Englund Gambit

Any recommendations against the Englund Gambit?

(1.d4 e5)

Take the pawn, but don't bank on holding onto it.

Take the pawn and hold on to it at any cost!

TacticTank, don't listen to the dweeb that sent post 3.  My response is serious.  1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 and Black wants you to play something dumb like 4.Bf4 Qb4+ and 5...Qxb2.

Black will get the pawn back but at the precious cost of time.  A safe move like 4.e3, let him take, and then develop the Bishop to maybe e2.  Do not take the Knight.  Make Black pay for blocking his Bishop with the Queen, spending more time to get out of the way of the Bishop.

The idea behind taking on move 2 is not to try to win a pawn, but rather, get a big lead in development while Black goes out of his way to regain the pawn.

When and if Black does move the Queen, you can take the Knight of it still sits on 25th and pawn to d6 has not been played as you then gain a tempo.  Black will likely play d6 instead of move the Queen.  Just continue development in that case.

The usual scenario is 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Bg5(f4) Qb4+ 5.Bd2 Qxb2 and now not 6.Bc3? but 6.Nc3, followed by Rb1, when white is close to winning already.

Notice also that ThrillerFan described white's best move 4.Bf4(g5) as "something dumb". He is a decent player, but he has the bad habbit of talking before thinking. In that case, White prefers to give back the b2 pawn instead of e5, and then gaining decisive tempos against Black's stranded Queen.

yap Bf4 is best, if 6..Nb4 then 7.Nd4

nope in the normal englund this is the one line you will see and its just bad- different animal is the hartlaub-charlick-blackburn also bad but trickier with more sidelines

not easier to remember though^^

guess Q could return to e7 instead of grabbing the b2 pawn but then black just loses differently  

gambitlover please search for improvements in pfrens line and try to discuss them its far more critical

well, the Bishop on f4 sits there nicely no need to shuffle him around the queen, however on c5 not so ideal- white can just go on with development and a3 b4 in the future looks good

@TacticTank You will probably only run into 1...e5 in blitz, so here's an easy remedy where you can return the pawn and get a good position: 

hey funny i love your studies on "the other site"  but i think you just should learn this one line against it mentioned before its +2 in nearly all lines if you can refute sth you should play the mot critical stuff

@testaaaaa that's this one, right? 

yes! 8.Rb3 looks also good

You could also say "I could, but I have lost my pencil", in true gambithead style.

i also get angry if someone says the blackmar diemer is unplayable so i can relate^^

Like Englund Gambit there are many rare opening lines. Practically it may not be possible to learn all these lines due to time constraint. If we continue to study all these lines then we may not be able to dedicate ourselves for Standard Opening lines like Najdorf,  Dragon, Ruy Lopez, Giuoco Piano, Sveshnikov, Queen's Gambit, Slav, Kings Indian, French ....etc. which are involving lot of Research and Novelties by present day Grandmasters, World Champions. The player who plays the Englund Gambit might be connoisseur in it. Hence it is our challenge to accept his gambit and continue our strong calculation and development over the board and study the intricacies of it. If we loose we should ask our opponent where we went wrong, what are the best continuations etc. as he is our teacher now in this variation. (Respect every opponent. If we win we teach him some lessons and vice versa.) Of course there may be lot of materials like books, engines, DVDs, internet literatures etc. in these rare lines. But since he has already studied these lines and directly asking him will save our time and energy. This should be done after the game after our home analysis which means our own best calculations search. Without this if we ask we will not be doing our best thinking efforts because chess is thinking, calculation, intuition in every move. When after home analysis if we ask our opponent, then the theoretical lines which he may give may match with our thinking and calculations and then we feel very happy that our moves, calculations, logic matched with theory. Then this theory will remain in our memory permanently. 

So  if all the moves were theory then every game where GMs play today might have ended in draw because every move from White / Black is theory. But practically it is not so and there are wins, losses, draws.

Hence I recommend to accept the challenge by playing 2. dxe5  .....  3. Nf3 ..... with strong calculations, development etc. and learn a new theory of Englund Gambit from your opponent as he is your teacher now in this variation. This method of learning I do it in every tournament and improve myself faster than chess books, engines, DVDs,  literature surveys etc. Good luck!!

All above experts have given their best recommendations. Thanks.     

When you play openings that everyone despise and label "unsound" and still win it is funny

Thank you all for recommendations!