Turkish Gambit 3: The Birth of the Turkish Gambit!

The opening that starts with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5 goes by many names worldwide: the Elephant Gambit, Englund Gambit, Paulsen Countergambit, Queen’s Pawn Counter-Gambit, and the “Delayed Central Gambit” suggested by Evrensel Bilgin. The video aims to popularise the name “Turkish Gambit”, given its popularity among Turkish players.

Theoretical framework

If White captures with exd5, Black starts counterplay with ...e4 (01:14). If the knight takes on e5, there is a trappy continuation with ...Qg5, and ...Bg4 can put White in difficulty (01:46). Engine suggestions such as ...Bd6 can lead to very complicated variations, so for amateurs the safer lines that keep material are recommended (03:27–04:46).

A historic example: Holmes – Roy (1792)

To show the opening’s soundness, the video also touches on the 1792 game Holmes – Roy. See the video for details.

This article is adapted from the video on the Satranç Okulu YouTube channel.

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FM Selim Gürcan
He played for the Turkish national team in 1994, 1998 and 2000. Besides producing many instructional videos, he is the author of best-selling books such as "Satrançta Ustalık Kursu" (Mastery Course in Chess) and "Satrançta Açılış Kursu" (Opening Course in Chess).