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One of the consequences of the early f-pawn move by White in the Vienna Gambit is that the dark square diagonal to the king is weakened. As such, there is a threat from Black with Qh4 with check. Typically, the way to neutralise that threat is the develop the king’s knight to its natural square, f3, which will tend defend the h4 square.

However, in the Vienna Gambit Accepted, Stockfish analysis gives a surprising suggestion. On move 6, where (6. Nf3) would seem necessary to prevent Qh4+ (and indeed, Stockfish does suggest that this is one of the top moves), it also recommends (6. d4). Indeed, depending on the depth, Stockfish would often suggest that (6. d4) is the superior move!

However, d4 doesn’t prevent Qh4+ at all! What’s going on? I had previously analysed this and down the (6. d4) line is a deliciously devious trap for Black’s queen! For the opponent that accepts the Vienna Gambit in the first place, it is almost a certainty that this trap will be unexpected.

After d4, we are practically baiting Black to play Qh4+, and indeed, it has all the appearances of White having blundered. The forcing nature of this is that (6… Qh4+) IS Black’s best move in this position! Stockfish doesn’t actually approve of the trap even though it begins the line and suggests a weird continuation where the king side-steps and the queen completely retreats (7. Kd1 Qd8). However, my perspective is that if you play this at all, you must be willing to double down and trap the queen!

White’s next move in the trap line is to block the check with the g-pawn and the logical and best move for Black is to capture with their advanced pawn from the gambit (7. g3 fxg3). For Black, they would most likely be convinced that White has blundered as this pattern would suggest that White is about to lose their rook, or Black will be able to promote their pawn to another queen (or both!).

Here, White must develop the knight (8. Nf3) attacking the Black queen. Black will push their pawn forward (8… g2+) which comes with a discovered check, the knight captures the queen (9. Nxh4), and the pawn captures the rook in the corner, promoting to queen (9… gxh1=Q).

Have we just blundered? The amazing thing here is that Stockfish’s evaluation is remains favourable for White (about [+0.7] on Stockfish 15 NNUE @ depth 40), even though White is down 6 points of material! And the reason is that Black’s new queen will never escape from our territory!

Firstly, back from killing the original queen, the knight returns to f3 (10. Nf3) and slams shut the light square diagonal. On the next move, the king stalks forward (11. Kf2), closing the net around the new Black queen. And then, the bishop moves in for the kill (13. Bg2)!

After Black is forced to trade their queen for a bishop, we surprisingly return to material equality, but in a rather unequal game, with White substantially ahead positionally [+3]. On move 17, I mouse-slip (never hold onto a piece when thinking!) losing my queen and converting a completely winning position [+5.63] to one that was dead lost [-7.44]. I chose to resign at this point!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/58399216917

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.10.01"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "dzambo1"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C28"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Vienna-Game-Falkbeer-Vienna-Gambit"]
[UTCDate "2022.10.01"]
[UTCTime "21:37:06"]
[WhiteElo "1334"]
[BlackElo "1325"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "dzambo1 won by resignation"]
[StartTime "21:37:06"]
[EndDate "2022.10.01"]
[EndTime "21:46:52"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/58399216917"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 exf4 {Vienna Gambit Accepted [+0.63]} 4. e5
{[%c_highlight
d5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d5;persistent;false,g4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g4;persistent;false,h5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h5;persistent;false,e4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e4;persistent;false][%c_arrow
d1h5;keyPressed;none;from;d1;opacity;0.8;to;h5;persistent;false,c3d5;keyPressed;none;from;c3;opacity;0.8;to;d5;persistent;false,c3e4;keyPressed;none;from;c3;opacity;0.8;to;e4;persistent;false,e5f6;keyPressed;none;from;e5;opacity;0.8;to;f6;persistent;false]}
4... Qe7 $2 {Black's attempt to pin the pawn to the king is a mistake that doesn't work [+2.35]} 5. Qe2 {White unpins the pawn with a symmetrical queen move} 5... Ng8 6. d4 {In this game, I chose to bait Black down the Qh4+ line as there is a surprising and winning line where the queen is trapped} 6... Qh4+ 7. g3 $6 {This is technically an inaccurate move according to Stockfish [+0.80] but the trap is being set} 7... fxg3 8. Nf3 $1 {Counterattacking the queen, fate is now set. Black must sacrifice their original queen to promote the pawn to maintain any advantage} 8... g2+ 9. Nxh4 gxh1=Q {This is a fascinating position as although Black has massive material advantage, it is temporary and illusory and White maintains a favourable evaluation [+0.80]. This new queen will never escape White's castle $1} 10. Nf3 $1 {The walls start to close in on the new queen in the corner...} 10... Bb4 $2 11. Kf2 {And it gets even tighter...} 11... Bxc3 12. bxc3 Ne7 13. Bg2 {And the queen is now completely trapped... [+3.03]} 13... Qxg2+ 14. Kxg2 O-O 15. Ba3 Re8 16. Rg1 $4 {A blunder, but still winning for White [+3.01]} 16... Nd5 17. Qf1 $4 {And I mouse-slip into a losing position $1} 17... Ne3+
{[%c_effect g8;square;g8;type;Winner,g2;square;g2;type;ResignWhite] I resigned [-7.44]} 0-1