Latvian Gambit
Encyclopedia
The Latvian Gambit is an aggressive but dubious chess opening
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

, which often leads to wild and tricky positions. This opening is uncommon at the top level of over-the-board play, but some correspondence chess
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...

 players are devoted to it. The ECO
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...

 code for the Latvian Gambit is C40 (King's Knight Opening).

The opening was originally known as the Greco Counter Gambit, and some modern writers still refer to it as such. That name recognised the Italian player Gioachino Greco (1600–34), who contributed to the early theory of the opening. The new name Latvian Gambit was made official by the FIDE
Fédération Internationale des Échecs
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE , its French acronym.FIDE...

 Congress of 1937. The name was a tribute to the Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n players, notably Karlis Betins
Karlis Betinš
Kārlis Karlovich Bētiņš was a Latvian chess master and composer of studies....

, who analysed it in the early part of the 20th century.

The opening is characterised by the following moves, which give it the appearance of a King's Gambit
King's Gambit
The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves:White offers a pawn to divert the Black e-pawn so as to build a strong centre with d2–d4...

 with the colours reversed:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 f5!?


White's third move

No fewer than 11 responses for White
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...

 have been analyzed. The most important of these are:

3. Nxe5

White's 3.Nxe5 is the main line. After the usual 3...Qf6, White chooses between 4.d4 d6 5.Nc4 fxe4 and the immediate 4.Nc4, which has the advantage of allowing White to open the center with d3, for example 4...fxe4 5.Nc3 Qg6?! 6.d3 exd3? 7.Bxd3 Qxg2? and now White is winning after 8.Qh5+ Kd8 (or 8...g6 9.Qe5+ and 10.Be4) 9.Be4. The main line continues 5...Qf7 6.Ne3! Black usually responds with 6...c6!?, when White can either accept the pawn
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

 sacrifice
Sacrifice (chess)
In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....

 with 7.Nxe4 d5 8.Ng5 Qf6 9.Nf3, or decline it with the more popular 7.d3 exd3 8.Bxd3 d5 9.0-0. The latter variation has been deeply analyzed; the British grandmaster Anthony Kosten
Anthony Kosten
Anthony Cornelis Kosten is an Englishman who lives in Clermont-Ferrand, France,now naturalized French and registered on the French Elo list as a French chess Grandmaster....

 analyzes one line to move 32. One line discussed by International Master Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman is an American International Master of chess. He has won the US Open, the American Open, and the National Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team...

 is 9...Bc5 10.Na4 Bd6 11.c4 d4 12.Nc2 c5 13.b4 Ne7 14.Nxc5 Bxc5 15.bxc5 Nbc6 16.Bb2 0–0 17.Nxd4 Nxd4 18.Bxd4 Bf5 19.Bxf5 Nxf5 20.Be3 Qxc4 21.Qb3 Nxe3!? 22.fxe3 Rxf1+ 23.Rxf1 Qxb3 24.axb3 Rc8 25.Rf5 and now 25...Rd8 or 25...Rc6 gives Black excellent chances to draw
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

 the pawn-down endgame. Silman later argued that 10.b4!! and now 10...Bxb4 11.Ncxd5 cxd5 12.Nxd5 or 10...Bd6 11.Re1! Ne7 12.Nexd5 cxd5 13.Nb5 is close to winning for White, and that the "old, discredited" 9...Bd6 (rather than 9...Bc5) might be Black's best try, though still insufficient for equality.

Also possible is the eccentric 3...Nc6?!, against which John Nunn
John Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn is one of England's strongest chess players and once belonged to the world's top ten. He is also a three times world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician....

 recommends 4.d4. After 4.d4, Kosten analyzes 4...Qf6!? 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.exf5! Nxe5 7.Qe2. Instead of 4.d4, Kosten says that White can accept the proffered rook with 4.Qh5+ g6 5.Nxg6 Nf6 6.Qh3 hxg6 7.Qxh8 Qe7 (7...fxe4? 8.d4! is strong) 8.d3! (Stefan Bücker gives an alternative 8.Nc3! Nb4 9.d3 as also winning for White) 8...fxe4 9.Be3 Nc6 10.Bc5! Qxc5 11.Qxf6 Bf5 12.dxe4 Nd4 13.exf5! Nxc2+ 14.Kd1 Nxa1 15.Bd3 Qd6 16.Re1+ Kd7 17.Qf7+ Be7 18.Re6 winning.

3. Bc4

White's 3.Bc4 may lead to perhaps the most notorious and heavily analysed line of the Latvian, which begins 3...fxe4 4.Nxe5 Qg5 5.d4 Qxg2 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Bf7+ Kd8 8.Bxg6! Qxh1+ 9.Ke2 Qxc1 (9...c6 is a major alternative) 10.Nf7+ Ke8 11.Nxh8+ hxg6 12.Qxg6+ Kd8 13.Nf7+ Ke7 14.Nc3!

However, instead of 4...Qg5, "nowadays players often give preference to 4...d5", the Svedenborg Variation. According to Latvian Gambit experts Kon Grivainis and John Elburg, Black wins more often than White in this line. After 4...d5 5.Qh5+ g6 6.Nxg6, Black chooses between 6...Nf6 and 6...hxg6. 6...Nf6 usually leads, after 7.Qe5+ Be7 8.Bb5+! c6 9.Nxe7 Qxe7 10.Qxe7+ Kxe7 11.Be2 (11.Bf1!?), to an endgame where Black is a pawn down but has considerable positional compensation. Sharper is 6...hxg6, when 7.Qxh8 Kf7 9.Qd4 Be6 gives White a large material advantage, but his "position is constantly on the edge of a precipice", and the line has accordingly fallen out of favor. More often, White plays 7.Qxg6+ Kd7 8.Bxd5 Nf6, leading to sharp and unclear play.

3. Nc3

White's 3.Nc3 was originally analyzed by the American master
Chess master
A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....

 Stasch Mlotkowski
Stasch Mlotkowski
Stasch Mlotkowski was an American chess master....

 (1881–1943) in the 1916 British Chess Magazine
British Chess Magazine
British Chess Magazine is the world's oldest chess magazine in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as BCM....

. Kosten gives as Black's two main responses 3...Nf6 4.Bc4 (4.exf5 is also possible) fxe4 5.Nxe5 d5 6.Nxd5! Nxd5 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Nxg6! hxg6! 9.Qxg6+ Kd7 10.Bxd5 Qe7 11.Qxe4 Rh4 12.Qxe7+ Bxe7, reaching an endgame where White has four pawns for a minor piece, and 4...fxe4 5.Nxe5 Qf6, when White can choose from 6.Nc4! (transposing to the main line 3.Nxe5 Qf6 4.Nc4 fxe4 6.Nc3), 6.d4, and 6.f4!? Black can also play 3...d6, when 4.d4 transposes to the Philidor Counter-Attack (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 f5!?) favored by Paul Morphy
Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...

 in the mid-19th century and still seen occasionally today.

3. exf5

White's 3.exf5 followed by e4 4.Ne5 Nf6 5.Be2 is recommended by John L. Watson
John L. Watson
John Leonard Watson is a chess International Master and author.Watson was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He was educated at Brownell-Talbot, Harvard, and the University of California at San Diego, where he took his degree in engineering...

 and Eric Schiller
Eric Schiller
Eric Schiller is an American chess player, trainer, arbiter and one of the most prolific authors of books on chess in the 20th century.-Early life and education:...

. 4.Qe2, 4.Nd4, and even 4.Ng1!? (leading to a sort of King's Gambit with colours reversed) are also possible.

3. d4

White's 3.d4 followed by fxe4 4.Nxe5 Nf6 5.Bg5 d6 leads as usual to sharp play. White often offers a piece sacrifice with either 6.Nc3!? or 6.Nd2!?, but Black seems to have adequate resources against both.

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