WINNING with the Englund Gambit!

#QueensPawnOpening #EnglundGambit 

The Englund Gambit is Black throwing an immediate grenade on move 1 against White's plan for an orderly game with the queen's pawn opening (1. d4 e5).  It's the equivalent of Black saying to White, "not today!".

The tactical idea for Black isn't complicated when White accepts the gambit (their best move).  It's to immediate attack the White pawn with the queen's knight (2. dxe5 Nc6), place extra pressure on that pawn with the queen (3... Qe7), and then to capture the pawn if White permits it (4... Nxe5).

In this game, White attempted to counter with hyperaggressive counterplay of its own with an immediate attack on the Black queen with a bold bishop move (5. Bg5).  Unfortunately, it's a straight up blunder [-4.84] as the Black knight captures their White knight with check, which then allows the Queen to follow up by capturing the upstart bishop (5... Nxf3+ 6. gxf3 Qxg5).

This is part of the potential power of the Englund Gambit.  Separate to the traps for White, it can encourage White to play aggressively, which might be out of the style of the (1. d4) player, and thus, blunder in the opening.  Being a full piece up on move 6, my goal was simply then to develop, force trades, and move towards a winning endgame up a piece.

This was successful in this game.  On move 35, I managed to force a position where I forced White to give up their last piece, resulting in an endgame phase where I had not only a bishop, but also two passed pawns.  This was easily winning, and White resigned a few moves later.  GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/442978873