Gambit Openings

Hello, I was wondering if it was a good idea to experiment with some gambit openings, and possibly make them part of my repertoire. I'm 1776 USCF at the moment, so I'm not really a great player, but I decided to play the Cochrane gambit against a 1900 rated player a couple days ago in a 15 minute game OTB and won with it, and after the game I said to myself.."Wow, that was really cool!" I'm wondering if there are other gambits that I should try out as well in tourney play, like 30 min games or longer with delay. I know there are sounder gambits like the Smith Morra, Benko Gambit and Kings Gambit, but looking over the forum the past couple days there are all these wacky gambits I never heard of that look like they could possibly be interesting to try. Any suggestions? 

PS: My record with the Smith Morra is awful though..

I find the Smith-Morra challenging to play from the White side as well. It's very theoretical from the White side, probably the most theoretical anti-Sicilian since you have to learn a whole second anti-Sicilian, the Alapin, to play the Smith-Morra successfully. I can't think of any other anti-Sicilian where you have to learn a second one like that, one for the price of two. Then there are the other ways to decline, and as far as the gambit accepted is concerned there are at least 10 different Black systems that White has to know. I also never feel like I've taken anyone by surprise when I play it, people are just like "ho hum, the Smith-Morra, time to roll out the Taylor defense or whatever pet system we've been using against this for the past decades." I do enjoy playing it, and will keep playing it from both sides of the board, but it is very challenging and requires a lot of preserverance and study to get good at.

The Smith-Morra is considered one of the sounder gambits, but practically, I think some of the more "unsound" (read, played less frequently) gambits will yield better results. A lot of people like to bash the Danish, but that's been my most successful opening here on chess.com. I've beat some of the highest rated opponents I've ever beaten with the Danish, and the wins I've had in it are among the most memorable wins I've ever experienced. When you win with the Danish, it's usually something that could be in a Fred Reinfeld book.

In each of your many statements, i read, that you have the opinion, that its evil and foolish to play unsound openings...and then you are opening an own thread, where you state, that you wanna try "wacky gambits"

WTF? 

Not all wacky gambits are that unsound. The cochrane gambit is wacky but it's perfectly playable and is dangerous for black. I'm talking about trash like the England gambit and Halloween gambit etc and latvian

Hmmm... i bet i will win 9 out of 10 games with "trash" like the Englund and the Latvian...you talk and judge about openings that you never or rarely play against, only because other people told you "its bad"...great, hope to see and crush you at the board...

I can play you if you wish but if you win it certainly will be a long game.

When you look at my games, you will see, that 90% of my games are ending before move 30...so i dont think that you have to care about the endgame...

I doubt you'll beat me that fast. What's your fide rating? I'm USCF 1776 so I'm not an expert but I won't go down fast.

Try the Scotch Gambit for white.

For black I don't suggest gambits as it's too risky. Stick to the plan and you'll be fine.

P.S. My USCF rating is 1781...

Really? I know a couple people who've told me the opposite, that with white you already have the advantage and your opponent is trying to equalize, so there's no reason to sacrifice material if you're already slightly better, and with black you're trying to create counterplay so you can have winning chances so sometimes you can sacrifice material in order to create counterplay if you are not satisfied with simply equalizing.

well tell those people they're WRONGGGGGG

Due to moving first, White can get away with a lot more in the opening than Black.

lolurspammed wrote:

Isn't the latvian like one of the worst gambits out there along with the Halloween gambit and the fried liver with black (you gambit your king)

find a hole in it and I will believe you.

you are always making statements, but never show a critical line...so thats proofs nothing...

iam german, so it will be nearly unpossible to get a USCF, my german rating, called DWZ, is 1863, i dont know, if you can compare it with the USCF.

So then what happens in the Latvian Gambit, after 3...Qf6? What makes it dangerous for Black and good for White?

The Queen's Gambit is a new one that just came out. I heard it is not a true gambit though (not sure why).

The latvian Gambit might be a bit unsound, but the Halloween and Fried Liver are completely sound and make sense . The former is to get a huge space advantage while gambiting off your knight for a pawn while in the latter you do the same (gambit off your knight for a pawn) and put your opponents kings will lost the castle-rite and will be out in the centre, easy for attacking. If black plays wrong then you can get b ack the material or even checkmate black.