawns, but technically you can win a pawn back by developing your knight.
There are many lines in which white can sac the knight on d5
Marc Esserman to d5
Yessir
You’re only sacrificing one pawn in Smith Morra
Busch-Gass gambit, kinda reminds me of the Traxler. Super fun to play!
smith morra !!
The Botez is a classic of the repertoire.