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Today, I happened to try out a new gambit, the Leonhardt Gambit, on two consecutive games. Paul Leonhardt, was a master level German chess player from the early 1900s. I happened to see a video on YouTube on this gambit some time ago, but remember almost nothing from it, certainly none of the theory. It becomes available after one of the most common lines in the Scandinavian Defense. I did terribly in both games, but happened to win the second due to my opponent blundering in the middle game. However, on review, it seemed like I had some signficant winning chances straight out of the opening, and this is against opponents stronger than me who chose to play the Scandinavian against e4. I think that this makes it a potentially useful gambit! Please enjoy!

What was interesting to me with the Stockfish evaluation is that this gambit isn’t even that objectively bad! Playing b4 attacking the queen, and gambiting that pawn, gives an evaluation of -0.10, slightly favouring black but basically equal. And this seems to be relatively forcing. The queen accepting the gambit by capturing the pawn is the only good move, with other queen moves giving an important advantage to white. As I kind of like gambits, I think I’ll be playing this more in the future!

I hope you enjoyed this video, and thanks for watching!

Game 1: https://www.chess.com/game/live/37411271649

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.01.31"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Celart123"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "1223"]
[BlackElo "1309"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "15:50:07 PST"]
[Termination "Celart123 won by resignation"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. b4 Qxb4 5. Rb1 Qd6 6. Bb5+ Bd7 7. Qf3 Bxb5 8. Qxb7 Bc6 9. Qc8+ Qd8 10. Rxb8 Rxb8 11. Qxd8+ Rxd8 12. Nf3 e6 13. O-O Bxf3 14. gxf3 Bb4 15. Rd1 Bxc3 0-1

Game 2: https://www.chess.com/game/live/37411883261

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.01.31"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Uuj4132"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "1232"]
[BlackElo "1264"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "16:04:54 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. b4 Qxb4 5. Rb1 Qd6 6. d4 b6 7. d5 Bb7 8. Bb5+ Nd7 9. Nge2 Nf6 10. Bf4 Qc5 11. Na4 Qxd5 12. Qxd5 Nxd5 13. Bxc7 Nxc7 14. Bxd7+ Kxd7 15. Rd1+ Ke8 16. O-O e6 17. Rfe1 Bb4 18. c3 Ba5 19. Nd4 Bd5 20. a3 Ke7 21. Nf5+ Kf6 22. Ne3 Nb5 23. c4 Bxe1 24. Rxe1 Bxg2 25. cxb5 Bh3 26. Nc3 Rhd8 27. Ne4+ Ke7 28. Ng5 Bg4 29. Nxg4 Rd5 30. Nxh7 Rxb5 31. Ne5 Rh8 32. Nc6+ Ke8 33. Nxa7 Rxh7 34. Nxb5 1-0