FM Selim Gürcan recounts a conversation about the “Turkish Gambit” on Hikaru Nakamura’s Twitch stream and how the name has begun to gain acceptance internationally.
How the topic came up
During the stream Nakamura sees a “Turkish opening” comment from viewers. He doesn’t understand at first; he says Istanbul is one of the world’s oldest cities and it’s odd that no opening came from there. Turkish viewers explain by using the phrase “Turkish Gambit” (0:45–1:40).
The naming debate
Nakamura recalls that he lived in Istanbul for two years and is surprised by the name. Gürcan stresses that the name came from Turkish players’ online successes, research and published books. Nakamura says he generally knows the variation as the “Elephant Gambit” (3:16) and, at the Turkish viewers’ insistence, accepts the name mildly with “Maybe it’s also called the Turkish Gambit” (3:24–4:45). Gürcan explains that openings can acquire different names over time, that the name has been adopted in Turkey and has been confirmed with a book.
This article is adapted from the video on the Satranç Okulu YouTube channel.
