Vienna Gambit x 3 | PERFECT Start to the Year! 🤩👍♟️
#viennagambit #brilliant #romantic #fun
Happy New Year everybody! I’ve just finished a very lovely block of annual leave of almost four weeks! Before Christmas, we had a few days away in Bundeena chilling on the beach and doing a spot of fishing together with my sister-in-law’s family. 🎣🤩👍 And last week, we travelled and stayed with some friends on their property on Mount Toolebewong in rural Victoria in the Yarra Valley.
Over the past four weeks, I’ve been out and about, catching up with friends and family, eating good food and drinking some good wine! I’ve also invested some time in my backlog of JRPGs to play (I finally finished Grandia, started and finished a rom hack of Final Fantasy Tactics, and have started Mother 3). One thing that I didn’t do much of was play chess – I’d realised that I’d been feeling some burnout from work, writing my book, and producing content for my channel, and so a bit of chess detox was good! 😌
At the time of writing, I’m feeling refreshed and am I’m getting back into my routine, and I returned to work yesterday. For the first article and video of the year, I decided that it must keep to the theme of chess Romanticism! And what better way to do this than to showcase a handful of beautiful Vienna Gambit games from my backlog! 😊
Game 1: Vienna Gambit Declined (Nc3) Queen Trap! 🪤https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/5mSgU8Cu74
The first game was of the Vienna Gambit, Declined with 3… Nc3 (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 Nc6?). This position can be reached commonly through both the usual (Falkbeer) Vienna Gambit, and the Max Lange Vienna Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 Nf6?). For those in the know, this is an immediate mistake by Black and White is in for a good time! 😉
In the position, Black’s knights are forced to move time and again by White’s central pawns (4. fxe5! Nxe5 5. d4 Ng6 6. e5) and on turn 6, Black has no better option for their hapless king’s knight on f6 than to un-develop it to g8. In this game, Black played a move that is a common mistake/inaccuracy at the beginner-intermediate level, which was to pin my e5-pawn to my king with (6… Qe7?!), which seems like it allows Black to keep their knight in play.
However, this inaccuracy gives rise to structure that allows for an absolutely delicious queen trap that is featured in one of the chapters in my new book, “Become a Chess Assassin!”. This structure is reached in the Vienna Gambit (both accepted and declined), when Black places their queen on the e7 square!
The next two moves play themselves. The critical move for White is to break the pin with their own queen (7. Qe2) and Black will almost always begrudgingly withdraw their knight (7… Ng8). White now plays the eminently sensible-looking developing move (8. Nf3), which supports the central pawns, and defends the h4 square against Qh4+.
One of the most common and natural moves for Black is to challenge the e5-pawn with (8… d6??), but this is a move that is a blunder! White leaps their queen’s knight forward to the power central square (9. Nd5!), attacking Black’s queen and Black’s c7-pawn. According to the engine, Black’s most accurate move is just to push on and give up their queen! Most humans will attempt to save their queen, but with Qd7 or Qd8, but in either case, we have the beautiful move (10. Nxc7+!?). 😙🤌. Now technically, this isn’t the most accurate move – the engine prefers (10. exd6+) as this guarantees winning the most material if Black plays computer moves (10. Kd8) from the position. However, at lower depth, it rates the move as a brilliancy and the reason is that the natural recapture by Black (10… Qxc7) gives way to (11. exd6+!). This discovered check forces Black to give up their queen on the next turn in a way that inflicts maximal emotional damage and, in this game, my opponent immediately resigned. Good game, GG!
Game 2: Vienna Gambit Accepted — the Steamroller! 🫨https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/4PMsK8LWWi
The second game was a Vienna Gambit Accepted (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 exf4?) and is a wonderful demonstration of how White can use their advantage in development to completely overrun Black, especially if they play one or two slower moves!
Black’s mistake was to trade their dark square bishop for White’s c3-knight (5… Bb4?! 6. d4 Bxc3+? 7. bxc3) as effectively they give up a couple of turns and after the trade, White is left with a massive centre of pawns: c3, d4, e5! White develops and Black attempted to put pressure on the centre with their own pawns and queen, but it doesn’t work. After a series of trades, Black hits the unenviable position on after (13. cxd4) of having no developed pieces, while White is fully developed, and has control of the centre!
I hunt Black’s king, forcing trade after trade, and eventually on turn 26, Black’s king is mated on their back rank having never had any initiative the entire game! Vienna Gambit FTW! 😊
Game 3: Max Lange Vienna Gambit — Brilliant Knight Sacrifice!
https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/2k79SFz41c
The final game is a Max Lange Vienna Gambit Accepted (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 3. exf4), and after (4. Nf3), Black played the common (4… g5), a clever-looking move (and the most accurate move according to the engine), which aims to trap White’s f3-knight. The thing to know in this position is that we now can play a tricky manoeuvre known as the Hamppe-Allgaier Gambit, with the idea that we’re going to sacrifice that knight for initiative and activity! This starts with (5. h4!?), and normally after (5… g4), (6. Ng5) is the gambit line. In this game, Black hesitated and opted to bolster their g5-pawn with (5… f6??), a blunder!
You see, we can now immediately sacrifice the knight (6. Nxg5!!), a brilliant move that opens the light square diagonal for our queen to attack Black’s very weak light square diagonal to their king! White chases Black’s king off his throne with a series of checks into the centre of the board. It can be very difficult for Black to correctly navigate the cramped position against the marauding queen. On their final move, Black chose to counterattack (10… Be7??) but neglected to notice that they’d cut off a vital escape square for their king! So, (11. Qd5#) and Black’s king is checkmated in the middle of the board, surrounding by his pieces on turn 11!
The big takeaway from these games? Try the Vienna Game and the Vienna Gambit if you want to play some fun, tactical, and Romantic style chess! 🤩👍
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Note: learn more about the Vienna Gambit trap lines and their refutation in “Become a Chess Assassin! Learn to play the best chess opening attacks”.
