Dubov tries the Urusov Gambit vs Giri!

Today at the preliminiares of the Opera Euro Rapid, Daniil Dubov went for a most interesting opening experiment against Anish Giri. He played the so called Urusov Gambit.

The Urusov happens when white offers to gambit the second pawn in the Bishops Opening after these moves:

This is one of those gambits that can be good to have as an extra weapon in one's arsenal. The good thing about the move order with 2.Bc4 is that white avoid all the shenanigans with the Stafford gambit and such stuff, or just the Petroff defence if that bothers white.

When I was just coming back into chess after about a 6 year layoff I saw this game

An absolutely smashing game by Boris Avrukh with the white pieces!

The knight can also retreat to c5 like this

The idea to use the central files seems key for white's attacking chances in these lines.

Black can also play 4...Bb4+ when white should probably go 5.c3

None of these lines appeared on the board in the Giri-Dubov game though. GIri declined the gambit, and transposed to the Scotch gambit with 4...Nc6.

One does wonder though why he shied away from the line with ...Qa5 later in the game and opting for ...Qd8. Dubov seemed well prepared and got a nice position and won a pawn. Perhaps Giri feared an aggressive idea in the line with ...Qa5.

Check out my video on the game