Albin Countergambit

I love the Queen's Gambit, and researching it I found this... what do you think? Anybody knows of a good game where this was played?

 By the way, check out the Lasker Trap!

I've been thinking of looking into the Albin. I've heard that it's a pretty good gambit.

 

--Fromper 

yes i do

 

Knightistwoqueens wrote:

yes i do

 

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post it then!

thanks

 

here's a nice little trap in the Albin Counter gambit

I like to play it a lot against the queens gambit, it's a sound opening for balck and a lot of queens gambit players are not up to speed, tends to take them off their turf etc...

 

E-L

king leopold i cant see how white wins a piece? in the board black has 3 knights and he is ahead of a piece.

greyfox wrote: king leopold i cant see how white wins a piece? in the board black has 3 knights and he is ahead of a piece.

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 Whoops, Typo. Black has won a piece

I tried out the Albin the other day just to check it out. It sets up really solid and leaves bleck with some good options and a chance to control the pace. I'll play through it a few more times to get a better feel for it, but overall I like it quite a bit.

This defense is suprisingly effective against d4 players. (I should know I hate this opening )  Even in the upper classes, this opening works fine and offers a lot of attacking chances for both sides. Anyone will learn about the importance of a tempo in this opening.   Anyways, its a good choice for players who are serious about improving their tactics and exciting to play both as white and as black. 

I'm playing in a tournament this weekend, and there's a vendor there selling chess books. He has two books that spend about 50-60 pages each on this gambit - "Gambiteer II" by Nigel Davies and "Unusual Queen's Gambit Declined" by Chris Ward. I've been playing tactical, attacking openings lately to try and get better at attacking, so I've been thinking of taking up this gambit against the QGD. Does anyone have either of these books or have recommendations? I didn't see many articles about this one on the internet, so I figure it might be worth having a good book for reference.

No responses? I was looking at the books at the tournament yesterday, then posted last night and didn't have time to wait for responses before picking which one to buy at the tourney today.

I just looked at both of them for 10 minutes between games today and decided to give the book by Ward a try. I'm not really interested in the other gambits in the Gambiteer book, but the other stuff in the Unusual QGD book looked like stuff I might try. And I'm just playing lots of gambits right now to learn how to attack, but I think I'm more of a quiet, positional player by nature, so there's a decent chance that I'll end up playing the Queen's Gambit as white eventually, in which case knowing something about these lines might be good for me at that point.

Besides, the Ward book was cheaper and printed on better paper. :p

--Fromper

White can easily avoid the albin with 2Nf3 if he so desires, so albin players better have something else prepared as well.

if white plays 2Nf3 then white hasn't yet set up the queens gambit for the albin countergambit to even be played.

White will usually play 3c4 after 2Nf3 and its queens gambit again .

That's actually another good thing about this book. The introduction says that if white plays 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3, then 2. ... Bf5 is a good line in the Baltic Defense, which is also covered in this book.

 

--Fromper 

Reb wrote: White will usually play 3c4 after 2Nf3 and its queens gambit again .

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but what im saying is that if white were to play 2Nf3 then the albin countergambit isn't an option to play.

Now that I've had some time to look through that book and consider playing some of the lines, I've ended up not playing the Albin at all. I've started playing the Baltic Defense (1. d4 d5 2. c4 Bf5) regularly, and I like it. In fact, 2. ... Bf5 works even if white plays 2. Nf3 before 3. c4, as well as being good against Colle System players.

 

The odd part is that I can't find any info on this opening outside of the book I bought. The Baltic isn't even mentioned in MCO-14.

 

--Fromper 

Out of curiosity, what is your continuation in this line (1. d4 d5 2. c4 Bf5 3. cxd5):

 

 See the move list for different tries for black. To me it seems like white gets an easy opening.

I'm posting from work, so I don't have the book in front of me, but your side variation of 3. ... Bxb1 is the "book" move. White can play 4. Rxb1 Qxd5, or white can play the immediate 4. Qa4+. Sometimes white saves that queen check for later. Sometimes black ends up castling queen side, since his queen and bishop move so early, and Nc6 comes soon, so castling brings extra firepower to bear on the d file.

 

For instance, as black in your side variation after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Bf5 3. cxd5 Bxb1 4. Rxb1 Qxd5 5. b3 Nc6 6. e3, I would try to take advantage of white's relatively passive play by playing 6. ... 0-0-0, intending 7. ... e5 to really beat the heck out of that pinned d4 pawn. For instance:

 

 

Generally, this defense ends up being much more open and tactical than most QGD lines. But at the same time, it's not a material gambit, and it's sound enough that players like Keres and Shirov have used it at the highest levels of chess.

 

--Fromper