Day 26: London vs Englund Gambit
When you play 1d4 with White, you have to learn how to deal with the Englund gambit. This was a recent example from a 4 game Rapid session. (Note: I went 2-2 and this was the last game).
I started with 1.d4 and was immediately met with e5. I captured with dxe5 and my opponent played Nc6. The gambit was on.
From this position, the engine want Nf3. I like to keep with the London setup and play Bf4. This is because one can reach this position in other ways and I like to practice against a move order of Nc3 followed by e5.
Anyways, my opponent brought out their Queen and I played Nf3. Then my opponent played Qb4+.
There is only one move from here. The queen is attacking the unprotected bishop and the White king is in check, so the move here is Bd2, defending the check and gaining a tempo on the queen. From here, Black usually grabs the undefended b2 pawn and forces another only move.
It is extremely important to play Nc3 here. This move protects the a2 pawn and the rook on a1. After this move, Black has to decide what to develop. Their best move is Bb4, which attacks the knight on c3. In this game, my opponent played a much weaker move Nge7. In either case, the correct response from White is to attack the Black queen again with Rb1, leading to the following position.
This forces the Black queen to retreat. Usually Black will move to a3 to keep up the pressure. That is when things get really spicy!
Nb5! This move threatens the Black queen on a3 and threatens the move Nc7 which forks the King and Rook. In this position, there is no way to avoid loss of material! In the game, my opponent made a terrible blunder and let me play the Nc7 fork winning their queen. They resigned after.
Another Englund gambit accepted!
