---

The Englund Gambit is my favourite response to the Queen’s Pawn Opening (1. d4 e5). The immediate provocation in the centre of the board on move 1 is the chess equivalent of, “come at me bro!”. And often, the games go down a fun, aggressive, and tactical line rather than the more positional games that the (1. d4) player might be aiming for.

In this game, we entered the Main Line and on move 4, I got to play the “Killer Queen” (https://adventuresofachessnoob.com/2022/10/15/black-killer-queen-of-the-englund-gambit/) to b4 with check, threatening the pawn on b2 and the bishop on f4. White plays natural looking moves and yet, four moves after that on move 8, I’m up 5 points of material, White’s queen side has been shredded, and Stockfish 15 NNUE at greater than depth 30 gives a crushing evaluation of [-9]!

One of the interesting things with the Englund Gambit positions for Black is that Stockfish seems to get a little confused with evaluating the positions at lower depths. Deeper analysis also seems to find that the position is worse for White than first appears, and curiously chess.com’s implementation of Stockfish rated one of my moves (14… dxe5) as a brilliancy, where I couldn’t see why that was the case, and external higher depth Stockfish identifies other moves that are better.

On move 21 after a series of trades, we enter a very interesting and unbalanced endgame. I had the rook pair while White had three minor pieces (two knights and a bishop). However, I had a major pawn majority – 7 pawns – while White only had 4 where a couple of these pawns were isolated. My opponent was a great sport and played on, but they were never able to regain an advantage. After I forced a trade of one rook for two of their minor pieces, they resigned as it was impossible for White to prevent promotion of my a-pawn. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/62042389887

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.11.13"]
[Round "-"]
[White "rsj2905"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "A40"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Englund-Gambit-2.dxe5-Nc6-3.Nf3-Qe7"]
[UTCDate "2022.11.13"]
[UTCTime "01:38:55"]
[WhiteElo "1302"]
[BlackElo "1380"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "01:38:55"]
[EndDate "2022.11.13"]
[EndTime "02:04:56"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/62042389887"]

1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 {Englund Gambit Accepted} 2... Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 4. Bf4 Qb4+
{[%c_arrow
b4e1;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false,b4b2;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;b2;persistent;false,b4f4;keyPressed;none;from;b4;opacity;0.8;to;f4;persistent;false][%c_highlight
b2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;b2;persistent;false,f4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f4;persistent;false]
The \"Killer Queen\" of the Main Line of the Englund Gambit. This move is objectively bad, but often leads to completely winning positions for Black.} 5. Bd2 $1 Qxb2 $6 {Technically an inaccuracy at around [+3], but only if White finds Nc3; all other moves are winning for Black} 6. Bc3 $4 {A natural looking move, but a blunder at around [-7.5]} 6... Bb4 $1 7. Qd2 Bxc3 8. Nxc3 Qxa1+ {And Black is completely winning out of the opening attack [-9]} 9. Nd1 Nxe5 10. Qe3 d6 11. Nd4 Bf5 $2 {A careless mistake [-6] that hangs the bishop but Black is still winning $1} 12. f4 $5 Qxa2 $6 13. fxe5 Qa5+ 14. Nc3 dxe5 $5 {chess.com rates this as a brilliant move, but this might be an algorithm bug $1} 15. Nxf5 O-O-O 16. g3 Qa1+ $2 17. Kf2 Nf6 18. Bg2 Qxh1 19. Bxh1 Ng4+ {[%c_arrow
g4f2;keyPressed;none;from;g4;opacity;0.8;to;f2;persistent;false,g4e3;keyPressed;none;from;g4;opacity;0.8;to;e3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f2;persistent;false,e3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e3;persistent;false]}
20. Kf3 Nxe3 21. Nxe3 {After all the trades, we enter a very interesting and unbalanced endgame Where Black's pawn majority gives a massive advantage of almost [-8]} 21... f6 22. Ned5 Rhe8 23. e4 c6 24. Ne3 g6 25. g4 a5 26. Bg2 b5 27. Bh3 Kb7 28. Bf1 b4 29. Na4 Rd4 30. Nc5+ Kb6 31. Na4+ Kc7 32. Bc4 Kd6 33. h3 Rb8 34. h4 b3 35. Bxb3 Rbb4 {With this move, I'm likely to be able to force a trade of one rook for two of their minor pieces} 36. Nc4+ ({It almost looks like the pawn can fork the two rooks, but it doesn't work...} 36. c3 Rxb3 37. cxd4
exd4 {[%c_arrow
d4e3;keyPressed;none;from;d4;opacity;0.8;to;e3;persistent;false,b3e3;keyPressed;none;from;b3;opacity;0.8;to;e3;persistent;false,e3f3;keyPressed;none;from;e3;opacity;0.8;to;f3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e3;persistent;false] The knight is pinned will be lost the next turn}) 36... Rbxc4 37. Bxc4 Rxc4 38. Nb2 Rxc2 39. Nd3 a4 40. g5 fxg5 41. hxg5 a3 42. Ke3 Rc3 43. Kd2 Rxd3+ 44. Kxd3 a2 {[%c_effect
d6;square;d6;type;Winner,d3;square;d3;type;ResignWhite] White resigns} 0-1