The Shocker of Mars | Martian Gambit
The Gambit that shocked Mars!!

The Shocker of Mars | Martian Gambit

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Intro:

Hello fellow blog readers! Today, I'm really excited to share a gambit invented by the one and only @Witty_Alien! This Opening is apparently called the MARTIAN GAMBIT. This is also a gambit against the Caro Kann Defence

So, now let's dive into it!


Details:

First things first let's look at what the gambit really is. You start off with pawn e4 and black plays the Caro Kann. You go to the mainline with d4 d5 and now you go for the classical variation with Nc3 or Witty's style of playing which is Nd2. After takes takes Here comes the main part.

Black has two options. Nf6 and Bf5. In one of my previous blogs we covered Nf6 where you play Ng5 going for the Alien Gambit!

But...Many of your opponent's with also go for Bf5. Here is when we play the Martian Gambit! We play Ng5 and quite a lot of your opponent's might go Bg6 guarding the f7 pawn. Now you develop you knight on g1 with N1f3, black tries to kick you pony out with h6. But now you shock you opponent with Ne6!?

Now engine obviously hates it and gives it a blunder but practically this is very dangerous. I remember I told a friend of mine to play this against me and even after a little instruction from me he crushed me even when I know this opening way better than him. This is one such opening that is dubious but is very strong even in Rapid

Now back to the Main line black will take. Now you should hope in with Ne5. The light squares especially the ones near black's king is called the Martian Dessert in this opening. There are a few advantages in this opening. 

  • The Martian Dessert in super weak in the Martian Gambit. 
  • The pawn on e6 after fxe6 is very bad. With e7 they are double-issolated pawns. And these guys prevent black from developing normally especially now the King's rook and the King's bishop ♝ is absolutely dead!! 
  • You have a little lead in development. 

Keeping the above points in mind, we play Ne5 which fixes the doubled pawns in the centre and attack the bishop ♝ on g6. Now black will play Bf7 And now you have two strong moves!---- Bc4 and Bd3.

Both the moves are fantastic and you can always choose between the two depending on their rating. I personally recomend Bc4 since this line has the most tricks. 

Let's look at it.

Bc4:

Black's most common move here is Nd7 which is already a Blunder! Yes!! It really is!!!! You take the bishop, black takes back and now you see that the king weak e6 pawn is pinned to the king! Now we PP on the PP with Qg4! and you win the game. Black may try Qa5+ but you block with Bd2 and Qf5 isn't possible because Queen takes, remember the pin? 

If not Queen check and let's say Nf6 you just take the pawn with the bishop after the king goes back you mate him! Qg6#. 

Okay so we analyzed that Nd7 is a blunder. But what if Nf6? Well, now you have two very strong moves... Qd3 and Qe2. 

If you play Qe2 and black plays d7 it is again a blunder. Take the bishop and black takes. This time you take with the queen. He can't go back because of the mate so black runs runs away in the open. Bd3 Kh5 and Qh3#.

Anyways let's say your opponent is smart and plays Qd6 but still you're winning cuz you take the bishop, king recaptures and now the brilliant move; Bf4!!

Okay, but if you don't want to play this play Qd3 and continue your attack.

Bd3: 

This line is also strong. And again Nd7?? is a blunder because of the follows.

And obviously the queen can't take because of a discovery. 

So, that was what we mainly had for the Martian Gambit. Now we shall look at some games and see how they went.

Game 1

As you can see, it featured one of the mates we covered. And by the way there is a crazy story about this game. But I think it is a bit improper to mention in this blog. 

https://www.chess.com/game/daily/676052061

Game 2 

This is a game I played and here as you can see my opponent again blundered that move. Trust me, trust witty, people with fall for this. Witty himself fell for this even after knowing it. Now, anyways, I took he took I took the pawn he went back and I mated him!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/116590774453

Game 3 

Here, instead of Bf7 the usual option black plays Bf5. Witty now played a very strong move, Qh5+. Black blocked with the pawn and Witty played the amazing move Be2. The idea is black can't take because of a mating sequence. 

https://www.chess.com/game/live/120490209189

Game 4 

This game was a bit weird and interesting since black got scared and didn't take the knight ♞. Instead Qb6!? was played, and eventually black made a blunder with Qxc4??, he didn't notice the bishop protecting the knight. White went on to win the game.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/120490250317


So these four games underscore why the Martian Gambit is so strong. 

In conclusion, the Martian Gambit is a really strong opening and infact has no practical refutation. This is one such opening by @Witty_Alien that is playable in rapid, classical and even daily games. I do recommend that you try this opening atleast once. 


Outro:

That's it! Hope you enjoyed this blog and the content and I shall see you in my next blog. Let's make this opening a book move, just like we made with the Alien Gambit. 

Bye 👋🏻!!