Year of the Vienna Gambit! My first three games for 2026! 🤩♟️
#viennagambit #brilliancy #fun
I was very very pleased that the first three online games of chess that I played in 2026 were of the wonderful Vienna Gambit! (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4)
Those of you who follow my channel will know that the Vienna Game and Vienna Gambit are my favourite opening. In fact, at the time of writing this article, I had over 240 videos on my YouTube channel that featured a Vienna Game! 😲
Of the three games, one was a rated game of 5 | 5 blitz, and two were unrated games of 10 | 0 rapid.
The game of blitz was literally my first game of the year, and although it isn’t the most elegant game, it does demonstrate a tactical idea in the Vienna Gambit. It wasn’t quite clear in my head until I analysed the game, but there is a rather neat triple trick that gambits another pawn, and then a full knight, to potentially win the opponent’s queen!
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The most winning move in the position is the brilliancy (8. O-O!!), where we sacrifice our c3-knight for two fully open centre files! Should Black be greedy and capture the knight (8… dxc3??), White has Bxf7+ and we can win Black’s queen by force!
In the game, I didn’t quite appreciate this and played Bxf7+ early. The engine evaluates this as a mistake, but for the Vienna player, this is often a very devious move that is winning despite being inaccurate. This was the case in this game. The bishop sacrifice exposes Black’s king to the full rage of battle. Black must play very accurately to hold onto the nominal advantage, and often, a single mistake gives a commanding lead to White. This occurred in this game on turn 16. Black had only a single correct move (16… Qg7) to force a trade of queens. All other moves were serious mistake which yielded a substantial advantage to White.
Black did not find this move, and four turns later, they resigned in the dead lost position, emotionally damaged with only five seconds left on the clock. Good game, GG!
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In the second game, Black made a mistake by declining the Vienna Gambit with (3… Nc6) and White will typically win a very nice advantage in development. This is through a forced chasing of Black’s knights, including forcing Black’s king’s knight to un-develop to the g8 square. A few turns later, Black attempted to win back some tempo by pinning my king to my queen with (9… Bg4??), which is a fairly common mistake in the position.
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The correct move for White is once again, the thematic bishop sacrifice with check, Bxf7+!! as there is an unpinning tactic. The bishop sacrifice pulls Black’s king onto the f-file (Kxf7), which is now an open file. In the game, I played the delicious double-check (11. Kxe5+). Double-checks make the impossible possible, as despite the e5 square being defended, Black must move the king. They cannot block the check or capture the checking piece. My opponent resigned immediately, but if they had continued to play, the subsequent move would have been (12. Qxg4), winning Black’s bishop cleanly.
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The final game shows the venom of the Vienna Gambit against beginner players. In this game, Black also declined the Vienna Gambit with Nc6, but against the chasing of their knights with my pawns, were immediately overwhelmed, losing both their knights on two consecutive turns (6… Nd5??) and (7… Nxd4??). Beginners can sometimes be beset with a “sunk cost fallacy”, which is expressed by the unwillingness to move their pieces backwards. Perhaps there wasn’t much in terms of tactical insights from this game, but the Vienna Gambit did give me this beautiful checkmate on turn 12!
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Learn how to play the best chess opening attacks in the Romantic style, including a chapter on the Vienna Gambit, with my new book, “Become a Chess Assassin!” available now on your local Amazon store!
