Another Completely Unsound Gambit

There is a weird school-of-thought in chess that I have encountered both online and in OTB "Street Chess" games in urban parks:

"Sac on f7 ASAP"

I covered one "opening" - which I now know as the "Haggis Gambit" - in my previous blog post. In this post I'll refute yet another ridiculous gambit - this time from a line of the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation.

"Never Play f6"

When first studying the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation, I was rather surprised to find that the mainline has black playing f6 - violating one of GM Ben Finegold's rules.

Nevertheless, I learned the lines. Upon playing OTB Bryant Park I was hit with this shocker that none of the opening manuals covered:

Just a one off, right? Nope. A short while later I faced this same move playing OTB at DC's Logan Square

WTF...?

"Get the King!"

Of course, the point of these sacrifices is to attack the enemy king immediately. And no standard opening book (that I've found) covers it - at all - because it's "obviously" a bad move. But most inexperienced players are Bad at Defense, so...it works?

If black doesn't defend perfectly the game can end very quickly - and even then, white will have a bit of pressure and compensation with correct moves.

Let's review some lines...

HOWTO: Lose Quickly

First, let's cover what not to do (played by a shocking 51% of Lichess players rated < 1400)

Ah, yes. The classic Qe5+! fork. Familiar to coaches of scholastic players everywhere.

Black Plays Ke7

Putting aside that blunder, black has two legal moves: Ke7 and Kd7. Let's look at the first option:

Ke7 is not the most natural move for black - but with correct play it still maintains advantage.

Black Plays Kd7, White Grabs a Pawn

More natural as black is to play Kd7, avoiding white's pawn capture with tempo. Most white player grab the pawn anyways:

This actually allows black to solve problems quickly. And many Lichess white players can't seem to resist the queen trade, and end up in a losing endgame. That said, black can go astray quickly. If white does not trade queens, black needs to get the king to safety and resist tempos on the white queen:

After playing f4, White has a 52% win rate (even down on material) for rapid and blitz Lichess players rated 1600 and higher.

Black Plays Kd7, White Grabs the Center

Interestingly, only 1% of Lichess players as white play the top engine move: d4

This apparently gives white some compensation. It seems to me that top engine moves in this variation are completely unintuitive, which is probably why some white players think this is a "playable" opening in fast time controls.

Unless you've studied it (and who bothers to?), you're unlikely to find the wild "best" moves during the game.

Bonus Blunder

I'm including this line just because it happened to me once in a OTB street game. Lesson: you should try to exchange queens ASAP and go to the winning endgame. Interposing a check with the knight (to avoid exchanging) is a blunder:

Quiz Time!

Here are some "interactive lessons" based on some of the above lines:

Final Thoughts

Why even analyze a completely busted opening that you will "never" face over the board?

1. You will face it in online chess (and definitely will face it in OTB "street" chess), so you might as well memorize the 3-4 moves to refute it
2. You will learn how to defend accurately against wild openings, which is useful in other, more complex aggressive openings (Halloween Gambit, Cochrane Gambit, Frankenstein-Dracula, etc)
3. You will learn how to play uncomfortable positions as black where your king is exposed (as can happen even in mainlines of the Evans Gambit or Scotch Game).

Overall, I am annoyed when I face this opening, but I think it's not so bad that everyone should completely dismiss it. Hopefully, you the reader - even if you don't agree the opening is worthy of analysis - gained something from this blog post.