Danish Gambit


Overview

The Danish is a Chess opening where White sacrifices a few pawns in order to gain time and launch an early attack on Black.

The Danish Gambit is for attacking players who like to sacrifice a few pawns for the initiative.


How To Reach The Danish Gambit

The Danish Gambit happens after the moves:

  1. e4 e5
  2. d4 exd4
  3. c3

See what it looks like below.



Why Play The Danish Gambit

With the Danish Gambit, White gains time by sacrificing pawns.


The Ideas Behind the Danish Gambit

The main reasons to play the Danish Gambit:

  1. It may come as a surprise to your opponent.



  2. White can gain very strong bishops on the long diagonal


Every move explained

White’s Ideas

Get Dual Bishops on Long Diagonals

If White can get both of his bishops on the long diagonal, this can cause a lot of problems for Black and is the main goal/objective for White in this opening.


Avoid taking back the first sacrificed pawn

When playing the Danish Gambit, White needs to commit to sacrificing pawns.

If White immediately takes back the pawn first pawn offered with the Queen, then White’s Queen can just be chased away (causing White to lose his ability to get both bishops on the long diagonal).


Avoid taking back the second sacrificed pawn with the Knight

When playing the Danish Gambit, White needs to commit to sacrificing pawns.

If White takes back the second given pawn with the Knight, then White is really blunting his attacking chances since he needs to focus on getting those bishops on the long diagonal.

The “Romantic lines”

The “Romantic lines” are a hard Time vs Material fight.

You have already seen funny lines full of sacrifices, tactics, and combinations.

Black’s Ideas

Avoid taking Black’s second offered pawn

The saying that there is no such as a free lunch really holds true in the case of the Danish Gambit.

While Black gains two free pawns, it really requires a lot of precise play to be able to keep that advantage and avoid the onslaught attack White will launch.

It is probably better for most players to avoid accepting White’s free pawns and prevent him from getting both bishops on the long diagonal.

Defense Gone Wrong (Part I)

If Black does decide to take both of White’s pawns, with perfect play, Black ends up needing to give them both back anyway.

Plus Black would have to know (memorize) the exact line to get back to an even position versus.

It’s best for Black to avoid this line and avoid taking White’s pawns all together since there are a lot of tricky situations Black needs to avoid.

Defense Gone Wrong (Part II)

If Black does decide to take both of White’s pawns, it’s really hard to defend the resulting position.

Most of the time, White will end up with some devastating attack against black.




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