How often have you faced difficulty in preparing an opening with the black pieces?
It can be tough to come up with creative ways to stun your opponent while playing with the Black pieces. If you choose to prepare a mainstream opening, you have to consider many variations and be prepared for all of them. In such cases, surprise openings can be your best friend! One of the best kind of surprise openings are gambit openings.
Due to their unconventional nature, gambit openings are an excellent choice to be prepared as surprise weapons. The word “gambit” literally means a temporary sacrifice which is made to gain an advantage in development or something equally compensating. The said sacrifice is usually a pawn and is generally recovered in the course of the game.
This article presents to you the seven best chess gambits that you can play with the black pieces. Read on to find further details and certain tips and tricks in every opening!
Marshall Gambit
Deployed against White’s solid Ruy Lopez, the Marshall gambit brings an element of dynamism into the otherwise slow and steady opening that the Ruy Lopez is.
Black sacrifices the central ‘e5’ pawn to gain an advantage in development and create an attack on White’s kingside. The mainline of the opening is as follows.
Mainline
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5
Points to remember in this opening.
Black sacrifices the e5 pawn to make rapid strides in development and to mobilize the pieces on optimal squares. Developing with tempo can be an added bonus in such cases so keep an eye out for such tempi.
Black usually develops his queen on h4 and dark square bishop on d6. The light square bishop is placed on f5 or g4 depending on White’s moves. The primary idea is to capitalize on White’s underdevelopment.
It is possible that in some variations, to minimize Black’s attack, White returns the extra pawn and exchanges queens to go into an endgame. So, you must be prepared to play such an endgame as well.
Benko Gambit
While preparing against 1.d4, it can get quite tedious to come up with a new resource to surprise your opponent. The Benko Gambit, named after the legendary GM Pal Benko, creates an interesting imbalance in the position, making the game extremely dynamic.
Black sacrifices the b5 pawn to gain a positional advantage. The mainline is as follows.
Mainline
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bxa6 7.e4 Bxf1 8.Kxf1 d6
Points to remember in this opening
It is very easy for players who regularly play Benoni to prepare this opening as they share the same initial move order.
Black should play fearlessly as the opening involves an additional pawn sacrifice after 4.cxb5 as Black plays 4…a6 to develop the c8 bishop on an important diagonal. The opening is relatively easy to understand but you must play a lot of practice games to gain an in-depth understanding of the resultant positions.
Black develops the other bishop via a fianchetto and castles short. Black also aims to use the semi-open ‘a’ and ‘b’ files to create problems for White.
Budapest Gambit
The Budapest gambit is an unconventional way of challenging White’s 1.d4. In a sea of openings that strive to solidify at least one pawn in the centre, this opening happily sacrifices Black’s central ‘e5’ pawn for some out-of-the-box ideas.
Black’s primary idea is to take White into an unknown territory. Due to its unorthodox nature, it is quite possible that White might not be prepared for such a pawn break on the second move itself.
Mainline – 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.e3 Nc6 6.Be2 Ngxe5
Points to remember in this opening
Since you give up your central pawn, the importance of making accurate piece moves is increased. You should always be vigilant about White gaining space or developing more pawns in the centre or close to it (c and f files).
There are sidelines where White tries to further protect the ‘e5’ pawn with Bf4. In that case, you can play Bb4+ followed by Qe7, additionally attacking the pawn.
It is very easy to prepare against this opening so it is not advisable to use it more than twice.
Blumenfeld Gambit
A close relative of the Benko gambit is the Blumenfeld gambit where Black sacrifices the b5 wing pawn to get control in the centre.
This surprise weapon is handy to players who regularly play Benoni or have experience playing the Benko gambit. The mainline for this opening is as follows-
Mainline
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nf3 b5 5.dxe6 fxe6 6.cxb5 d5
Points to remember in this opening
Though they may look similar, the ideas used in the Benko gambit cannot be deployed here. In the Blumenfeld, Black controls the centre with e6, d5 and c5 and strives to play more on the kingside
It is a comparatively aggressive line so players who enjoy dynamic and sharp play should try it out.
In the variation where White refuses to accept the ‘b5’ sacrifice right away and instead plays 5.Bg5, Black can exchange pawns on d5 and then play h6. Thorough preparation is of course required.
Two Knights
Probably one of the most interesting and well-analyzed gambit openings against 1.e4, the Two Knights opening is a good choice for those who respond with 1…e5.
Both sides must thoroughly know the opening to play it accurately. It is easy for either side to gain an advantage if the opponent stumbles due to the aggressive nature of this opening.
Mainline – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Be2 h6 9.Nf3 e4
Points to remember in this opening
This opening is particularly suitable for aggressive players as it can involve many tactics and combinations.
Black sacrifices the pawn in exchange for an opportunity to develop rapidly. Black places the dark square bishop on d6, quickly castles short and develops the light square bishop depending on the situation.
Black also might get the opportunity to dissolve the relatively weak ‘c’ pawn so always keep an eye out for that.
Kasparov Gambit
When the name of the opening itself is that of one of the finest tactical players in the history of chess, there is not much left to describe, isn’t it? GM Garry Kasparov and his team had specially created this gambit opening for one of his world championship games against GM Anatoly Karpov.
It is an interesting take on the Taimanov variation within the Sicilian defence. The mainline of this opening is as follows.
Mainline
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Nf6 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 d5
Points to remember in this opening
First and foremost, check all the games of GM Kasparov within this opening to get well acquainted with the possible ideas. After that, also check the current developments that have occurred in it. By doing so, you will develop a great understanding of this opening.
Black gives up the ‘d5’ pawn for development and piece activity. Black usually develops the dark square bishop on c5 and recaptures the d5 pawn considering the situation on board.
This opening is extremely aggressive and you must be mentally prepared to spot sharp, tactical variations. Also, it should be deployed sparingly.
Grunfeld Gambit
The Grunfeld Defence is a well-researched opening. Within it, the 4.Bf4 variation is one of the important ones. The Grunfeld gambit is played against this move.
Black sacrifices the c7 pawn to simplify things and head towards an endgame. Most often, Black regains this pawn but achieves positional imbalance. The mainline of the opening is as follows –
Mainline – 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0-0 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Nxd5 Qxd5 8.Bxc7 Na6 9.Bxa6 Qxg2 10.Qf3 Qxf3 11.Nxf3 bxa6
Points to remember in this opening
Black has a way to immediately recover the lost pawn by playing 8…Na6 and capturing the g2 pawn with the queen when White captures the a6 knight. Black aims to enter an endgame where though the pawn structure is slightly inferior, Black retains the bishop pair.
You must be comfortable in playing endgames as due to the inferior pawn structure, you have to be extremely accurate.
The usual idea of gaining a developmental advantage at the cost of a pawn is not seen here. The resultant position is largely positional in nature.
Conclusion
I hope this article was instrumental in introducing the 7 best gambits from Black to you. One important thing to remember is that this article only provides mainlines and basic ideas for each opening. Before playing them in actual games, you must be well prepared for certain sidelines within each opening as well.
Gambit openings are a great way to surprise your opponent. It is always helpful to have at least one or two such surprise weapons prepared as they can come in handy anytime. The primary motive of most of them is to disrupt your opponent’s preparation and have a psychological and time advantage right from the beginning.
However, you must remember that preparing these openings should not be used as a substitute for your main openings. These gambit openings should only be used occasionally as their beauty is in their scarcity!