Englund-Gambit
The Englund Gambit is an opening in chess. It is one of the closed-end games and arises from the fact that black 1 d2 -d4 with 1 ... e7 - e5 offers on the double step of the queen's pawn king's pawn to hitting. The actual Englund Gambit in the narrower sense is reached after 2 d4xe5 Sb8 - c6 3 Sg1 -f3 Qd8 - e7. In a broader sense today are also other variants which arise from 1 d2 -d4 e7 - e5, counted the Englund Gambit.
White should accept the gambit ( a pawn sacrifice in the opening ). It could also provoke Albin counter-gambit or the Budapest Gambit, as well as even go into the middle Gambit, but these openings promise White less advantage than the offered Englund Gambit.
Even if the Englund Gambit is deemed not strictly correct, and is therefore to be found in professional tournaments only in passing, it leads to a sharp, tangle packed game and enjoys so in amateur chess and correspondence chess some popularity.
In the opening system of the ECO code, the Englund Gambit is classified under the key A40. It was named after the Swedish chess player, Fritz Carl Anton Englund.
Main variants
The main variants of the gambits are initiated by the trains (see also: Chess notation):
Assumed Gambit
- 2 d4xe5 d7 - d6 is named after Carl Hartlaub Hartlaub Gambit. Possible variants: 3 Sg1 -f3 - g4 Bc8 4 e2- e4 Sb8 - d7 ( Albin- Blackburne Gambit by diverter )
- 4 Lc1 - f4 Sb8 - c6
- 2 d4xe5 Sb8 - c6 3 Sg1 -f3 Qd8 - e7 - the Englund Gambit in the strict sense: 4 Dd1 -d5 (Stockholm variant, this position was the subject of the topic tournament of 1933) makes the exemption victims f7 - f6 ... 4 5 6 e5xf6 Sg8xf6 Qd5 -b3 necessary.
- 4 Lc1 - f4 (rough version) The following must draw after White 4 ... Qe7 - b4 5 Lf4 -d2 Db4xb2 6 Nb1 - c3, for 6 Ld2 - c3? leads to Bf8 - b4 to figure loss or Matt: 7 Dd1 -d2 Lb4xc3 8 Dd2xc3 Db2 -c1 #
- 4 Nb1 - c3 and after Sc6xe5 is 5 Nc3 -d5 Se5xf3 6 g2xf3 De7 -d8 7 Dd1 -d4 a recommendation by Viktor Korchnoi
- 4 Lc1 - g5
- 4 e5xf6 Sg8xf6 5 Lc1 - g5
- 4 Lc1 - f4 f6xe5 5 Sf3xe5 Qd8 - f6
- 4 e2- e4 f6xe5 is the Traxler variation.
Gambit Declined
- 2 c2 - c4 d7 -d5 (transition to Albin counter-gambit )
- 2 c2 - c4 Ng8 - f6 (transition to the Budapest Gambit )
- 2 e2- e4 (transition into the middle Gambit )
History
1 d2 -d4 e7 - e5 end of the 19th century by Julius Thirring and Carl Hartlaub was introduced into the tournament practice. This answered 2 d4xe5 with d7 - d6. Today, this variant is referred to as Hartlaub Gambit. It was hoped to revert into a variant of the Philidor Defence, which had been a few years earlier investigated by Adolf Albin and Joseph Henry Blackburne and was also played by Emanuel Lasker and Jacques Lousy. As further inspiration should also froms gambit have served, in which, however, not the d- pawn, but the f- pawn makes a capture on e5 and d6.
The actual Englund Gambit was examined by the Latvian champion Carl Behting in an article in the German chess magazine in 1930. Behting primarily investigated the variant 4 Dd1 -d5. Today, this variant is known as the Stockholm variant. In Stockholm, namely organized Fritz Carl Anton Englund, who had become aware of an article Behtings in the German chess magazine at the Gambit, 1932 Topic tournament in which this fourth train was prescribed. White won this tournament in 18 of 30 games with 5 draws, so the gambit was then viewed as inadequate.
Nevertheless, the Swiss chess player Henry Grob turned the Englund Gambit regularly in correspondence games. He published in 1968 a book about the opening. Instead of 4 Dd1 -d5 recommended coarse Lc1 4 - f4. How Behting and later Stefan Bücker was rough to the conclusion that the Englund Gambit is quite a playable opening.
A third arising from 1 d2 -d4 e7 - e5 Gambit is named after Karl Soller Gambit, which was introduced by this beginning of the 1950s. Soller preferred white with the Blackmar - Diemer Gambit and wanted to play with black and a similar opening. Emil Josef Diemer and also Hans Felbecker applied the Soller Gambit on a regular basis.