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Agambit (from Italiangambetto, the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is achess opening in which a playersacrificesmaterial with the aim of achieving a subsequentpositional advantage.[1]
The wordgambit is also sometimes used to describe similar tactics used by politicians or business people in a struggle with rivals in their fields, for example: "Theearly election was a risky gambit byTheresa May."
The Spanish wordgambito was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 byRuy López de Segura, from an Italian expressiondare il gambetto (to put a leg forward in order to trip someone). In English, the word first appeared inFrancis Beale's 1656 translation of aGioachino Greco manuscript,The Royall Game of Chesse-play ("illustrated with almost one hundred Gambetts"[2]). The Spanishgambito led to Frenchgambit, which has influenced the English spelling of the word. The metaphorical sense of the word as "opening move meant to gain advantage" was first recorded in English in 1855.[3][4]
Gambits are more commonly played byWhite. Some well-known examples of a gambit are theKing's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4) andEvans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4). A gambit employed by Black may also be named a gambit, e.g. theLatvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5), orEnglund Gambit (1.d4 e5); but is sometimes named a "countergambit", e.g. theAlbin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5) andGreco Countergambit (the original name for the Latvian Gambit). Not all opening lines involving the sacrifice of material are named as gambits, for example the main line of theTwo Knights Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5) in which Black sacrifices a pawn for active play is known as the "Knorre Variation", though it may bedescribed as a "gambit". On the other hand, theQueen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4) is not a true gambit as Black cannot hold the pawn without incurring a disadvantage. As is often the case with chess openings, nomenclature is inconsistent.
Queen's Gambit Accepted |
Queen's Gambit Declined
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Gambits are described as being "offered" to an opponent, and that offer is then said to be either "accepted" or "declined".
In modern chess, the typical response to a moderately sound gambit is to accept the material and give the material back at an advantageous time. For gambits that are less sound, the accepting player is more likely to try to hold on to their extra material. A rule of thumb often found in various primers on chess suggests that a player should get three moves (seetempo) ofdevelopment for a sacrificed pawn, but it is unclear how useful this general maxim is since the "free moves" part of thecompensation is almost never the entirety of what the gambiteer gains. Often, a gambit can be declined with no disadvantage.
A gambit is said to be 'sound' if it is capable of procuring adequate concessions from the opponent. There are three general criteria in which a gambit is often said to be sound:
An example of a sound gambit is theScotch Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4. Here Black can force White to sacrifice a pawn speculatively with 4...Bb4+, but White gets very good compensation for one pawn after 5.c3 dxc3 6.bxc3, or for two pawns after 6.0-0 inviting 6...cxb2 7.Bxb2, due to the development advantage and attacking chances against the black king. As a result, Black is often advised not to try to hold on to the extra pawn. A more dubious gambit is the so-calledHalloween Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5?! Nxe5 5.d4. Here the investment (a knight for just one pawn) is too large for the moderate advantage of having a strong center.
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