The Artful Adorjan Gambit

There is not a single true chess-player in the world whose heart does not beat faster at the mere sound of such long beloved and familiar words as 'gambit games'.

— David Bronstein

Introduction

Have you ever opened chess.com to play "a few blitz games" only to see that you are matched with a 1.d4 player? Or perhaps you just wanted to test out the newest (and most boring) Petrov's line that you learnt (don't worry, we won't judge, unless, of course, you play d4 as well). Maybe you are like me and just wished to play a gambit line because you just want to randomly sacrifice some pieces, then hope it somehow works (it always feels like they never work).

playing against d4 helps with improving migraine tolerance

If you are not playing chess to cure your insomnia, you probably should consider playing a line other than QGD. The problem with playing against 1.d4 is that there is a limited number of interesting variations, and with d4 players being the nerds that they are, they likely know how to transform most of the relatively sharper lines into the driest positions imaginable. Is there a way around this? Yes, all you have to do is play some dubious, half-refuted gambit that they do not know to show them who's the bigger nerd.

One such line is the Vītoliņš-Adorján Gambit  (also known as the Adorjan Gambit), which is a variation of the Classical (4.Qc2) variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense. It results after the moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 O-O 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 b5!? (see below).

Andras Adorjan (1950-2023) was a Hungarian chess grandmaster whom the Adorjan Gambit was named after. He was renowned for his book Black is OK!. As the title suggests, Adorjan usually didn't care whether or not he was playing white or black and would push for a win regardless of piece colour. 

Click on the image for @kamalakanta's blog on Andras Adorjan

Some of the most famous chess players in the world have played this gambit, including Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Other strong Grandmasters like Michael Adams and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu have played it on multiple occasions with great success. 

Adorjan Gambit Declined

If white decides to be the lame d4 player they are and decline the pawn gambit, there would be less fun playing the position as black, but note that declining the gambit isn't good for white. The only way they can call your bluff is by accepting the gambit, which is beyond the vocabulary of any d4 player. 

If White Plays 7.e3

If white declines the gambit with 7.e3, the best move for black is to just take the pawn on c4. While the position might not be as interesting as the lines where white accepts the gambit, your opponent would not be in familiar territory, so no more losing to 25 moves of prep (been there before, I feel you). 

A common theme in the Adorjan Gambit is to use the open c-file for the rook and the long a8-h1 diagonal for the bishop. In the following game, we see FM Askhat Nukin execute the ideas well and pull off an upset against GM Kirill Bryzgalin at the 13th Voronezh Master Open. 

In this game, black followed the developing plan of Bb7, d6, Nbd7, Qe7 and Rfc8. The move a5 was also a nice idea to disallow b4 so that white cannot clamp down on the c5 square. Eventually, black was able to find a perfectly timed c5 pawn break followed by Bxf3 and cxd4 opening up the position. Although the game was ultimately decided by endgame blunders, it still demonstrates the right plan if white chooses to play 7.e3.

I have no idea what I'm talking about... 

If White Plays 7.c5

When I first saw this, I was wondering what was the point of such a move. I understand that white is trying not to open the c-file for black's rook, but black can still achieve this with a move like d6. Although the most popular move in that position is 7...Bb7, I quite like the idea of ​​playing 7...Ne4 and anchoring the knight with 8...f5 after white plays 8.Qc2.

In this game, IM Maxim L Devereaux (now Maxim Barth Stanford) was able to execute the plan of attacking the queenside using the d6 and a5 pawn breaks to open up the position. A common idea in this line is for white to play Nh3 followed by f3 to kick out the knight. To respond, black can usually throw in the nice intermezzo, Qh4!, forcing white to play g3 and white cannot take the knight because of the Bxe4 fork! With white's pieces uncoordinated and stuck on the wrong side of the board, Devereaux was able to infiltrate using the a and c-files to win a bishop through a tactic, in doing so he was able to win the game. 

Here is another example of a game played in the 7...Ne4 line. This game was played between IM Tomas Likavsky and the late Stefan Kristjansson at the 13th European Team Championship. 

Despite white playing more critically at the start of this game than in the previous one, black was still able to win by attacking the kingside with ideas like the rotation of his light-squared bishop to the kingside via c8 since the a8-h1 diagonal was blocked. The engine didn't quite approve of the rotation, but it was an interesting idea nonetheless, especially since the c-file was opened after 26.Rxc7.

The kingside attack is also a common idea that you will see later in the accepted variation, where the f5 pawn originally used to anchor the knight may be pushed forward with the correct timing.

Adorjan Gambit Accepted

If your opponent decides to accept the gambit, this is where the real fun starts. So what do we do here? Of course, we sacrifice another pawn! Even though this opening may resemble the Benko Gambit, the ideal continuation for black is 7...c6, not 7...a6 as seen in Benko positions. 

If White Plays 8.Nf3
I shouldn't need to remind you again of my opinion on people who decline gambits, but this line, like the lines previously shown, poses no serious threat to black's position. Like the previously mentioned variations, the common plan for black is to use the c-file and the a8-h1 diagonal to dominate on the queenside. 

I don't have much to add about this game. I have already displayed a few games where the common of idea of ​​using the c-file led to black always having more dominant rooks than white. Hence, black was able to win a few pawns and then the game after making an unstoppable passed pawn. Basically, the key takeaway is that this line is not good for white, on top of making people fall asleep with *cough cough* positional play. 

If White Plays 8.e3

White playing 8.e3 after accepting the first pawn sacrifice is a line that I don't mind playing against, except if white doesn't play Bxb5 after cxb5 (common d4 "positional player" L). Anyone who has a decent tactical vision would know what could happen when there is a bishop on b5 and no queenside knight. If not, go here.

Of the three decent lines after 8...cxb5 9.Bxb5 Ne4 10.Qb3, I have only found master's games featuring 10...Ba6 and 10...Qg5. Considering that the only 10...Ba6 game I found ended in a quick draw agreement, I will cover the 10...Qg5 line here. 

In this game, GM Michael Adams, who was a top ten player in the world at the time of the game, was able to launch a successful queenside attack by again, using the open c-file (see the motif now?). The double rook battery down the open c-file eventually allowed Adams to outmanoeuvre white into a tactic that resulted in a winning rook and pawns endgame for black. 

If White Plays 8.bxc6

White taking on c6 is the most favourable variation for black in the Adorjan Gambit. Unlike the aforementioned lines where black needed to play several moves to set up counterplay opportunities, the already opened b and c-files allow the queenside rook to immediately enter the game and harass white's queen before they can develop any pieces.

Below, I have included a nice miniature played between Clovis Vernay and IM Krisztian Szabo at the U18 Boys section of the 2006 European Youth Chess Championship where black was able to win quickly using his advantage in development. 

Here, we see that as white, it is not easy to defend after accepting the second pawn sacrifice. White was already behind in development and by taking the second pawn, only places themselves in a more awkward situation desperately trying to bring out pieces.

While searching for games in this line, I came across this game by Andras Adorjan himself. Despite it not being the most accurately played due to the sharp nature of the positions, I thought I had to include it because it was by the creator of the opening himself, so here it is.

I think you understand the point by now. In all the lines shown so far, white always takes the pawn sacrifice or plays some unsound way to decline the gambit then black uses the open c-file for his rooks to completely paralyse white's position. When possible, black either launches his queenside pawns forward to undermine white's b4 push or prevents white's light-squared bishop from developing through either Ba6 or Qg5 means.

I wish

If White Plays 8.Bg5

All this time you have been reading this blog, you may have wondered what the best option for white is or if there is even a line where white does not get trampled on. The answer is: there is one such line. It is the one where white plays 8.Bg5. In fact, it is the most played variation of the Adorjan Gambit in the master's database because the Bg5 pin is a common idea in d4 openings.

While most of the top players playing as black opted for safer and more positional options resulting in not being able to get the desired amount of country, I believe that there are more active lines like the ones where black plays h6 and g5 to remove the pin then play the usual idea of Ne4. Below is an example of the safer but less interesting line played between GM Evgeny Bareev and GM Viswanathan Anand.

This was a blindfold game so neither sidetook many risks but you can see that white managed to utilise the open c-file instead of black because white's queen was not a target for attack anymore. Vishy also decided to hang onto the b-pawn for less of a gamble so the game wasn't as interesting, which I don't blame him for, since he was leading the tournament already and anything could happen in a blindfold game.

A more interesting line is the line I mentioned earlier where instead of playing a6 or Nc6, black plays h6 followed by g5 to place the f6 knight on e4, followed by f5 anchoring the knight. An example of this idea was the game between IM Oleg Glayszev and IM Chi Minh Nguyen at the 29th Metz Open. 

In this game, we see that black was able to remain dominant by keeping the white king in the centre and the minor pieces purposeless. Despite having the h2-b8 diagonal, white's bishop was basically out of the game since black never had any intention of placing a piece on that diagonal. His knight also never managed to make its way back into the game through any rerouting plans because black was always asking questions about his opponent's position. One thing I do need to point out is that please don't hang your knight with 13...Nc6.

No comment.

Conclusion

So you've made it through my boring and superfluous ramble to the end of my blog, but what what have you achieved? Although you probably already had your own anti-positional line against d4 if you are a fan of sharp positions, I recommend you to at least try to play this variation, especially in blitz, where white has little time to figure out optimal plans if they are not familiar with the line. If you want to play it in classical as well, you will just need a good amount of prepping and to play it, or just stick to the following plan:

1. Place your knight on e4 and rook on c8.
2. Launch a queenside attack.
3. Win.

If you can surprise your opponent, it would be that simple to win. As the proverb goes...

A player surprised is half beaten.

Thanks for reading.