The Tennison Gambit: ICBM Variation - Check To Get The Queen

What move do most players make in response when Black plays the Scandinavian Defense?

If you guessed exd5, you’re right. Congratulations.

Often, the Queen takes the pawn afterwards. This variation is called the Mieses-Kotrč Variation.

The Tennison Gambit takes a different route, developing the king-side knight, but sacrificing the pawn:

I will take a different course now, and instead of finishing this variation, I will leave YOU to solve the puzzle that does so. Hint: It involves sacrificing 2 pieces. Good luck.

Congrats if you successfully solved.

As you can see, the knight moves to do the classic fork between the Queen and Rook. However, nothing guards f7, so the King can take it. Then Bg6+ opens the d-file, and the King cannot retreat back to guard the Queen.

There is also an alternative game if Black moves their PAWN instead of their KNIGHT to defend:

The way to counter this Variation is as follows:

Now Black has the advantage, threatening the Knight, but the Bishop can't be used to finish the Gambit.

While this isn't the same variation, I would like to show you a game where I played the Tennison Gambit and gained the advantage (keeping my opponent’s identity anonymous):

I ultimately lost the game, but as you saw, I used the Gambit to capture the Queen and a Rook.

There is trap out there that is basically the ICBM Variation for Black, and I will talk about that one next time.

Hope this Gambit works for you all

— ChessPawn921