The Danish Gambit

The Danish Gambit (aka center game) is one of the most violent openings that you can use. It is also great to play against people because it is so rarely used. The reasoning of this opening is to sacrifice 2 pawns for a very strong development block and tremendous pressure on the center. Plus, by the end of the main line, black has no pieces developed. The main line goes like this: 1. e4, e5 2. d4 pxp 3.c3. Because there are ways to diffuse this, the gambit has disappeared from grandmaster play.

The Danish Gambit after white's move 5

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There are many custom variations to this, but we will only go through the best defense. 3...pxp 4. Bc4 pxp 5. Bxp. If you are good at open games, this is a good opening to try. You can see what this looks like on the left. You see that black has a passed pawn and white has lost the queenside, but now 3 pieces are developed (we count the center pawn as a developed piece) to black's none. Plus, white has a lot more room to develop and maneuver. Where does black go? he can move his queenside pieces, but then white will launch an attack on black's kingside. The bishops are aimed right at the kingside pawns.

The Danish Gambit Main Line.

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Let's back up a few moves. black has a whole bunch of choices from the main line. Well, he can move out one of the knights, but that doesn't do much because white will get a pawn center very soon after without sacrificing a pawn. Another option is taking the pawn and after Bc4, Qf6 to try and score the pawn, but Nxp ends that threat. Finally black can halt white's queenside by pushing d3. This isn't a bad choice because it forces him when he wants to develop the knight to either block his bishop or move the bishop first to a maybe not as effective diagonal. Another good choice is d4. After many pawn exchanges, white will have an isolated center pawn. So now we will fast forward again to the last diagram.

The Danish Gambit Properly Accepted

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This is black's best choice. He will sacrifice a pawn to gain momentum, block the bishops, or start developing. In my experience, only advanced players know how to counter this well. Black's best option is 5...d5. White cannot ignore this threat, so he must take. How should he do this? Well if he takes with the pawn, he blocks his white bishop. Why would you do that when you sacrificed 2 pieces to get them paired? So 6. Bxp. Black cannot move his light bishop or he loses a pawn and a rook. Neither of his bishops can move because of the threats on g7 and b7. Now, black has a couple good moves. One is Bb4+. After exchanging it with the blocking piece, Nf6 diffuses the gambit. Another idea is Nf6 right away.

The Danish Gambit Diffused

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The variation is shown on the left. Many people might think that they can get a free pawn, but this is not so. 6... Nf6 7. Bxf7. This is actually a very bad move. Then, I actually suggest that you take the bishop with your king. White thinks that he has won a queen. After this variation, black returns both pawns and reaches equal position with white, not an easy thing to accomplish.

The Danish Gambit Diffused

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So why do we recommend that the king takes the bishop? White will move QxQ. But the bishop will uncover a queen ambush by the rook. He moves Bb4+. White must move his queen to block or he won't gain back the bishop he lost by moving Bxpf7. So position is equal, queens are exchanged, white and black have the same amount of pawns, and the bishops are broken up. Black's passed pawns will most likely win the game in the end.