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The Englund Gambit is somewhat dodgey, but very winning at the beginner level. In fact, when GM Hikaru Nakamura and IM Levy Rozman when through openings for beginners, they placed the Englund Gambit in “Legit” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9CwH47r6og&t=2223s). However, they placed it in “Tricks Only” for intermediate players (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCVdrmKHdiI&t=1060s).

At my level currently, it is still super-fun as most people will enter/transpose into the Main Line (1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Bf4 Qe7 4. Nf3) and this potentially allows for absolute mayhem with the black killer queen destroying White’s material with (4… Qb4+). The queen gives a triple fork – king, bishop, pawn.

In this game, the b2 pawn falls to the queen (5… Qxb2), then the rook (8… Qxa1), and then the knight (9… Qxb1+). And finally, on move 12, the queen sacrifices herself for the white queen (12… Qxc3+). Our killer queen has left White’s queen-side in ruins. It has dragged the king into the middle of battle on c3, killed all of White’s queen-side pieces having captured 18 points of material, and left the queen-side pawns stunned and isolated. Stockfish gives the evaluation at the black queen’s exit at [-12.5].

My opponent valiantly played on, but resigned on move 26. We had entered an endgame where I was up two pieces and a pawn, and according to the engine, there was a forced mate in 9 moves. Good game!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/58750783679

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.10.05"]
[Round "-"]
[White "gabarnett"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "A40"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Englund-Gambit-2.dxe5-Nc6"]
[UTCDate "2022.10.05"]
[UTCTime "23:15:05"]
[WhiteElo "1315"]
[BlackElo "1359"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "23:15:05"]
[EndDate "2022.10.05"]
[EndTime "23:24:24"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/58750783679"]

1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 {Englund Gambit Accepted} 2... Nc6 3. Bf4 Qe7 4. Nf3 Qb4+
{[%c_arrow
b4b2;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;b2;persistent;false,b4f4;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;f4;persistent;false,b4e1;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
b2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;b2;persistent;false,e1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e1;persistent;false,f4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f4;persistent;false]
The setting of the \"trap\" that is difficult for White to navigate} 5. Bd2 Qxb2 6. Bc3 Bb4 {[%c_arrow
b4c3;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;c3;persistent;false,c3e1;keyPressed;none;from;c3;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c3;persistent;false] White's bishop is pinned, and Black has a completely winning position at around [-7.5] according to Stockfish 15 NNUE} 7. Qd3 Bxc3+ 8. Kd1 {A somewhat unexpected move [-13] that results in the loss of both the knight and rook in subsequent turns} 8... Qxa1 9. Qxc3 Qxb1+ 10. Kd2 Qb4 {As I'm up 8 points of material, I offer a queen trade} 11. e3 Nge7 12. a3 Qxc3+ 13. Kxc3 Nd5+ 14. Kd2 O-O 15. Bc4 Nb6 16. Bb3 d6 17. exd6 cxd6 18. Ng5 Be6 19. Bxe6 fxe6 20. Nxe6 Rxf2+ 21. Kd1 Rxg2 22. Nf4 Rg4 23. Nd3 Ne5 24. Nxe5 dxe5 25. h3 Rg3 26. e4 {[%c_effect
g8;square;g8;type;Winner,d1;square;d1;type;ResignWhite] White resigns [-M9]} (26. e4 Rd8+ {If the game continued...} 27. Kc1 Rxa3 28. Rh2 Nc4 29. c3 Rb3 30. Ra2 Rd3 31. Ra5 Rbxc3+ 32. Kb1 Rd2 33. h4 Rb2+ 34. Ka1 Rc1#) 0-1