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The Englund Gambit is Black throwing an immediate grenade on move 1 against White’s plan for an orderly game with the queen’s pawn opening (1. d4 e5). It’s the equivalent of Black saying to White, “not today!”.

The tactical idea for Black isn’t complicated when White accepts the gambit (their best move). It’s to immediate attack the White pawn with the queen’s knight (2. dxe5 Nc6), place extra pressure on that pawn with the queen (3… Qe7), and then to capture the pawn if White permits it (4… Nxe5).

In this game, White attempted to counter with hyperaggressive counterplay of its own with an immediate attack on the Black queen with a bold bishop move (5. Bg5). Unfortunately, it’s a straight up blunder [-4.84] as the Black knight captures their White knight with check, which then allows the Queen to follow up by capturing the upstart bishop (5… Nxf3+ 6. gxf3 Qxg5).

This is part of the potential power of the Englund Gambit. Separate to the traps for White, it can encourage White to play aggressively, which might be out of the style of the (1. d4) player, and thus, blunder in the opening. Being a full piece up on move 6, my goal was simply then to develop, force trades, and move towards a winning endgame up a piece.

This was successful in this game. On move 35, I managed to force a position where I forced White to give up their last piece, resulting in an endgame phase where I had not only a bishop, but also two passed pawns. This was easily winning, and White resigned a few moves later. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/442978873

[Event "Let's Play!"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.11.04"]
[Round "-"]
[White "MANABU_CHESS"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "A40"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Englund-Gambit-2.dxe5-Nc6-3.Nf3-Qe7"]
[UTCDate "2022.11.04"]
[UTCTime "22:13:54"]
[WhiteElo "754"]
[BlackElo "1193"]
[TimeControl "1/259200"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "22:13:54"]
[EndDate "2022.11.05"]
[EndTime "15:29:13"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/442978873"]

1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 {Englund Gambit: Accepted} 2... Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Nc3 Nxe5 5. Bg5 {[%c_arrow c1g5;keyPressed;none;from;c1;opacity;0.8;to;g5;persistent;false]
A blunder [-4.84]} 5... Nxf3+ $1 6. gxf3 Qxg5 7. h4 Qe5 8. Bg2 Bb4 9. a3 $6 {An inaccuracy [-7.36]. Black's goal at this point is forcing piece trades towards a winning endgame.} 9... Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Qxc3+ 11. Kf1 Nf6 12. e4 O-O 13. f4 Qc4+ 14. Kg1 Nxe4 15. Bxe4 Qxe4 16. Qg4 d5 17. Qg3 Qxc2 18. Kh2 Qg6 19. Rhd1 Qxg3+ 20. fxg3 c6 21. a4 Bg4 22. Rd4 Rfe8 23. a5 b6 24. axb6 axb6 25. Rda4 Rxa4 26. Rxa4 b5 27. Ra6 c5 28. Ra5 Rb8 29. Kg2 c4 30. Kf1 c3 31. Ra1 c2 32. Ke1 Rc8 33. Kd2 c1=Q+ {Forces White to trade rooks} 34. Rxc1 Rxc1 35. Kxc1 Kf8 36. Kc2 Ke7 37. Kc3 Kd6 38. Kb4 Kc6 39. Kc3 Kc5 40. h5 Bxh5 {[%c_effect
c5;square;c5;type;Winner,c3;square;c3;type;ResignWhite] White resigns [-M12]}
0-1