In the last year, a new gambit emerged against the English Opening, as suggested by the neural network engine Leela Zero.
It arises after 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5, and now not the Bellon Gambit, 4...b5 (which was refuted in the pre-computer era), but 4...c6!, as seen in the diagram below.
This gambit was first played at a high level by Adhiban, twice, in the 2021 Meltwater Indian Qualifier rapid, so perhaps we should call this the 'Adhiban Gambit'. It has scored close to 50% in Grandmaster practice and even has a small plus score for Black (52%) in 2500+ rated Lichess games.
The idea is that after 5.Ngxe4 Nxe4 6.Nxe4 d5 7.cxd5 cxd5 8.Ng3, Black continues to disrupt White's development with 8...h5! 9.e3 h4 10.Ne2 Nc6 11.d4 Qf6, when despite the closed nature of the position, it is not so easy for White to consolidate and complete development.
This was demonstrated in a couple of Aronian-Praggnanandhaa games in the running 2022 FTX Crpyto Cup, where Pragg scored 1.5/2 by playing ...Qg6 (even as a theoretical novelty after 12.Nc3) to keep the White king in the centre.
Follow along on the board:
What do you guys think of the Adhiban Gambit?
