its a gambit, just not a very traditional one
Why do they believe that it's a gambit when someone can always get back their pawn?
In the King's / Halloween / Italian / Wing Gambit you don't have such an opportunity.
thats exactly the point, you give a pawn in exchange for activity and counterplay just like any other gambit but its not traditional due to the fact on how it can be easily neutralized from both sides without much drastic chances of winning
In the QGA, black gets more activity than in the QGD. What white gets is the centre. The QGA isn't a true gambit although white and black can play it as a gambit. For instance, 1. d4 ...d5 2. c4 ...cd 3. Nf3 ... c6 4. e4 ...b5 or 3. Nc3 ...a6 4. e4 ... b5 are possible lines which are gambit-like.
yeah white can neutralize and have a balanced game in the QGD
Generally, when black plays lines which hold the pawn for a few moves and white plays e4, it can become a genuine gambit because it's the e4 pawn that can drop. I usually play 3. Nf3 and 4. e3. 3.e3 is the easiest way to get back the pawn but black can't hold it after 3. Nf3 and 4 e3, even if white has to take on c4 and then play Qa4+ to get the piece back. Usually the Q side is bust open with s4 and b3, and white can get a lot of play there. I like playing against the QGA and also sometimes play it as black.
That's true, but I perfer e3.
I was bust by that move in a tournament. It was a five round weekend major. Either under 1800 or under 1880 (FIDE). I was on three and a half out of four but there were about seven players just behind me and one equal. I had black and I had to win to win the tournament outright, because a draw could have meant a five or six way tie. It was the days before I'd switched from the QGA to the Modern Benoni. It was actually the reason I switched. I was tired and my opponent was experienced. He played 3. e3 and, like s complete fool, I played 3. ...e5 and was positionally outplayed in a queenless middlegame. Looking at it later, the entire thing was better for white, it turned out. I lost and was out of the prizes altogether but in those days I played more for the money than anything else and I was gambling the £150 first prize, in the days when the entry fee was £6, against about £40 if I drew.
And that's why I play that. The benoni is actually a good move, I play it in blitz, and I seriously considered playing it in rapid, but I chose to play the KID instead.
Yes, I took a big hit in blitz and went down from near 1900 to about 1430 and am working my way back up, slowly. These things happen occasionally. I dropped the Benoni and am playing the QGD as much as I can as black. I want that to become my primary defence because I think it suits me more these days. Occasionally I play a QGA. But if I'm losing at Blitz I switch to the Modern Benoni. I love the Modern Benoni but it's just that I need as much practice with the QGD as I can get. I want to play one or two more tournaments and maybe club chess again.
tails u kinda annoying tbh
I'm just a man who wants to be honest with other people. There's nothing annoying unless someone's trying to prove wrong opinions - and I don't want to be such a person.