This is not the greatest opening in the world, oh no, this is just the tribute!

Introduction

I started playing the Englund because I wanted something simple and fun. I needed an opening that didn’t require a lot of time to study as I had already committed to invest in learning the London and the Caro-Kann. Playing the Englund was just a fun experiment, just for the time being. I had the explicit intention to replace it later or as soon as I reached a rating where it was no longer possible to win games with the Englund.

My experiment continued far longer than I expected. The Englund was far more effective in practice than theory predicted.

Outroduction

All good things come to an end. The Englund never became an obvious losing opening for me, but I started noticing a trend towards lower and lower win rates depending on my opponents rating. If I want to reach my goal to structurally improve to a 1500 level ,, the time has come to adjust. There is no way around it, I’ll have to switch to an opening for grown ups. Something more solid that can take me to the next level  Yet, it has been such a fun and valuable experience. As a proper goodbye, I decided to write a small tribute to the Englund.

The Englund Gambit

The key position

As a quick refresher, the key position is this

Objectively, white is already winning. If  you are unfamiliar with this position, be aware. It's a challenging position to defend. 

White getting wrecked

The website openingtree.com, provides access to a fairly large database of games. It shows that the key  position shown above has been played 187k times. For black there are many ways to misplay, but there is one line that is the easiest way to get obliterated. Roughly 6% of players, around 13k players, have gone down this horrible path. 

Not all games go down as fast as that, but many do. The position for white on move 6 if they play 1. d4 e5 2 dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Bf4 Qb4+ 5. Bd2 Qxb2 6. Bc3 Bb4 is already unwinnable. 

Why you should play the Englund Gambit

Ambassador Aman

If you are contemplating playing this, check out the content of Aman Hambleton of chessbrah. His content played an important role in my initial decision to start playing the Englund. This video convinced me to give it a go. 

By now he has many more videos out showcasing his success with this opening.

It’s not just some random lucky wins. I’ve checked his win rate with the Englund in the last 12 months and to say it’s impressive is a huge understatement. Sure, it’s mostly on very short time controls, but still. He absolutely destroys his opponents with it. 

Distribution of wins

Part of the appeal is the distribution of game results. Instead of more or less even positions, what you will face is a small percentage of very easy wins and a large percentage of very challenging uphill battles. The easy wins offer almost no challenge, but can feel surprisingly satisfying. In other cases, when your opponent doesn't fall for any of the traps, you get to challenge yourself to play from a -1 or -2 position (technically a +1 or +2 position). Fighting back from a weaker position of course happens in many, many games, but it’s much more chill when it’s part of the plan rather than the result of your own inaccuracies or mistakes.

Play cool non-book chess, challenge yourself

Some games may be easy victories, some games you’ll run into an opponent that destroys you, because they know their lines. In most cases though, the games are neither of these. The majority of players are aware of the moves they should not play, but have no idea of what they should play. This leads to early pandemonium, which is fun. A battle of wits between two players that are faced with positions they have never seen before.  

Why you should not play the Englund Gambit

Objectively, it is not great

While the Englund is fun, exciting and challenging,  I would say the Englund is not great, because it has one small weakness. The main drawback is that, from an objective standpoint,  it is really bad. When you are facing an opponent that is familiar with the opening, you are toast. My win  rate with white against the Englund is my most winning line. By far.

A perfect example

Let’s end with an example game of one of my own games. I wanted to select a game that showed the power of the Englund against a player that played reasonable moves. To show that even without misplaying you can lose against the Englund. That was more difficult than I expected. I couldn’t find a good example. Maybe an example where my opponent was not playing well, to highlight how devastating it can be. That too, was difficult. The winning games in my collection show either players throwing the game entirely or lose in a way that’s not really related to the Englund. 

It’s been my main response to d4 for the better part of the year. I’ve played 1. d4 e5 almost 140 times, winning over half of them. I should be able to find a good example of how I’m winning a typical Englund game  I could not.  Then I realized, I’m not looking at it in the right way. I’m looking  for the perfect game to use as an example to end this article. That’s not what it’s about. It's about the friends we made along the way.

Okay, an imperfect example

As I described earlier, most players are able to avoid the main traps and then you get an interesting game. Take a look at this position. 

This is what happens when your opponent knows how to counter and plays all the right moves. and I’m stuck in a hopeless position. Stockfish evaluates the position at +3, assuming I play Qa3 on the next move. For alternative moves  the evaluation is significantly worse. On move 7. 

This should not be a winning position for me, yet it is. I know it’s a losing position, because I looked at my options, but whatever way I looked  at it, the result is the same. My attack has been neutralized and I have no way to break through. This position is very good for my opponent and very bad for me. With one notable difference. I know the position and my opponent doesn’t. Therefore I’m showing you a game that is an example of how I win this. By having an opponent that randomly blunders somewhere down the line.

An example of how I was able to consistently win. Against all odds. Take a look at me now!