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Gambits in chess

A gambit gives up a pawn early, on purpose, to get speed and space in return. Is that a good deal? It depends on what you do with the extra moves.

Scene one

London, 1851

Adolf Anderssen has just won a game of chess. Look at the board.

White has a king, a bishop and two knights. Black has a queen, two rooks, two bishops and two knights. And it is Black who is checkmated.

White gave up a queen, two rooks and a bishop on purpose. It all began with one pawn. Let us go back to the start.

a8b7c6d5e4f3g2h1
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+ 4.Kf1 b5 5.Bxb5 Nf6 6.Nf3 Qh6 7.d3 Nh5 8.Nh4 Qg5 9.Nf5 c6 10.g4 Nf6 11.Rg1 cxb5 12.h4 Qg6 13.h5 Qg5 14.Qf3 Ng8 15.Bxf4 Qf6 16.Nc3 Bc5 17.Nd5 Qxb2 18.Bd6 Bxg1 19.e5 Qxa1+ 20.Ke2 Na6 21.Nxg7+ Kd8 22.Qf6+ Nxf6 23.Be7#

Scene two

A trip

The word gambit comes from an Italian word for a wrestling trip. In chess you trip your opponent by giving something up.

Try it. You are White, and this is the King's Gambit. Tap the glowing pawn, then the glowing square.

Black takes the pawn. Now you are a pawn down, and you chose that. Look at the ledger on the screen. The first number shows the cost. The second shows what you got for it: Black's pawn has left the middle of the board, and you hold more of it.

a8b7c6d5e4f3g2h1
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4

Scene three

Take it or leave it

Now you play Black. White has offered the c-pawn. This is the Queen's Gambit, the most famous one.

You can take the pawn or leave it. Both are normal moves. Pick one and watch the ledger.

a8b7c6d5e4f3g2h1
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.O-O a6

Scene four

All in

Back to London. Anderssen played the King's Gambit, and Black took the pawn, just like in your game. Press play, or drag the knob to move through it yourself.

Watch the two numbers. The first one falls until White is 21 points behind. The second one climbs: more and more of the squares around Black's king are under attack.

White did not win back the pawn from move 2 until move 15. By the end he had given up a bishop, both rooks and the queen. A bishop and two knights finished the job.

a8b7c6d5e4f3g2h1
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+ 4.Kf1 b5 5.Bxb5 Nf6 6.Nf3 Qh6 7.d3 Nh5 8.Nh4 Qg5 9.Nf5 c6 10.g4 Nf6 11.Rg1 cxb5 12.h4 Qg6 13.h5 Qg5 14.Qf3 Ng8 15.Bxf4 Qf6 16.Nc3 Bc5 17.Nd5 Qxb2 18.Bd6 Bxg1 19.e5 Qxa1+ 20.Ke2 Na6 21.Nxg7+ Kd8 22.Qf6+ Nxf6 23.Be7#

Scene five

The bait

A gambit can also be a trap. Now you are White. Black has just moved a knight to d4, and the pawn on e5 hangs for nothing.

Is it really for nothing? Look at the board before you choose.

a8b7c6d5e4f3g2h1
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.O-O Nf6

Scene six

A good deal?

So is a pawn worth it? Sometimes. In 1960, at Mar del Plata, Boris Spassky beat Bobby Fischer with the King's Gambit. The board shows the first moves of that game.

Fischer took it hard. In 1961 he wrote an article called "A Bust to the King's Gambit". He wrote: "In my opinion the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force." His own answer was 3...d6, a move that keeps the pawn.

Not every gambit is sound. Strong players call the Englund Gambit (1.d4 e5) weak, yet it has traps that win games fast. A gambit is a bet. It pays if the other side does not know what to do with the gift.

a8b7c6d5e4f3g2h1
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5 Nf6

Eight gambits at a glance

Every one of them gives something up. Here is what, and what the player hopes to get.

  • Queen's Gambit

    1.d4 d5 2.c4

    White gives: The c-pawn

    If Black takes it, White gets the pawn back and keeps a big centre. That is why it is hardly a real gambit.

  • King's Gambit

    1.e4 e5 2.f4

    White gives: The f-pawn

    Pulls Black's e-pawn away from the centre and opens the f-file for White's rook.

    Spassky beat Fischer with it in 1960.

  • Evans Gambit

    1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4

    White gives: The b-pawn

    The pawn pulls Black's bishop off its square, so White can build a big centre.

    Named after Captain William Davies Evans, who also designed night lights for ships.

  • Danish Gambit

    1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3

    White gives: One or two pawns

    White gives up pawns to bring pieces out fast and aim them at Black's king.

  • Smith-Morra Gambit

    1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3

    White gives: One pawn

    White gets pieces out fast and a pawn in the centre, while Black is a pawn up.

  • Englund Gambit

    1.d4 e5

    Black gives: The e-pawn

    Black gives up a pawn on move one and hopes for traps. Strong players call it unsound.

  • Budapest Gambit

    1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5

    Black gives: The e-pawn

    Black offers the pawn at once, to get active pieces quickly.

    First known game: Adler against Maróczy, Budapest, 1896.

  • Blackburne Shilling Gambit

    1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4

    Black gives: The e-pawn

    A trap. If White grabs the pawn, and then the one on f7, Black has a smothered mate.

How the ledger counts

The ledger on the screen is a simple count, not a chess engine.

Material adds up the pieces: a pawn is 1, a knight or bishop 3, a rook 5 and a queen 9. The number is your side minus the other side.

Centre squares counts how many of d4, e4, d5 and e5 a side stands on or attacks. The number is your side minus the other side.

King in danger counts the squares next to a king (and the king's own square) that the other side attacks.

Key takeaways

  1. A gambit gives up a pawn on purpose, early in the game.
  2. You are paying for something: speed, space or open lines. If you get none of them, the pawn is just lost.
  3. Some gambits are loans. In the Queen's Gambit, White usually gets the pawn back.
  4. Some gambits are bait. A player who grabs every pawn can walk into a trap, like the smothered mate on the board.
  5. Even famous gambits are argued about. Fischer called the King's Gambit busted, and Spassky still beat him with it.

Sources

The history comes from the pages below. Every move on this page was run through a chess program, move by move, and the checkmates were confirmed the same way. Claims about the best move were checked with the Stockfish engine.