A case for gambits in modern top level tournaments

Why gambits?

This is the first point to adress, why would we even give away a pawn or more in the opening? This is not suicidal, the contrary even! Gambits can provide a wide range of benefits: Activity, time and/or control over the centre.

The Danish gambit is a great example for all the discussed benefits, black wastes time capturing pawns while white develops for free, and black gives up the centre leaving white with e4 to control the centre. There is only 1 big downside to this gambit and that is that the queenside is not as protected as you would want, giving black play there.

Is there a reason why gambits have fallen out of fashion at top level?

During the romantic era of chess (18th century to about 1880s) gambits were seen a lot by top players with dashing sacrifices and nowadays textbook checkmates due to the spectacles.

One of the games most famous was played by Andersson against Kieseritzky:

This begs the question, why don't we see this anymore? The short answer would be engines, but it's deeper than that, since not all gambits are considered bad. The idea that a gambit is bad is based on the loss of material being bad in the long run, but if we look at the complications we can make and take the human factor into account we can clearly say that it is viable. Especially now! Most top level players are looking at obscure lines to surprise their opponents and outprep them for an advantage.

Sadly the comforts of today's chess analysis comes with a curse, we rely too much on the engine, it says line A and B and we look not deeper. Even though a gem might be hidden one step further. Another curse by the engine is that most players look at solid lines, this is not bad, but it is expected. It is besides that a funny coincidence that the solid yet rare gambits seems to score very well for the gambiteer side, making me wonder if it is actually worth looking at these lines and using them in serious tournaments.

Which gambits are worth looking at?

There are a ton of gambits, good and bad, or even very solid. I am not here to talk about the queen's gambit or a duras gambit. The point is to find gambits that are worth playing, giving practical chances and have the permission of the almighty stockfish. So it is time to go to the dusty shelf of chess openings and grab a few of the gems that are out there!

The Basman-Palatnik gambit:

This one is better known so we use this one as warming up! sadly it's mostly avoided by playing g6 instead of Nc6, but when Nc6 comes in you can almost garantee a double pawn gambit in which white has a +0.5 advantage. This is due to ticking off some of the gambit benefits: giving up the centre, ahead in time and development!

The Alekhine gambit:

This is very obscure and not known at all, but gives white nice play mostly due to ticking off 2 of the 3 boxes this makes it score a bit less by the engine, but practically speaking we have a nice winrate of 51% for white. We ticked off the boxes for activity and time, we sadly gave up the pawn in the centre, but we make up for that by dynamic play!

The Winawer countergambit:

Another one that is not known by the public or the grandmasters, only 1% played in both the databases available on lichess! Which is interesting since it scores really well in practice in the amateur level! With a database set for rapid to correspondance games from 2000 to 2500 rated players it scores a staggering 50% for black. I personally have played it with a great result after I studied it.

My game in this gambit:

Tan gambit:

This one is also very unusual but again scores decent enough to look at it. Once again when we look at our boxes to tick for a successful gambit we can tick activity and time, the centre is open for debate. We can easily attack it and conquer it with piece play and requires hypermodern play with our pieces. Still when we look at the winrate and rarity we see almost no games on GM level and mostly draws but at amateur level we see a winrate of 47% for black and still very rare. This almost certainly makes sure that you know the plans better than your opponent and can outplay them!

The conclusion

The moral of the story is look a bit further than the most played openings, and engine lines. Search for that line that almost no one knows and when you like it make it your own! Creativity in chess is important and we should try to keep it in the game and not let it get shredded by a stockfish or another engine, they are useful but use them carefully. This is not only useful for amateur players but also for tournament players who seek a line that is rare and can suprise their opponent, pick a gambit that suits the situation.
In the end, the goal is not just to play the “best” move, but to play moves that challenge your opponent. And sometimes, that’s exactly what a gambit does best.

Special note: Thanks for reading my first blog! I hope you enjoyed it. I am not yet experienced and any feedback is much appreciated!! :)