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Recent game VS Stanoe. Annotations by me. Analysis by me and Robbolito. ~Boog

In his Chess Cafe column Gambit Cartel, Tim McGrew introduces the concept of the Caltrop Coefficient, basically the number of well-conceiled traps that a naive opponent playing natural moves might fall into when facing a given opening. The openings he mentions are the Damiano Defence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6, the Latvian Gambit, the Budapest Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5, the Blumenfeld Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5, the Blackburne-Hartlaub Gambit 1.d4 e5 2.de d6, the Felbecker Gambit 1.d4 e5 2.de Nc6 3.Nf3 Bc5 and the Soller Gambit 1.d4 e5 2.de Nc6 3.Nf3 f6. In a later article, he looks at the Schilling-Kostic Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 hoping for 4.Nxe5?! Qg5. Can anyone name some other trappy openings? Are there any trappy openings that might hold up at correspondence speeds? Are there any players you know of who specialize in trappy openings? McGrew mentions Lev Zilbermintz, and probably players like Claude Bloodgood or Clyde Nakamura would qualify as well.

Williams139 crushed me with the Elephant Gambit. Here is my defeat. Annotations by me. Analysis and variations by Robbolito using Fritz.

Quick Elephant Gambit game I finished recently. Annotations by me and Robbolito. Analysis by Robbolito and Rybka.

Ivanchuk broke this out once and Kramnik a few times. All were wins! This was actually the first opening I bought a book for. Glad to see its still alive.

Hey all, I coffeehouse with a friend Tuesdays, and our games usually devolve into rather closed, long-term deals. Though still enjoyable, I'd like to bust things open a bit - since he plays the Sicilian by habit (accelerated dragon, usually), I would like to know if there are any gambiteering moves I can use to force him out of his comfort zone? Any advice would be much appreciated. Ta, -PT.

So, Lately i find e4 meeting e6 more often than not, and games usually become these positional things that i am not good at. I need something different. With the caro, i usually aim for the Rasa-Studier gambit, and i've always thought it could be possible to get into that kind of line in the french, but it never happens and i find myself trying to cling to pawns which can't be good. Not to mention f7 is covered up in the French. So, any ideas here? Some nice non-GM gambits that may leave black wondering what just happened? Thanks a ton.

Here's a couple recent King's Gambit games of mine. Please comment!

I've compiled of list of gambits ranked in order of the rating at the time of the highest rated grandmaster to have played them. The historical ratings come from Chessmetrics. 1.Queen's Gambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 - Kasparov 2886 =2.Evans Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 - Kasparov 2877 =2.Benko Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 - Kasparov 2877 =2.Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav Anti-Meran 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.Bg5 - Kasparov 2877 5.King's Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.f4 - Emanuel Lasker 2869 6.French Winawer Maroczy 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nge2 - Alekhine 2860 7.Ruy Lopez Open Karpov 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.de Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 d4 11.Ng5 - Kasparov 2849 8.Danish Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.d4 ed 3.c3 - Emanuel Lasker 2848 9.Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav Shabalov 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4 - Kasparov 2847 10.Caro-Kann Modern Exchange 1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.cd cd 4.ed Nf6 - Karpov 2831

In another group I belong to one of the members was asking what sharp defences black can play against 1.d4. I recommended the following, but was wondering if Gambit Gangers had any good suggestions. Budapest Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 Queen's Gambit Tarrasch Von Hennig-Schara Gambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cd cd Queen's Gambit Declined Albin Countergambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav Winawer Countergambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 e5 Blumenfeld Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 Benko Gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav Abrahams/Noteboom 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 dc Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav Anti-Meran Botvinnik 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 c6 5.Bg5 dc Queen's Gambit Declined Chigorin 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6

I played this game in real life. The time limit was 35 moves in one hour an 15 minutes each, then 15 added on once 35 moves are made. Also the ratings are done in gradings, so he was considerably better than me anyway (I was 105 and he was 140) I typed it wrong.

Hi Guys just wanted to share some photographs with you let me know what you think ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXG1fPAQaHU

Thanks to the gambitking for giving me this interesting gambit. I used it in a game and here are the results. A crushing 14 move game. http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=29260758

Here is another fun line that is a cousin to the Danish Gambit.

An alternative to the Halloween Gambit is the Belgrade Gambit! A prepared Belgrade player can rack up many wins against opposing players.

Hi I started a tournament to learn about the elephant gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) http://www.chess.com/tournament/the-elephant-gambit I hope to see you there!

OK, hi everybody. This is an orthodox, conservative Sicilian player that wants to expand his opening reportoire. I am looking for a good gambit FOR BLACK for 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 I know the Latvian is good, so could the Latvian experts please give me a bit of help with that and the main traps and pitfalls. If there are other aggressive black gambits that begin with those lines could you also please suggest them, with traps and lines. Thanks!

I played this gambit in this game and yeah well here it is. I got it from gambitking so please comment and give me your thoughts thanks http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=195077

I just had a great game with Kawaii where he played the Elephant Gambit with black. The game was very fun for me and I thought I'd post it up here with analysis by Rybka. Rybka always shows the good variations. I hope you enjoy it as much as me:

What if they play 2. Nxe5 when you try the Latvian Gambit? Can someone do a practice game with me so I can learn it?