Beating the Englund Gambit | Part 1: Knight Line

It might seem a great line at first but the Englund Gambit has a lot of floors to it. I will show you a key strategy on how to crush the Englund Gambit if your opponent plays the Knight b4 line.

What is the Englund Gambit?
So what is the Englund Gambit? It occurs after white plays d4 and black plays e5.

The idea to play an early e5 push as a pawn sacrifice. A key trap exists that white needs to watch be careful of. After white takes the pawn Nc6 is the most popular move.

In response, Nf3 is a perfectly sound move.

Black will go to Qe7 making another threat to the pawn. We then move Bf4.

NOW HERE COMES THE TRAP!!!!!

After Bf4, the Queen swoops in to fork the king, bishop and the b2 pawn.

Bd2 is essentially forced here and after this move Qxb2, black wins back their material and threatens to win a rook as well.

If black then moves the bishop to Bc3 trying to stop this it is a losing mistake when black moves Bb4. This move puts the rook under attack once more and also puts the bishop in danger. If Qd2 to support the bishop, then this leads to a fatal checkmate with Bxc3, Qxc3, Qc1#.

Countering the Englund Gambit

So how do we counter this gambit?

After the queen takes the b2 pawn what you must do is Nc3.

Black will usually move Nb4 threatening the c3 pawn. We then protect with Nd4.

 Black usually plays c5 to kick the knight. We counter-attack with Rb1 threatening the queen.

When the queen moves out of danger to a3, we move the knight to safety and threaten the c7 pawn as well as the queen.

Black will usually move Qa5 and we move a3. This threatens the knight.

The knight can move to either c6 or a6. If c6, Nd5 threatening the queen and the fork.

If the queen goes back to d8 we simple move the Nbc7+ and black is forced to take back with their queen. Then we just take the queen with the other knight.

So what happens if your opponent moves Na6? Instead of Nd5 we move Ne4. Black usually moves Qd8.

We then threaten the queen with Bg5 and they protect with the pawn.

Instead of moving the bishop to safety we bring the queen to d5 and they take the bishop.

We move Ned6+ black will usually take with the bishop we take back with Nxd6+ and no matter where the king goes we move the Qf7# for a devastating checkmate.

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