Halloween Gambit Crash Course
Happy Halloween everyone! I'm going to show you a gambit that is not that known but before that there is a lot more that I want to cover. So let's go look at the agenda.
AGENDA
1. Recap of what happened in the month of october 2023 for chess.com and other related chess things
2.London system requested by @scemer
3. Halloween Gambit
4. Conclusion/Wrap up
RECAP OF OCTOBER 2023
NEW BOTS:
Every Month on chess.com means that there are new bots. But these were the most popular chess.com bots. The following bots were @Martin-BOT, @Filip-BOT, @Laura-BOT @Isla-BOT, and finally @Morphy-BOT. All of these bots would get upgrades throughout the Month of October and the Morphy bot has an elo of 3000
TORCH
We're excited to announce that members can now use the Torch chess engine on our Analysis page. Torch is a new engine developed by the Chess.com team that has quickly risen to the top of the chess engine rankings. Developed in less than eight months, Torch has taken the number two spot from Leela, edging out wins in the CCC bullet and blitz championships, only losing in the CCC rapid event. That's right we now have a new chess engine that we are able to test out now. This could be one of the best chess AI that we have. But you might not want to use it against your friends and other people on chess. com because of
CHESS.COM'S NEW TERMS OF SERVICE
Now with chess.coms new terms of service, you are not allowed to cheat against your friends, like you were used to, but they had to give you their consent/ approve of you cheating against them. And there are a lot of other thing to follow while having the best time on chess.com:
Be kind, helpful, and forgiving
We will not tolerate racism, sexism, bigotry, or violent threats
Do not abuse, attack, threaten, discriminate, or mistreat other members in any way
Do not hijack threads, troll, or post distracting or meaningless content
Do not post spam, advertisements, or copy/paste comments and messages
Do not excessively promote your club
Do not publicly debate religious or political topics
Do not post obscene or pornographic content
Do not discuss illegal activities
Do not open more than two accounts (a second, anonymous account is allowed for training purposes) Source: chess.com community policy https://www.chess.com/legal/community
LEVY ROZMAN NEW BOOK
Levy Rozman more known as @Gothamchess would publish his how to win a chess book which is a best seller on amazon. But if you don't know who Gothamchess is somehow I got you : Gothamchess is a popular chess content creator and coach, whose real name is Levy Rozman. He is known for his educational and entertaining content, including chess analysis, instructional videos, and live streaming. His YouTube channel and Twitch streams have gained a large following, and he has also coached several notable players, including actress Brie Larson.
PT 2
LONDON SYSTEM
The London System is a chess opening that is characterized by White playing 1.d4, 2.Nf3, and 3.Bf4. The opening was popularized by British players in the mid-20th century, and it has been used successfully by many top-level players in recent years. The London System is designed to be flexible and solid, allowing White to control the center without committing too many pieces. White typically aims to develop their pieces quickly and castle kingside, while saving specific plans for later in the game. The London System is a popular choice for club players and beginners, as it is relatively easy to learn and can be effective against various defenses from Black.
There are a lot of different ways to play the London system. This is the normal London System:
But this is a more common part of the London System, the accelerated London system.
Though they are basically the same thing but just in a different move order.
Now, I'm going to show you the most typical London System game.
In this postion we have most of our attackers pointed at the enemy king and won the battle for the center and created a pyramid with our pawns and to protect our king.
There are also some other good traps that can come out of the London. Like this:
This create pressure for the black pieces to defend and now that we have an open file we might castle play the move O-O-O to make sure that our king is safe or even if they play O-O-O, we have our queen and should start off an attack. And even stuff like this can happen
In this position our opponent got too greedy and took our extra pawn resulting in Qxh7# but even if they don't fall for it, you can still create and attack with your rook down a pawn. You could try to double your rooks and try to target the H file. But yeah that's the London System for you. And thanks for @Scemer for the recommendation and now let's go to the final thing that I have in this blog.
FINALE HALLOWEEN GAMBIT
A lot of people might know or might not know of the Halloween Gambit, so I will tell you.
The Halloween Gambit, also known as the Müller-Schulze Gambit, is a chess opening played by White. It starts with the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5?!.
The Halloween Gambit is considered a highly aggressive opening, as White sacrifices a knight for two pawns in the hope of gaining a strong attack on Black's king. Black has several ways to respond, but must be careful not to fall into traps and to react quickly to the incoming threats. If Black accepts the gambit by capturing the knight, White can play 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.e5 Qe7 7.Qe2 Nd5 8.Ne4, aiming to develop a strong attack with their remaining pieces.
The Halloween Gambit is not a popular or widely played opening at the highest levels of chess, as it is considered dubious and can be easily refuted by strong players. However, it can be used as a surprise weapon in casual or lower-level games, where Black may be less familiar with the opening and more likely to make mistakes.
This is how some games can go:
Even though you have lost a Knight, they are basically setting up the board for the next game by pushing their knights back which will not help them at all. The opponent here can also try and pin the pawn with their queen instead of moving their knight back but it doesn't really help.
In this game black was trying so hard to try and keep their pieces on the board and not undevlop them but it wasn't going to work we have a winning position after all of this. But there are still many ways that black can mess up in this position.
This is not really a Halloween Gambit but it's close enough with that knight takes pawn on e5 I just kind of wanted to add it if someone knows what you are trying to do in the halloween Gambit.
We now can see a common occurrence of there being a sacrifice that happens after the Knight like we saw with Qxb7 or winning our knight back if they took our extra a pawn.
Know for our second to last look at the Halloween Gambit let's go back to that position and see if Black develops their bishop.
If they develop their bishop not much changes, we end up checkmating after giving up the rook for which will distract the Queen away from the F file which will lead to checkmate.
This is the final thing I want to show you and this is a quick checkmate trap even though I really don't like it and it seems not that playable but I can still show it to you.
I mean this is a checkmate allright.
CONCLUSION
I hope you enjoyed this blog and learned something new from the blog! Have a good rest of your Halloween or the rest of your day if you don't celebrate Halloween like me.
