Danish gambit - crush anyone under 1800

As a FIDE Trainer, I often hear that the Danish Gambit is "refuted" and not suitable at a high level. But recently, I won a clean attacking game against a 2352-rated player using the Danish — and just today, I played a 3+0 blitz game vs a 2100-rated opponent and again scored a win with the same opening.

In my experience, especially in rapid and blitz formats, understanding the initiative, open lines, and tactical motifs often matters more than strict theoretical evaluations.

Yes — the Danish might not be perfectly sound in classical chess, but at practical levels, it’s a dangerous and underestimated weapon.

💬 I'd love to hear your thoughts — do you play or face the Danish Gambit?

If you wish to start improving your game you can register for September group . Please contact me at dpolimac@gmail.com 

Face it all the time and it never works. A refuted and outdated gambit.

Sorry I disagree

There’s nothing to “disagree” with here. the Danish Gambit is objectively busted at any serious level. Against a prepared opponent, you’re just down material for nothing, and the so called “initiative” evaporates after a handful of accurate moves. It’s not an opinion, it’s basic chess reality. Using it in blitz to score a few flashy wins doesn’t make it sound, it just means your opponent didn’t know the refutation. In proper chess, it’s dead on arrival.
Good luck with your games.

That's a huge load of nonsense.

Theoretically, the Danish Gambit is a draw, just like 99% of all sound openings. The debate is solely on the practicality of opening ABC, as humans play very different than engines (which have rendered all openings "equal").

This is a fact, and you may disagree for the rest of your career in Chessdot Com as "CockroachDolly" (which won't last long, for sure).

To the O.P.:

I don't like the Danish, for practical reasons. Especially the 3...Qe7 line practically forces white to play several accurate moves to achieve equality, and there is no good way to stir complications or create meaningful imbalances.

You may like it because it is simple and straightforward, but I see no reason to pick such an opening and not e.g. the Scotch gambit which is (just like the Danish) active and equal, but it does allow white to pose problems to the opponent against any of the major lines.

Did you seriously just call the Danish gambit a draw? I'm sorry, but I'm terribly embarrassed for you. Please take your IM title and throw it straight into the trashcan, where it belongs. The Danish isn’t “equal,” it’s busted. You’re two pawns down praying your opponent blunders. that’s not strategy, that’s gambling. The moment someone plays the correct defensive moves, you are left with zero attack, zero compensation, and all the fun is over by move 10. Calling that equal just shows ur ignoring basic chess fundamentals. The Scotch Gambit can actually fight. The Danish just rolls over once the first wave is blocked. If you want to dress it up as playable, you might as well start marketing the Bongcloud as a deep positional masterpiece while you are at it.

Ignorance is bliss.

After 5.Bxb2 (which is the 2 pawns down line) the engine evaluation is -0.3, while all post-2020 correspondence games that were played at official level between 2000+ rated players ended in a draw.

Engines spitting out -0.3 doesn’t magically make it good, it just means you are slightly worse before Black even starts playing actively. And correspondence draws prove nothing except that with days per move, both sides can avoid blunders. OTB that -0.3 turns into -2.0 very quickly

- 0.3 while being two pawns down means that white has extremely good compensation, simple as that.

And I don't think that taking the b2 pawn is a very good practical choice for Black (especially in fast time controls), unless he opts for the old equal ending after 5...d5 6.Bxd5 Nf6 7.Bxf7+ etc. Else, Black has to avoid a few nasty surprises because of his under-development.

I already said that 3...Qe7 is the line that gives Black a very safe game while posing white some problems to prove that his mild initiative is worth a pawn.

Two pawns down with “extremely good compensation” is just wishful branding. If the best selling point is that Black has to “avoid a few nasty surprises” in blitz, that’s not sound chess. that’s fishing for cheap shots. 3…Qe7 doesn’t just give Black a safe game, it exposes the Danish for what it is, a one wave attack that collapses once defended accurately

Danish Gambit can crush anyone, regardless of rating.

Carslen is wrong then https://youtu.be/kJKkIEtlYeA?si=b5Ic2mJdwtnADwAn

Yep, he’s wrong. He scooped up both pawns, then stumbled around looking for some magical “refutation” that never came, not because the Danish is good, but because he wasn’t playing seriously and his opponent had zero plan beyond memorized opening moves. The only reason Magnus won is because class eventually beats cluelessness, not because the gambit held water. That game was lazy, casual blitz Magnus from years ago on a website that no longer exists (chess24), nothing more.

You actually want to bury the Danish? after c3, just play d5. The moment that pawn lands, White’s “compensation” evaporates and you are already dictating the game. Played it today againts some random 1800
https://www.chess.com/game/live/141711779128

I prefer the drunken cavalry charge of the Romantic Era to the timidity of modern chess. To gambit players, winning is important, but how you win is even more so.

Not all of us are amazing as you are

facts

@CockroachDolly

Excuse me, what? Check Stockfish, and you will see that the 2 pawns down line is fine. Also, it’s straight up disrespectful to tell an IM to throw his title into the trash. I’m with @pfren on this one

I realize that with your “top coach” title and 2800 rating that you are somewhat justified in talking down to me, but not an IM who has committed his life to chess.

Why is your username @CockroachDolly? That’s straight up embarrassing.

Stockfish saying its fine in a 2 pawns down position is meaningless without context. engines also think plenty of dead equal, drawish lines are “fine” for the side getting squeezed. In otb chess or even online for that matter, evaluation is fragile and collapses fast once Black plays the critical moves. And let’s be clear, Titles don’t make someone’s every take immune to criticism, especially on something as thoroughly analyzed and refuted as the Danish.