lichess.org
Donate
Dirk van Geet (1967)

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2902350

How many weird gambits can you get from the Van Geet?

ChessAnalysisOpeningLichessSoftware Development
Van G-amb-eet with LiChess Tools

Just out of curiosity I've decided to go through the Explorer Gambits feature in LiChess Tools and find all the gambits reachable from the Van Geet opening (1. Nc3). Why I chose Van Geet (named after Dirk Daniel Van Geet) is irrelevant, the point is I've got a study for you where every variation ends in a gambit! 47 different gambits!

Here is the study:

https://lichess.org/study/WSDnTOeo

And they are, most of them, really weird ones. Names you've probably never heard of, like Keilhack, Rasa-Studier, Hübsch (that's a cute name), Keoni Hiva, Hamppe-Allgaier or Reversed Albin Countergambit Gambit. Can you imagine the trolling you can do to an opponent after you defeat them with the Sleipnir Countergambit?

You might ask: well, why is this a big deal? Can't I just do Nc3 and then see the count of the gambits and be done with it? Well, no. I don't know why yet, but it only shows 15. Maybe a bug, maybe the way things transpose to one another. For example in two cases the Lichess Explorer just didn't show the next move in the gambit, even if when you made it, you got thousands of games having played it. I will investigate improvements, but maybe not during the holidays.

Anyway, each ending position has a comment with the gambit name, the Stockfish evaluation and the percentage of White winning. Take it with a grain of salt, though, as for example the Jendrossek Gambit has a 100% win rate, but only three games in the Explorer database. If you want a more reliable metric, try the /trapvalue command.

Enjoy the holidays, LiChess Tools and have a great new year!