What Is a Gambit _ Chess

Hi , this is David Sullivan for chess NYC .

And I'd like to talk about the center and gambits in chess , we generally try to bring our two pawns to the center of the board to free our pieces .

And also if black pieces come out , we can use that center to move forward and attack black .

But black will try to stop us from making our center .

If we play , let's say E four , black might play E five .

And then if we play our other center point out right away , point to G four , black can take the pawn , white can take back with the queen , but then black will develop a piece attacking the queen , making it waste time by moving again and then black will develop another piece .

And then all of a sudden , black has more big guys out than white .

Black has two pieces developed , white only has one piece .

Developed pawns are not considered pieces , they're just pawns .

So white wants to bring the two center pawns out , but black is fighting against it with his first move .

He's saying , well , you bring this pawn out .

I will take you right away .

White can use in this position .

What's known as a gambit .

Gambit comes from the Italian word gambit which means to trip up .

So white is trying to trip up .

Black , white plays his pawn to F four .

He offers black a pawn , black can take the white pawn and white won't be able to capture back .

What white is trying to do is deflect the pawn .

So that later he'll be able to more easily bring his other center pawn up and black won't be able to take it another example of a gambit .

And this is an opening that shows up in my own games .

Occasionally is when I would play white , I would often play D four , black plays nine F six .

I go C four and black plays C five .

I advance my pawn to D five and then black plays his pawn to B five .

This is known as the Bano gambit .

Black intends to offer me a pawn and then offer me another pawn .

So that later in the game , he'll have two open lines for his rooks that he can use to put pressure on me down here for your entertainment .

I will show you what I used to play against this when they play B five and then a six , I would actually play my knight to C three .

Developing a piece .

Black would take the pawn .

This pawn is unprotected but I don't grab it .

I play pawn to E four I free my bishop , black attacks my knight .

I bring my knight to B five and now it looks like my pawn on E four is hanging .

That is , it's unprotected .

But if black takes my pawn on E four , I can then attack his night .

And if his knight runs away , I have knight to D six checkmate smothered mate .

So here we have black offering a gambit , white declining the gambit .

Then white offers black a pawn .

And if he takes the pawn , he will get check mated .

These were two examples of gambits to give you a little idea of what we're talking about here .

As with any subject in chess , we could talk about this for months .

But just remember , gambits are basically , it's a small sacrifice in order to make some sort of game .