The Scotch Game: Göring Gambit! An Introduction
#GoringGambit #ScotchGame
Recently, I encountered for the first time the Göring Gambit in the Scotch Game (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3).
This interesting line is like the Danish Gambit, immediately inviting Black's pawn to capture down the side. In lower-rated games of blitz and rapid in the Lichess community database, this seems to be a great opening with White having a substantial win advantage (58%) over Black (39%). For the loss in material, White gains opening lines, accelerated development, and many attacking chances. For instance, after the double-pawn sacrifice line, although White is objectively worse, it has a potentially fearsome attack.
Against the Göring Gambit, the best response by Black seems to be the immediate (4... d5). Stockfish rates this at neutrality [0.00] but the Lichess community database suggests an important win advantage for Black (51% vs 45%). Sensible moves give a good position for Black, and chess continues.
In this game, I was suspicious of the gambit, so I declined it by just developing my other knight (4... Nf6). Stockfish thought that this was fine [0.00] but I immediately play an inaccurate move afterwards (5... Qe7) and then a blunder (6... Nxd4) losing a knight. During the game, I didn't think it was "too bad" as I got two pawns for the piece and at the end of an opening exchanges of trades, I thought that I had gotten some compensation being down only one point of material, having more pawns, and White having lost the right to castle. Stockfish completely disagreed with my assessment with an evaluation of better than [+6] for White at the end of move 13!
This game was really in two halves. My opponent crushed me through their opening and followed through in the middle game. We entered a rook and pawn endgame where they had two rooks for my one, but I did have a pawn majority. On move 37, they had a potentially unstoppable win - Stockfish finds a forced mate in 18! But the thing with rook and pawn endgames is how quickly a single wrong move can turn the tide...
White had already sacrificed one rook to advance their g-pawn towards promotion. I knew that if I couldn't stop that pawn, the game was done. So, I chased the pawn with my king and on move 38, White makes a game changing blunder (38. g7), giving a slight advantage back to Black [-0.35]. White pushed their pawn immediately and perhaps didn't calculate the next few moves. They needed to defend the pawn first with the rook (38. Rg5) and then sacrifice the second rook to give the extra step of tempo for the pawn to promote.
Instead, I was now just quick enough to stop the pawn's promotion by placing my king onto it's promotion square (39... Kg8)! The tables are now turned. Although we each had three pawns and one rook, my pawns were connected. White's king was also poorly placed. Tactically, my win approach was clear. First, take out the pawn threatening promotion. And second, invite/force a trade of rooks. On move 43, my opponent obliged, and the rooks were off the board. With only 7 pieces left on the board, chess is "solved" and Tablebase rated the game as a Black. Luckily, I didn't make a mistake and on move 67 White resigned, one move away from checkmate. GG!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/61001991643
