Englund Gambit | Reverse French Variation!
#EnglundGambit #ReverseFrench #brilliant
I recently played an interesting 10+5 game where I had the Black pieces, where we entered the "Reverse French Variation" of the Englund Gambit Declined (1. d4 e5 2. e3). One of the things that I really like with the Englund Gambit against Queen's Pawn Opening players, is that if White declines the gambit, it is not only automatically "fine" for Black, but it also takes the game down some weird and unusual lines that will out of the preparation and theory for White. This is evidenced that we both immediately played inaccuracies or mistakes immediately.
In this game, White castled short on move 10, and I opted to delay castling. Like the French, the "Reverse French" can have a problem with space and certainly in the early middle game, I had much better control of the space in the middle of the board and with this, encroaching into White's king side. I imagine that my marching my king-side pawns up the board, supported by a rook on g8, was what induced White to make a blunder (13. g3) which created a permanent weakness in the defence of the White king [-2.9].
White attempted to counterattack with their own pawns down the queenside, but this was simply too slow, and not a threat. I had delayed castling my king, and this proved to now be an advantage. With my 4-pawn length chain from b7 to e4, I had split the field in two with most of White's pieces on the wrong (queen) side to provide defence for their king. Meanwhile, my king on e8 was untouchable.
My h-pawn now advanced further and smashed the first hole in White's defensive pawns in front of their king (16... hxg3). Three moves later, I strip another defender around the king (19... gxf3), the light square bishop, and in doing so, now have connect 5 - a spectacular pawn chain from b7 to f3!
And now, the preparation was set. My first bishop leaps forward (22. Bh3) controlling the light squares around the king. Then the dark square bishop in a brilliant sacrifice now destroys the last two pawns protecting the White king (22... Bxg3 23. hxg3 Rxg3+). The White king is now fully exposed. White's pieces standby helplessly on the wrong side of the board as the combination of the bishop, rook, and queen force a checkmate on move 29. GG!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/26Tgnujrcv
