The weirdest gambit you've ever seen, part 1
Hi everybody! This is aronian22. Today, we're going to be looking at one of the weirdest and yet oddly common gambits. I first stumbled upon this gambit in one of my first tournament games. It was one of those games that leaves you scratching your head after. My opponent opened like this:
Confused, since I had just began learning chess, I took the pawn, played d4, and pretty much swept him off the board. (Or at least, as much as a 1000 can.) I spoke with a much higher-rated friend of mine after the game, and they addressed the opening as garbage. They told me if I played well I could win every time.
This is fair advice to give to a player of a lower rating. But what if I told you it was wrong? And that this 'beginner's move', called the Butch-Gass Gambit, is not garbage, but a legitimate gambit? We'll see.
There are only 5 games in the database for the Butch-Gass gambit. To my surprise, one of them actually has Garry Kasparov taking white. Let's look at it:
It seems like there's nothing of note in this game. But that is wrong. In reality, this game is sneakily telling us why d6 is bad: White can play d4 with tempo and have no problems.
So using that Kasparov game, we can conclude that 3...d6 is a mistake. Let's take a quick look at the next database game.
This game tells us a couple things about the Butch-Gass. First of all, Nc6 just does not work. Nf3 is a literal refutation. There is nothing good against it.
Second, and maybe even more importantly, if black can stop white from taking the center then they have HUGE chances. Seriously, I have to admit I didn't expect much from this gambit but that game is proof that it has at least some redeeming qualities. Black does get some lead in development at the very least, which is nice.
Well, time to move on to the next game.
So what can we learn? Well, there were some tricky lines but we can conclude that Qe7 is not a good line. Is that all? Of course not. There are two more games to look at. So far the Butch-Gass shows promise, but is still 0 for 3. Can the next two games redeem it? We'll see, in part 2 of this series. Anyways, hope you had fun. Check out the link in my sidebar to see all of my blogs in chronological order. Have a nice day!