Latvian Gambit: The Two-Mistake Variation

After a long time, I’ve finally gotten around to breaking down the details of my main opening.

A bit of backstory—I started actively developing it in 2021. The whole thing happened in a funny way: while working on the opening in ChessBase, I accidentally clicked on e4 after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Nxe5. The pawn was captured, and Black’s evaluation plummeted. Out of curiosity, I kept moving pieces.

Of course, White’s play seems straightforward—take the rook and enjoy the resulting position. But that’s where the problems begin.

The idea behind this line: By sacrificing the exchange, Black gets incredibly fast piece development due to White’s awkward placement. If White doesn’t follow the engine’s top line (which is quite challenging for a human), they run into serious difficulties.

First key point: The attempt to trap the queen.

I’ve personally played over 500 games in this line, started recommending it to friends, developed my own theory against (almost) all possible White responses, and continue using it—even when I know my opponent is prepared.

Soon, I plan to compile a database of nearly every game in this variation, analyze them in depth, and publish the findings across several blogs.

Final Thoughts (For Now)
I’ll leave it at that for the moment—no deep dive into specifics yet. But I believe further work on this line could lead to some truly interesting discoveries.

Don't play Latvian without prep lmao

Of course, White’s play seems straightforward—take the rook and enjoy the resulting position. But that’s where the problems begin.
But I believe further work on this line could lead to some truly interesting discoveries.

the only truly interesting discovery i made here was how to smoke a putraimdesas –Latvian Black Pudding Sausage- off the board based on your openingtree

6. Qe5+ Kf7
7. Bc4+ boom, good bye, cya, sayonara, au revoir, arrivederci, ciao, https://effectivecommunicationskill.com/other-ways-to-say-goodbye/

guys it is very bad,in bullet chess it might work ,but in rapid you are cooked

@Gambsum69 said in #4:

guys it is very bad,in bullet chess it might work ,but in rapid you are cooked
Set openings explorer for rapid, classical games and correspondence games for 2000 elo and up. Latvian gambit is the only opening with a better winrate for black in 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3. If you don't believe me you can check it for yourself.
Point is, Latvian gambit is a very dangerous surprise opening. Paul Keres had several scalps in correspondence games by playing it in the 1930s.

first of all if you check the the line in 2200+ rapid and classical you will see that the line he showed has 63% win rate for white and in masters when you just play f5 you will be cooked as they have 65% win rate

@Gambsum69 obviously opening blunder results in higher winning rate for white. But black still has a higher win rate in the Latvian. And besides, statistics in master games don't matter for openings like this because of how sharp the positions are.

@g6firste6second said in #3:

the only truly interesting discovery i made here was how to smoke a putraimdesas –Latvian Black Pudding Sausage- off the board based on your openingtree

6. Qe5+ Kf7
7. Bc4+ boom, good bye, cya, sayonara, au revoir, arrivederci, ciao, effectivecommunicationskill.com/other-ways-to-say-goodbye/

Of course, I analyzed it. Qe5+ - Qe7. 7.Qh8 Nf6
I give quality anyway, not everything is built on trying to trap the queen ahhaha :)

@Gambsum69 said in #4:

guys it is very bad,in bullet chess it might work ,but in rapid you are cooked
I used this in the OTB classical game. My level of playing long controls is clearly worse than fast ones, but, I caused the opponent a lot of problems. The game ended in a draw, in a position where I was better.

@waytoimproveresident Can you send the game. You're an absolute chad for playing it in otb classical