Crush The Queen's Gambit
Queen's Gambit ( 2020 ), a global Netflix hit, follows the rise of the fictional chess prodigy Elizabeth Harmon, checkmating her way to victories in the male dominated sport. Thus, the on-screen matches igniting a new off-screen interest in the game of chess. Yes, the Queen's Gambit just changed chess forever, and many of you might have started playing chess after watching this phenomenal series. If you haven't watched it yet, what are you waiting for?
If you are interested, click on this video to check out the best games and scenes from the " Queen's Gambit ", by GothamChess.
Apart from this series, Queen's Gambit is also one of the most fascinating openings in the game of chess. It is one of the oldest known openings, and thrives to this day. It is played by players of every level, ranging from absolute beginners to super GMs, and has produced some breathtaking games in the history of the game of 64 squares.
If you like to play the Queen's Gambit as white, then have you ever felt uncomfortable when someone plays it against you when you are black? Because I have, lol. What are your first choices against the Queen's Gambit? Typical Queen's Gambit Declined, with 2...e6, or the Slav?
In this blog, I will be showing you a very offbeat and exciting way to crush the Queen's Gambit as a beginner and intermediate player, which is called the " Albin Countergambit ", including some of its famous traps. Let's jump into it!
How Is It Played?
For you to play this opening, your opponent should begin the game with the move d4 ( which is a very good first move choice for white ), and you have to play 1...d5. Now here, the player with white has several choices. White can play the London, Queen's Gambit ( 2.c4 ), or the Chigorin Variation of the Queen's Pawn Opening ( 2.Nc3 ). Your opponent should play the Queen's Gambit.
Now here, again, you have many choices. You can play the QGD with e6, or go for the Slav ( 2...c6 ). Also, the Chigorin Defense or the Marshall Defense with Nc6 and Nf6 respectively, are decent replies to the Queen's Gambit as well. But here, I will be showing you a very offbeat style of playing against this opening. Here, you are going to play the move 2...e5.
This is called the Albin Countergambit. The point is that you are trying to strike back in the center, and also looking to counter attack the opening played by white.
But now the question comes, what will white play against this? And what should be black's continuation after white's reply?
The Lasker Trap
The best move for white here is to just take the pawn on e5. In fact, according to openings database of Chess.com, 3.dxe5 is played the most in these positions, when someone as white faces this counter gambit. The best move now, for black, is to play d4.
The idea of 3...d4 is simple. You want to block the natural development of white, and make life tough for your opponent, with some Bb4 ideas yet to come. If you are a beginner, and want to play this opening, then most likely your beginner opponents will play the move 4.e3, as these type of positions are really annoying for beginners. They would want to get rid of the d4 pawn as soon as possible, as it doesn't allows the natural developing move Nc3. And here, you will surprise your opponent with Bb4+.
After this move, most people will try to block the check with the bishop, and if they do so, you can set up a very disgusting trap. Here, you do not need to care about your bishop, and just play 5.dxe3. And to an untrained eye, this might seem like a full blunder of a very important piece. And if they capture your bishop, you will continue the journey with you d - pawn and play 6.exf2+. They cannot take it, because if they do, they will lose their queen. But what if they play Ke2? Then you just capture their knight and promote. But you do not promote to a queen, you are gonna promote to a knight! Because if you promote to a queen, they can just trade the queens ( which will come with a check ), and then capture your second queen as well, with the rook.
If they re - capture the knight with the rook, we just lash out with the move Bg4+, which will win us the opponent's queen. And if they play king back to e1, you give them the final blow, with the move Qh4+, and then the queen will hunt every piece, and also the king in the opponent's territory. This trap of the Albin Countergambit, is also known as the " Lasker " trap. This is how it goes in a complete sequence :
Best Lines For White After 3...d4
As per theory, the best thing to do as white here is to play 4.Nf3, followed by a3, g3 or Nbd2. If your opponent plays Nf3, the best reply is Nc6. The most common move after 4...Nc6 is 5.a3, which prevents all kinds of Bb4 ideas.
Now, you have a lot of options :
5...f6
After the a3 set - up is played by white, many gambit lovers recommend to play 5...f6, and go for some extra gambit. Engine's top choice here is to play 6.exf6, as white. And if they do take the pawn on f6, you take back with the knight and continue with some normal chess principles. Develop your dark squared bishop and castle short. Here's how it might look :
5...a5 or 5...Bg4
We also have the option to play a5 straight forward, to prevent b4, and then clamp in with Ne7 followed by Ng6, and just win the pawn back. That might be feel like a little slow for many people, hence you can also play 5...Bg4, which is the main line. Bg4 pressures the knight, and we are threatening to capture it and then capture the pawn on e5. Here's how it might look :
Now, let's get back to the position that occurred after 4...Nc6. What if your opponent plays something like 5.Nbd2? Against this move, you can do the exact same thing you did against a3. You can also go for a long castle in such type of positions.
But what if they play 5.g3? This is known as the " Fianchetto " Variation of the Albin Countergambit. Against g3, you can again do the some exact things which you did against a3, you can straight up play a5, or Bc5. You can also play Be6 against g3, followed by Qd7, and launch an attack on their kingside. Here's how it might look :
Hence, these were the main continuations if you face a fully prepared opponent playing against this counter gambit.
CONCLUSION
In this blog, I discussed the main ideas of the Albin Countergambit, best lines for white, and your possible continuations. It is a very offbeat style of playing against the Queen's Gambit, but can easily increase your chances of winning if your opponent is not well prepared. Also, the Lasker Trap is a very lethal one. A well prepared opponent will definitely try to launch an attack and also defend solidly at the same time, and the game will be a very chaotic one.
THE " Wow, Did You Really Make It To The End " PART OF THE BLOG
Wow, did you really make it till the end? Congratulations, if you did, and thanks a lot for reading this blog! I hope you found the opening featured in this blog a healthy repertoire against the Queen's Gambit, but also enjoyed reading it at the same time! This will be an end to this blog, but stay tuned for my future posts.
Also, you might see a blog storm from me in the upcoming weeks ( means a lot of blog posts ). But why? The reason is simple, I am participating in the season 3 of BlogChamps, so do not forget to wish me luck. Shoutout to this competition run by 5 top bloggers, which encouraged many users to get into blogging.
Goodbye until next time!
Regards,
@AstroTheoretical_Physics
