Irish Gambit |
After 3...Nxe5 4.d4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Irish Gambit, [1] Chicago Gambit, [2] or Razzle Dazzle Gambit is a weak chess opening that begins:
Contents
- 1. e4 e5
- 2. Nf3 Nc6
- 3. Nxe5?
intending 3...Nxe5 4.d4.
Irish Gambit |
After 3...Nxe5 4.d4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Irish Gambit, [1] Chicago Gambit, [2] or Razzle Dazzle Gambit is a weak chess opening that begins:
intending 3...Nxe5 4.d4.
White's pawns occupy the center , but the sacrifice of a knight for a pawn is a very high price to pay. The gambit is accordingly considered unsound, and is almost never seen in high-level play. It is often referred to as the Chicago Gambit, [2] perhaps because Harold Meyer Phillips, remarkably, used it in an 1899 game in a simultaneous exhibition in Chicago to beat Harry Nelson Pillsbury, one of the strongest players in the world at the time. [3]
An apocryphal tale is told of the anonymous inventor of the gambit. On his deathbed, when asked what subtle idea lay behind the gambit, his last words were reportedly: "I hadn't seen the king's pawn was defended." [1]
A similar line is the Halloween Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5?! It is also considered dubious, but is sounder than the Irish Gambit, because White can gain time by chasing both of Black's knights while occupying the center. White has won a number of short games with the Halloween Gambit.
A gambit is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices material with the aim of achieving a subsequent positional advantage.
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is completely surrounded by its own pieces.
The Giuoco Piano is a chess opening beginning with the moves:
The Philidor Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
Bird's Opening is a chess opening characterised by the move:
The Vienna Game is an opening in chess that begins with the moves:
Petrov's Defence or the Petrov Defence is a chess opening characterised by the following moves:
The Bishop's Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Dunst Opening is a chess opening in which White opens with the move:
The Four Knights Game is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Elephant Gambit is a rarely played chess opening beginning with the moves:
The Englund Gambit is a rarely played chess opening that starts with the moves:
The Queen's Gambit Declined is a chess opening in which Black declines a pawn offered by White in the Queen's Gambit:
The Halloween Gambit is an aggressive chess opening gambit in which White sacrifices a knight early on for a single pawn. The opening is an offshoot of the normally staid Four Knights Game and is defined by the moves:
The Centre Pawn Opening is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
The Italian Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
An Open Game is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Göttingen manuscript is the earliest known work devoted entirely to modern chess. It is a Latin text of 33 pages held at the University of Göttingen. A quarto parchment manuscript of 33 pages, ff. 1–15a are a discussion of twelve chess openings, f. 16 is blank, and ff. 17–31b are a selection of thirty chess problems, one on each page with a diagram and solution. Authorship and exact date of the manuscript are unknown. Similarities to Lucena's Repeticion de Amores e Arte de Axedres con CL iuegos de partido have led some scholars to surmise that it was written by Lucena or that it was one of Lucena's sources. Although the manuscript is generally assumed to be older than Lucena's work, this is not established. The manuscript has been ascribed possible writing dates of 1500–1505 or 1471.
Bibliography