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chess noob Quick Wins! is a series of short videos, to demonstrate very quick wins! As a beginner, you become aware of the Scholar’s Mate and the Fool’s Mate, but neither of these show up in real games. However, there are tricky quick checkmates and wins that occur, even at the intermediate level of chess.

This week’s Quick Win is from one of my Australian subscribers, @flylikeaD6 who I first met and played against in a Team Australia tournament. They sent through this game which demonstrates the potential brutality of the Englund Gambit against the unprepared Queen’s Pawn Opening player!

We begin completely normally with an Englund Gambit Accepted, and entry into one of the variants of the main line (1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Bf4 Qe7). In this position, White is ahead at around [+1.6] and the normal next move for White is to develop their king’s knight to add a second defender on the pawn on e5. However, White opted to play in a somewhat unconventional style with (4. c3). Although they are still “okay”, the evaluation immediate drops to equality [0.00]. There is a danger here for White – if you’re up material but the evaluation is equal, it implies that Black has a rather better position!

Black recaptures the pawn on e5 (4… Nxe5) and White plays their final, and blunderous move (5. Nd2). One of the thematic traps in the Englund Gambit is that with the queen on the e-file, White’s e-pawn is pinned to its king. It’s a somewhat unusual and hence, unexpected pin outside of this context so it can often be missed. Black plays (5… Nd3#) and too late, White discovers that their e-pawn doesn’t defend the d3 square as it’s pinned! White’s king suffers a smothered mate with the game barely started on move 5! Brutal and brilliant! GG.

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/486557733

[Event "Let's Play!"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.03.06"]
[Round "-"]
[White "KingPatman"]
[Black "flylikeaD6"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "A40"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Englund-Gambit-2.dxe5-Nc6"]
[UTCDate "2023.03.06"]
[UTCTime "12:46:37"]
[WhiteElo "1180"]
[BlackElo "1263"]
[TimeControl "1/604800"]
[Termination "flylikeaD6 won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "12:46:37"]
[EndDate "2023.03.08"]
[EndTime "04:47:28"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/486557733"]
[WhiteUrl "https://www.chess.com/bundles/web/images/noavatar_l.84a92436.gif"]
[WhiteCountry "18"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/104500596.246eca7a.50x50o.f4e2a9b183fa.png"]
[BlackCountry "17"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. d4 {[%clk 167:59:29]} 1... e5 {[%clk 167:57:48]} 2. dxe5 {[%clk 167:26:02]
Englund Gambit: Accepted [+1.6]} 2... Nc6 {[%clk 167:55:23]} 3. Bf4 {[%clk
165:11:39]} 3... Qe7 {[%clk 161:02:13]} 4. c3 $2 {[%clk 156:53:20][%c_effect
c3;square;c3;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
g1f3;keyPressed;none;from;g1;opacity;0.8;to;f3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f3;persistent;false] A relative mistake
and White loses their advantage [0.00]} 4... Nxe5 {[%clk 167:03:03]} 5. Nd2 $4
{[%clk 164:30:47][%c_effect d2;square;d2;type;Blunder;persistent;true] A massive
blunder $1} 5... Nd3# {[%clk 153:59:25][%c_effect
e8;square;e8;type;Winner,e1;square;e1;type;CheckmateWhite] A brilliant 5-move
smothered checkmate with the black pieces $1} 0-1