The Dojo (GM Jesse Kraai, IM David Pruess, & Kostya Kavutskiy) rank the most popular gambits in chess. Follow ChessDojo here: Twitch: / chessdojolive Discord: / discord Twitter: / chess_dojo Patreon: / chessdojo
There's also a gambit line played by white side in Scandinavian called Mieses-Kotrc (sometimes called Leonardt gambit) which is worth to be mentioned. It starts 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. b4. And, to be honest, this variation is quite playable
Good point; then again although popular with some GMS most top level GMs (2700 & up) consider the Scandinavian defense (apart from an selectively-employed occasional surprise weapon, especially in blitz & bullet) as suspect… perhaps because of the Moses-Kotric/Leonardt Gambit!
Pruess is massively underrating the Alekhine-Chatard gambit in the french. He mentioned: c5?! which is quite bad for black after Bxe7 Qxe7 (black should likely play the sad Kxe7) Nb5 a6?! which is also bad for black after Qg4. Delaying the exchange of bishops has prevented black from meeting the threat of Qxg7 with O-O because of Bh6 h6! is the only good move, but the insertion of h4 and h6 clearly favors white
The Alekhine-Chatard is a critical way to play against the French and the pawn on h4 is useful in the decline lines. I agree with Pruess's opinions for most of it, but I did find it odd he considered the Portuguese trash because of giving White a tempo (piece trades tend to be good for Black in the Scandi, so there is an upside to the bishop trade), while considering the Alekhine Chatard trash for doing the exact opposite and not giving Black a tempo and a piece trade when Black is the one who's cramped.
Would have loved to hear a discussion of the Two Knights - Polerio. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Ng5 d5 I think it is so good that most do not even consider it a gambit, though it truly is. If you play the Two Knights Defense then you must be ready to play it.
Notable players Spassky has beaten with the King's Gambit (scoring 78.6% over 49 games): Seirawan, Karpov, Portisch, Bronstein, Fischer, Averbakh. I don't think any of the other gambits outside the real opening category have those high-stakes modernish games at the top level behind them. Feels to me like the top of playable is probably where it should sit with the big caveat that it's also probably a disproportionate amount of work for an opening that only makes it to playable.
Actually modern engines have shown that in the King’s Gambit if Black respond correctly White is struggling for equality in all but one line & then has no more than equality with best play. However, the King’s Gambit is so rare nowadays that it is an excellent surprise weapon.
With best play on both sides the KG ends in a draw, which is the same result as any other other "Playable" opening by definition. And in real life (not engine play) playing best moves as Black in the KG is absurdly difficult to the point where even the aforementioned GM's fell to it whereas on the White side the ideas in the KG are often very similar across black's replies, making it often easier to play as White in practice.
@@philosopher24680 Today for good reason - with the advent of engines - no middling GM, let alone top 100 GM, makes a regular habit of playing the KG in OTB Classical chess. That said, as a surprise weapon it may be quite effective as few prep for it & or if prepped, might forget their prep as rarely played. Interesting tidbit is that Fischer’s analysis from his pre-engine article, “Busting the King’s Gambit” has been verified an accurate by the engines.
@@Ebobster Modern engines actually show almost the opposite of Fischer's analysis. The suggested move of 3. d6 goes not end in White necessarily losing by force, but in a draw, just like other KG lines. And if it ends in a draw with best play, it is by definition playable, just harder to play and riskier than say the Ruy Lopez, but still playable. Go ahead, have stockfish fight itself in the KG, it's still a draw.
@@philosopher24680 I disagree: Modern engines have validated Fisher’s basic approach which is that if black plays book lines he either gets an advantage or at worst white can force a draw. Most modern GMs prefer as white to play more promising positions, where theory is evolving. As I mentioned before, the KG due to its rarity in modern practice remains a good surprise weapon, especially at the IM, NM, and club player level. But at the GM level it is regulated to only an occasional surprise weapon. There’s a reason that no current top GM regularly employs the KG as their primary weapon of choice. Still at lower levels, especially club level, it remains a potent weapon because so few know (or can recall) theory.
imo, king's gambit should be playable. Sure, if black prepares they equalize, maybe get an edge, but that's true for many of the openings in the playable category. It's definitely more sound than the froms, so...
58:25 Damn impressed with you sir. Takes a lot to say "Thank you" instead of being stubborn. Props! PS would have loved to see your thoughts on urusov gambit
Thank you Jesse! I have been wondering what OP meant when I heard people say it. I still think the usage of the term is incorrect because as an adjective, to be overpowered suggests that the subject itself is being overcome by an opponent's strength, and only as a verb does it signify the opposite. But I digress... and now back to the video :P
@@ChessDojo I think there is enough contrast with the standard color board for ChessBase, if that is what you are using. If you want to stick with blue, a slightly lighter hue would be good. But on my iPhone 11, I could not distinguish most of the pieces if they were on a blue square. On a regular screen it's fine, TBH. It only got to be an issue when I switched to my phone.
@@ChessDojo I was just watching a Daniel Naroditsky vid on my phone and he used the same colors but the board was larger and it was fine. I think the only issue here is the size of the board given then fact that the spreadsheet takes up so much space. This is likely not something to worry about unless you do something like this were the board is less than 25% of the available screen.
The Scotch Gambit should be listed in the real opening category; Kasparov in his heyday used it many times & produced beautiful positional & attacking masterpieces.
The Belgrade gambit has got to at least be Playable if not a real opening. Not only is it really rare, it's far more solid than most gambits. Only 3% of
I feel like its worth mentioning that Magnus Carlson rejected the Stafford Gambit by Eric Rosen. Id say its definitely playable, though white can trade into an endgame where they are slightly better
@@ChessDojo I'm sure its somewhere on youtube but it went something like 1. e4 e5 2. nf3 nf6 3. nc3 bc4 4. nxe5 nc6 and 5. nf3 instead of taking on c3 transposing to the main line. eric was still down a pawn in the game
The Schliemann is worthy of further exploration. Lots of interesting positions! In just four moves, check out this position: e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 Bb5 f5! Nc3?! Nd4! (instead of fxe). I think even the top players are reluctant to deal with the complications that arise from this variation, and opt for the safer 4) d3 instead.
@@ChessDojo You misunderstand. Nc3 looks like a perfectly fine move, but it allows black to play 4... Nd4 and the position becomes very complicated. Setup the position vs an engine, and try some practice games to see for yourself. I pointed out Nd4! because most books focus on 4...fxe instead. As I mentioned already, the best players seem to feel more comfortable with 4) d3 instead of Nc3.
No Winawer Poisoned Pawn. Not a jab, but I'm guessing just to complex to briefly skim over!? It's still very much playable for black and is a mainline opening vs 1.e4.
Maybe the fun is in hearing each other out without a computer but objectively the From's is not that good. Gives Stockfish gives .9 for black. Still probably a fun practical choice. It also thinks the King's Gambit is better than the Vienna Gambit.
Thanks for your comment! It's important to note that most gambits will be disliked by the engine. Thus their true value is based on how difficult they are to handle for humans in practice
I’ve played the Albin in OTB classical so I hope it’s real! Also considering adopting the benko and and scotch gambit into my repertoire let’s see if this video changes my mind.
All three have bite. Many players don’t know the Albin or Scotch gambit that well. Benko is fun in most lines, but the a4 line is tough and one needs to be booked up quite deep to stay in the game.
a bit surprised you didn't even mention the Italian Gambit while considering the Evans.... Italian might be included at least in the playable tiers....
The Blumenfeld was a pet weapon of Nisipeanu, therefore, it must seen with some respect, but e4 may be a killer, White must know how to proceed, of course, this line merits to be studied before playing it against a Black player that has prepared it..BTH, here a game I won against then IM (GM now) Andres Rodriguez Vila, after a horrendous blunder from him , this is a Blumenfeld from Konex-Canon International 1991...1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c5 4. d5 b5 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bxf6 Qxf6 7. Qc2 Na6 8. a3 b4 9. e4 bxa3 10. Nxa3 Nb4 11. Qc3 Qg6 12. Nd2 Bd6 13. g3 Ba6 14. f4 O-O 15.Nc2 Rfe8 16. Nxb4 cxb4 17. Qe3 Bb7 18. Rxa7 Rxa7 19. Qxa7 Ba8 20. Qxd7 f5 21.Qxd6 fxe4 22. Bg2 Qf6 23. Qxb4 Qd4 24. Qc3 Qa7 25. Nf1 exd5 26. cxd5 e3 27. Ke2 Qa6+ 28. Qd3 Qb6 29. Nxe3 Qxb2+ 30. Qd2 Qa3 31. Rc1 Bb7 32. Kf2 Qa7 33. Rc7 Rc8 34. Rxc8+ Bxc8 35. d6 Kh8 36. Bc6 Bd7 37. Bxd7 Qxd7 38. Qd5 1-0
King's Gambit is being rated trash by these guys when a guy 200 points above them (Amin Tabatabaei 2655) blundered a piece on Move 7 in a classical game facing the KG. Of course this happened after the video, but it tells you about their evaluation. The game is Pechac-Tabatabaei. Black eventually won this classical game despite being down a piece on Move 7, with a computer evaluation of 3.5 but that obviously doesn't change the point. These 2400/2500 GMs and IMs aren't much better at evaluating a position (with computer assistance) than 2100/2200 players in this day and age. It's very entertaining to see these videos, but don't come away with the idea that this in any way objective assessment. All these guys without exception would get crushed by any of the regular KG players easily. The sheer number of 2600+ players that have lost to the KG should say something about it's playability compared to the other openings listed with it.
Black eventually winning the game after dropping a piece tells you everything you need to know about the King's Gambit 🤣 Jk...David is a fan! It can be a great surprise weapon at higher levels
I don't really think anyone is surprised nowadays when Nepo plays the King's Gambit, but he scores almost 80% with it. Yes, blitz and rapid, but he scores better with it than with any other openings.
I do not want to be rude with the old GM...jajaja...This said from an old bastard 16 years older than him...::)) BTH, I have read your Philosophy Tesis Jesse...Superb
Sorry we don't know everything! Please forgive us dear sir 🙏 We are just trying to provide some free chess content for the public. So sorry it did not meet your standards!
@@ChessDojo My point that Urusov was included in the original list, but you didn't get to it :( Anyways, thank you for your videos and amazing content and merry X-mas!
@@ChessDojo 0.6 is a pretty typical Black disadvantage in a lot of mainlines, so I don't think that would be a reason it is bad. I think the issue with From's along with the Staunton, the Cochrane, or the Tennison is that gambits against sidelines have a major strategic downside - the sideline player will have 10-100x the experience playing their side of the gambit, so it has no surprise value and must rely on its raw merit in the critical lines.
Just so you guys know, this is pretty much unwatchable on mobile because the game board is SO small. All 3 of your camera videos are bigger and we don't need to see you to process the arguments! I can barely see the positions as you discuss them. Please get a producer. Even an intern.
@@ChessDojo By now the Stafford has gained a cult following and Kostya presented it very badly, even though I agree it's quite dubious, there is still a reason it has felled many titled players in online chess and the reason isn't the limp: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6 4.Nxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bc5 6.Be2 Ng4? [You can't start out in gambit style and then do this crap] 6...h5 in for a penny in for a pound. David's observation was very astute when he spotted the comparison with the equally dubious Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit [1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5.dxc3 f6] which suggests that the counter intuitive 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6 4.Nxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bc5 6.f3 might also be quite good here and it is. The thing is the Stafford is quite dubious for many reasons so probably no one will bother to investigate it too deeply from White's point of view, but David's observation does illustrate the important role that pattern recognition and comparison plays in the thinking of strong chess players. There is also the psychological factor that when strong players encounter such brash opponents there is a tendency to become dismissive and careless, for instance GM Perelshteyn did a RU-vid stream recently about his loss to The Stafford Gambit's younger brother: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Nxe5 Nf6 5.Nxc6 dxc6 6.Be2 h5 7.h3 Qd4 8.0-0 Ng4 0-1 in a few more moves. I very much enjoyed the back and forth between Jesse and David over the potency of various gambits especially the French Wing-Gambit the results of which were particularly instructive. In regards to the Morra though, the transposition to an Alapin is viable but hardly the ez fix as Kostya and many lazy chess authors suggests, besides the line Kostya likes as given by Van-Kampen on Chess24 is not that great for Black: 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 Nf6 [3...dxc3!] 4.e5 Nd5 5.Nf3 e6 6.cxd4 d6 7.Bc4 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.Qe2 b6 10.Rd1 Bb7 11.Bxd5! Bxd5 12.Nc3 Bb7 13.d5 Plus Equals or as Jesse likes to say EZ system for White or as I like to say two result position White wins or draws. I would go as far as to say that the Alapin mainlines after 1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 although objectively equal the positions are all much easier for White to play, and as GM Dorian Rogozenco was fond of saying, it's an equality that is slightly better for White :-) The Orthoschnapp Gambit against the French or as it is better known by and easier to spell name of Reti Gambit, is actually not that bad but you wouldn't know that by Kostya bungled presentation of it: 1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.Bb2 dxe4 4.Nc3 simply intending Qe2 followed 0-0--0 in most cases with an interesting and complex struggle to follow, please note that White isn't necessarily in a hurry to recapture the pawn on e4 and in some cases will make it a true gambit with either d3 or f3. Let me just state for the record that this is one of the better tier streams I have watched, but it can be improved a lot by the presenters having access to the material under consideration in advance, so as to be able to do some prep work. Trying to offer valuable insights and rate concrete Opening systems just off the top of your head is likely to backfire as it did here at times. What I did love about this stream though was that often point of views were challenged and an effort made to justify them with actual moves and the thought process behind them, making the tier list a lot more useful than the ones presented by say Hikaru & Rozman which consists of little more than superficial rhetorical musing. Lastly I just wanted to share that I stumbled upon your channel by chance, after spotting a thumbnail featuring Pontus Carlsson and a French position I play as White which made me curious, the lecture itself by Pontus was brilliant and I posted as much in the comment section there, since then the ChessDojo has become one of my favorite channels for chess instruction and enjoyment.
@@kwhd559 Appreciate your comment! To clarify a few points - we included the meme gambits out of popularity, but David and Jesse are not to up to date on internet culture, so what are you going to do 🤣. I think they knew the "gist" of all the established lines no? Btw I wasn't trying to 'present' the Orthoschnapp, people kept mentioning it in the chat so I just brought it up without knowing the move order I'll have to look into that Alapin line, thanks for the tip! But I still don't get what's the point of playing the Smith-Morra if your opponent can just go into the Alapin? There are other systems after Nf6 too... Anyways, glad you appreciate the content!
@@IMKostyaKavutskiy Many Sicilian players don't have 2...Nf6 as their main response to the Alapin, or I should say their only response to the Alapin. One practical problem with 2...Nf6 is that although it is considered 'strongest' by theoreticians, it simply offers black very few winning chances against weaker but well prepared opponents, and White often chooses the direction of the play not Black. In all honesty having only a transposition to the Alapin as your reply to the Morra is just as limiting to Black as it is to White, even a player as strong as Anand was completely lost to Marc Esserman using this evasive strategy, but many many titled players continue to tell amateurs that this is an ez way to deal with the Morra, when the truth is far more nuanced. Many strong players in rating mismatches prefer to have more options available against the Alapin than just the well mapped 2...Nf6. One such option being 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Nf6!? which is particularly devastating below a certain rating level. To reiterate all I am saying is that retreat into the Alapin is far from the ideal answer to the Morra Gambit and on a side note you are welcome at tickling me into revealing some of my prep against Van-Kampen's repertoire suggestion. Full disclosure as a Sicilian player myself the Alapin has always annoyed me and still does, so much so in fact that I now also play it frequently as White. Thanks for the stimulating discussion, quite rare in my experience for a chess stream comment section, usually it's just a bunch of inane drivel.
@@kwhd559 Yeah I think it's just a matter of taste, personally I've scored really well with 2...Nf6, and am quite happy to see the Alapin (and thus the Smith Morra). It's also been played by pretty much everybody at the top, so that seems good enough for me. Anyways if the Alapin is so good, why bother with the Smith-Morra at all? Why not just play 2.c3?
