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Okay, I am hoping that this group will not get disbanded this time! I would like to announce our first Gambit Gang tourney. I cannot make it private to just our group, but I can post an announcement in our group first about the tourney. It will only be an 8-man tourney. Question - do you want to pick one gambit, or an open gambit tourney? I will wait a few days for responses to build.

This is my first Blackmar-Diemer Gambit game ever. I lost on time but was very pleased with the gambit. I have included notes and if you click in the move list there are a few games in there and variations by Rybka through Fritz.

The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins: 1. e4 e5 2. f4 White offers a pawn to divert the Black e-pawn and build a stronger center with d2-d4. Theory has shown that in order for Black to maintain the one pawn advantage, moves must be made that seriously weaken the position of the Black pieces. King's Gambit is one of the oldest documented openings as it was examined by the 17th century Italian chess player Giulio Polerio.[1] It is in an older book by Luis Ramirez de Lucena [2] The King's Gambit is now rarely seen at the master level. Black can obtain a reasonable position by relinquishing the extra pawn at a later time and consolidating defensively. The King's gambit may either be accepted (black takes the f pawn) or declined

I have already posted this in public forums, but I am going to post the same thing here since I think it is still fun to play! I am not a 1. d4 player, but when I played it one day, I wanted to get creative (as usual). This is not my original gambit, which I later found out. But it is pretty fun - I have even won at correspondence chess with this one. Make sure to see the notes for my alternative line in here!

Clyde Nakamura has posted a whole bunch of Elephant Gambit games on his site at chessville.com. You can get to this site by clicking the following link: http://www.chessville.com/UCO/CN/ElephantGambitMiniatures.htm There is some good analysis and some interesting games. Also a zipped PGN file so you can view them online or with fritz.

Can anyone show me some lines of the Evans gambit if Black does go back to c5 instead of a5 or e7? What should be the idea for white? I love this gambit... But I want to know more about this gambit.

From Wiki: A gambit is a chess opening in which the first player risks or sacrifices material, usually a pawn, with the hope of achieving a resulting advantageous position.[1] A gambit used by the black side in response to a gambit played by white is called a countergambit (exe., Albin Countergambit). There are three general methods in which a gambit can help a player's position. For a gambit to be sound it will typically have some degree of at least two of the following: Time gain: the player accepting the gambit must take time to procure the sacrificed material and possibly must use more time to reorganize his pieces after the material is taken. Generation of differential activity: Often a player accepting a gambit will decentralize his pieces or pawns and his poorly placed pieces will allow the gambiteer to place his own pieces and pawns on squares that may otherwise have been inaccessible. In addition, bishops and rooks can become more active simply because the loss of pawns often gives rise to open files and diagonals. Former world championMikhail Tal, one of the most extraordinary attacking players of the 20th century, once said that he had sacrificed a pawn just because "it was in his way."[citation needed] Generation of positional weaknesses: Finally, accepting a gambit may lead to a compromised pawn structure, holes or other positional deficiencies. In modern chess, the typical response to a moderately sound gambit is to accept the material and give the material back at an advantageous time. For gambits that are less sound, the accepting player is more likely to try to hold onto his extra material. A rule of thumb often found in various primers on chess suggests that a player should get three moves of development for a sacrificed pawn, but it is unclear how useful this general maxim is since the "free moves" part of the compensation is almost never the entirety of what the gambiteer gains. Of course, a player is not obliged to accept a gambit. Often, a gambit can be declined without disadvantage. A good example is the Danish Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 (3...d5 would be a way of refusing the gambit) 4.Bc4 cxb2 5.Bxb2. White has sacrificed two pawns, but his bishops are very well developed, looking to the opponent's kingside. A very dubious gambit is the so-calledHalloween Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5?! Nxe5 5.d4. Here the investment is too big for the moderate advantage of having a strong center. The word "gambit" was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 by Spanish priest Rúy López de Segura, from the Italian expression dare il gambetto (to put a leg forward, i. e., to trip someone). Lopez studied this maneuver, and so the Italian word gained the Spanish form gambitothat led to French gambit, which has influenced the English spelling of the word. The broader sense of "opening move meant to gain advantage" was first recorded in English in 1855.

Clyde Nakamura is my UCO hero and I love going through his games and I especially enjoy playing his gambit lines. I have been playing his Franco Hiva Gambit (1.e4 e6 2.d4 f5) line for black and decide to try it in reverse for White. I ended up beating a player 200 pts higher than me in a quick match. It was great. The real Kaluko Hula Gambit is 1.c4 e5 2.e3 Nf6 3.f4 exf4 4.Nf3. I decided to come out with e3 instead... kinda like a reversed Franco Hiva. Please check out a collection of Clydes UCOs and Gambits HERE I included notes to my game below. Some mistakes by both sides but just check out how quickly White gets all his pieces out. This is why I use the Franco Hiva as black and the Kaluko Hula for White.

Another Sicilian Gambit. This time going up the wing on the Kingside. This gambit looks fun! I wish I played e4 more. There were 54 games in the chess.com database. Chessgames.com only had 1. I will show the game from chessgames.com because it is from the Norwegian Open.

I think it is a good opening. OPens lines for queen side play. Originally, I thought I made it up myself until I looked it up and saw someone already made it. :( If accepted, it prevents black from trading its C pawn for whites central D pawn. The drawbacks is that it is obvious white will not castle queenside.

The Franco-HIva gambit (1.e4 e6 2.d4 f5!) gives up a couple of pawns for quick development by black. I'm including a game I just played. It is a declined line but turns into an accepted line quickly and below it I will include a couple of Clyde Nakamura's (the creator) games. Which are accepted. Clyde's Games (evilone)

I love to sac a pawn or two My favs are Cochrane's gambit, Moeller attack, Benko/Volga gambits, Latvian, I'm sure I'm missing a few :)

The MouseTrap Gambit is an amusing way to counter the Owen's Defense for Black. White sets his trap at e4 and hopes the mouse will come out of its cage and eat the cheese. Most mice will snag the cheese but Fritz and Rybka 3 have different ideas. As a student of uncommon chess openings (UCOs), I have become accustomed to running chess engine tournaments on certain openings to see whether or not a UCO is sound. After running around 500 engine games I found that the computers never took the cheese and instead kept to sound opening principles. What I did find were some really crazy games and interesting positions. I am currently writing a 4 part series on this opening and it can be found at the following links: Part 1 - A history of how I came about this opening. More of a read than analysis. Part 2 - The gambit declined with 3...h6. A bunch of computer games here. Part 3 - The gambit declined with 3... Nf6. I love the play of these lines. Very tactical and fun to go over. A bunch of games in here as well. Part 4 has not been completed yet.

To all those from the last group that was cancelled.... WELCOME BACK!!! We had a great group and I was sad to see it go. Lets make this group even better!