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The Vienna Gambit is simply a very fun opening to play. As I’ve gone up in rating to the 1300s, I’ve noticed that relatively fewer opponents accept the gambit, but try to decline it. I’ve described a number of times that few people decline the gambit with the only objectively good move, d5, which enters the Vienna Game Main Line. One of the most common responses is Nc6 and I recently made an entire video on why you shouldn’t play this move! Today, I played an opponent much stronger than me who played this line, and their intuitive and natural moves in the opening demonstrate why the Vienna Gambit is so powerful.

When the opponent responds to the Vienna Gambit with Nc6, it’s automatically +2 for white as the least worse line for black at this point is losing a pawn, and losing tempo with their knight being forced to undevelop. However, our strong bias to loss aversion means that many players will attempt to keep the knight in play, and potentially recapture the pawn for material balance. However, in this position, the most obvious looking moves to do this don’t work, and result in +4 or +6 advantage to white, depending on when black opts to cut their losses.

I hope you found this video interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/39570553225

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.02.25"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "y_FrighteningAme"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C28"]
[WhiteElo "1314"]
[BlackElo "1441"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "15:46:33 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 Nc6 4. fxe5 Nxe5 5. d4 Ng6 6. e5 Qe7 7. Qe2 d6 8. exf6 Qxe2+ 9. Bxe2 gxf6 10. Nf3 Bd7 11. Bd2 O-O-O 12. O-O-O Re8 13. Rhf1 d5 14. Bd3 Be6 15. h4 Ne7 16. h5 Bg4 17. h6 c6 18. Rde1 Kd8 19. Nh4 Ng8 20. Rxe8+ Kxe8 21. Nf5 Bxf5 22. Bxf5 Bxh6 23. Bxh6 Nxh6 24. Bc8 Ke7 25. Bxb7 Kd6 26. Rxf6+ 1-0