yes, its the whale opening, and its not awful but not great for white. White gets a very strong control of d5 and closes the position quite a bit but it is not exactly the kind of opening that capitalizes on white's first move advantage.
blacks easiest solution is to develop normally via nc6, bc5 ,d6 nf6 0-0 (possibly a6 or a5 thrown in at some point, to avoid a threat of nc3-na4 trying to get that beautiful c5 bishop). if white is too slow, black may even have time to play ng4 aiming for the f2 pawn, but thats only good if white is playing slow non-developing moves.
another possibility is to to develop normally, via bc5 , nf6 etc, but avoid nc6. instead, black can try to play c6 and d5, and break the position open, although, one has to make sure e5 is defended in case of nf3.
as for the gambit, dont pay too much attention to the fact it has a name. Lots of awful openings have a name out of quirky conventions. this gambit with 1.e4 e5 2.c4 d5?! is probably an attempt to get 3.cxd5 c6 4.dxc6 nxc6 with the seeming justification that the gaping hole on d4 and extra developed piece is enough compensation, and while it isnt enough, it can be a little annoying to play as white.
Luckily white doesnt need to to take twice or play 3.d3?! which forfeits the advantage to avoid complications. he can play 2.cxd5 c6 and white has the choice of either 3.nf3 (intending cxd5 nxe4 ,and now if dxe4 bc4! with big advantage) or 3.d4 which should give advantage to white as well.
Hello there to whoever reads this post, forgive me if this is a newb-ish question as It's the first time in my life I had an interest to study chess because of the current covid situation.
I'm having a hard time distinguishing what kind of opening this is as a beginner and how could I possibly counter it whether as white or as black since my opponent always does this opening regardless of his color. I've tried searching the variation the engine could detect which is apparently known as "The Whale Variation" but got nothing, probably because of the opening's unpopularity or even if I hate to admit it, I'm just too lazy. It also has this gambit variation I don't know off called Kings Pawn Opening: Whale Variation, Bavarian Gambit when you move your pawn to D5 immediately. It'd be appreciated if someone could explain the gambit as well. Controlling the D5 square is a pain in the bum
