Play King's Gambit As Black | Learn The Latvian Gambit

Hello friends,

Today I would like to share a lesson on an opening called the Latvian Gambit which is also sometimes called King's Gambit for black. It's an objectively bad opening that scores well in practical games in sub 2200 rating games online. If you are playing 1.e4 with white and want to score very well against this crazy gambit or you are looking for a surprise opening against 1.e4 with black then this video is for you

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/F5Usmu-Qfz0

In King's Gambit white sacrifices a wing pawn f4, in Latvian Gambit black sacrifices a central pawn e5. Latvian Gambit is even less sound than King's Gambit.

@tygxc Not only that, but also in King's Gambit white is leading the development and in the Latvian gambit black is behind in the development in the main line!

Why would anyone want to learn and play a losing opening? I'm always happy when I face the Latvian as you really only need to know a few forced lines to declare victory

@ConfusedGhoul Thank you for your question. I believe players want to learn in because of at least 3 strong reasons:

1) You have to know how to play against it with white and that's what the video is teaching you to do

2) Latvian gambit is objectively a bad opening, but statistically in sub 2200 level online games scores 48% against white's 48% which is higher win rate than even after 2..Nc6

3) Learning dynamical openings and tactics that arise from them richen one's pattern recognition and tactical awareness

I am educating about Latvian Gambit, not advocating for it.

Remember that not everyone know how to play against this gambit, even if you do. Perhaps I could share one of your games where you got a losing position after 10 moves with the white pieces against 2..f6 which is known to lose after 3.dxe5 fxe5 4.Qh5+ +-

Things like that happened to you in this game and can happen to anyone else with white pieces in the Latvian Gambit if they do not know the proper of way of playing against it.

Paraphrasing Andras Adorjan, this is a brilliant idea that loses.

A better way is 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 f5

I love the Latvian gambit! Especially when White does the Mayet Attack. And regarding the King's gambit, just remember that Boris Spassky beat Bobby Fischer with it in the world championship

Anyway, in the video 9.Ne3! (instead of 9.Bd3 which allows 9...Qg4) gives Black a lost position. And I think Black's position is even more miserable after 7.Ne3 (in place of 7.f3).