Opening Sacrifice?

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unilamp

Apparently, no one ever does this, and Stockfish says it's a really bad idea. Is it worth it to sacrifice the knight in order to deprive the king of castling and force it out to the much-less-safe 7th rank?

lostpawn247

No. It's too early for the sac. White won't have any developed pieces after the sacrifice. The e6+d5 pawn pair acts as a great shield for black. It blocks a key attacking diagonal (a2-g8) and controls 2 squares the c3 knight can attack from (e4 and d5).