Sacrificial Openings

Originally posted by yofidawg
Anyways I think a lot of players would grab both pawns and hold on for the ride!

The Danish Gambit Accepted is (can be) fun from both sides' perspectives; I agree, most players as black would just gobble the pawns and hold their stomachs, so to speak. 🙂

I think it would be a fun thematic tourney.

Originally posted by ih8sens
Any other awesome gambits?

There's the Latvian Gambit, which takes some serious play to survive. (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5)

Originally posted by wittywonka
The Danish Gambit Accepted is (can be) fun from both sides' perspectives; I agree, most players as black would just gobble the pawns and hold their stomachs, so to speak. 🙂

I think it would be a fun thematic tourney.

I think in some lines it can lead to over-simplification, exchanging queens & a bishop within the first 10-12 moves & an open, but generally drawn game.
e.g
[Event "ch-IRI"]
[Site "Tehran IRI"]
[Date "2001.08.06"]
[EventDate "2001.07.31"]
[Round "10"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[White "S Asadi"]
[Black "H Tahmasebi"]
[ECO "C21"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "19"]

1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Bc4 cxb2 5. Bxb2 d5 6. Bxd5
Nf6 7. Bxf7+ Kxf7 8. Qxd8 Bb4+ 9. Qd2 Bxd2+ 10. Nxd2 1/2-1/2
😴

I think if a white player really knew how to play it, there would be a lot of 1-0 mates in 10-12 moves 😛

But i wouldn't play it, I think black can equalize pretty easily.

it hasn't been refuted but if black (and with the theory now easily) survives the middle game his endgame is a piece of cake.

Originally posted by ih8sens
In the Kings Indian you have a queen sac in the Samish Variation... tal played it If i remember correctly.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1139428

Yah this is the game I was thinking of.

there's no way that sac can be sound.

Originally posted by diskamyl
there's no way that sac can be sound.

It's tal, who cares 😀.

I think you should avoid risky sacrifices in the opening until you're a great tactician. for example, in our last game which we couldn't continue due to technical problems,

[Event "unratedin rovansi"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2007.06.24"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ben 2"]
[Black "ih8sens 2"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "C63"]
[BlackElo "1566"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2007.04.22"]
[SourceDate "2007.04.22"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. exf5 e4 6. Nh4 d5 7. d3 Bb4 8. O-O Bxc3 9. bxc3 O-O 10. g4 Ne8 11. Bxc6 bxc6 12. Ng2 Nd6

, eventhough you said my knight was weak an those pawns would get me in trouble, white stands a lot better here, due to kingside attack. and actaully, 10...Ba3! instead of g4, as suggested by rybka, almost gets black a won position, being a clear pawn up.

The idea behind a risky sacrifice is that your opponent isn't good enough to consistently pump out the correct moves. So if you are able to make the game extremely sharp for your opponent, he or she may blow the game to you without even knowing it. I'll post a few games to show what I mean.

Originally posted by diskamyl
there's no way that sac can be sound.

Crafty gives the position 1.0 (white)

after the 14th move Rxc4, crafty favours black by around 0.4

Originally posted by ih8sens
The idea behind a risky sacrifice is that your opponent isn't good enough to consistently pump out the correct moves. So if you are able to make the game extremely sharp for your opponent, he or she may blow the game to you without even knowing it. I'll post a few games to show what I mean.

yes, I agree with that. that was my idea in Game 3372268 due to rating difference. actually my sac wasn't that sound with perfect play, but the continuations were so sharp and dangerous for black.

in our game however, there was nothing sharp going on. I'd even call it a "positional" position.

Originally posted by diskamyl
yes, I agree with that. that was my idea in Game 3372268 due to rating difference. actually my sac wasn't that sound with perfect play, but the continuations were so sharp and dangerous for black.

in our game however, there was nothing sharp going on. I'd even call it a "positional" position.

You may be right but I wasn't down much and the position was easily drawn if I wanted it to draw from there imo.

Here's a couple of my favourite games. One is a traxler game (bound to be tactical). The other one was completely unsound and I actually refuted it myself but realized my opponent might not be able to figure it out.

Game 3533228
Game 3481649

I don't understand why people play Nxf7 in Traxler. It can be easily refuted by Bxf7 ch and you are up a pawn with a compromised black king.

Originally posted by anthias
I don't understand why people play Nxf7 in Traxler. It csn be easily refuted by Bxf7 ch and you are up a pawn with a compromised black king.

Both are about equal. I think Bxf7+ is better but both can be played.

And black still gets a little tempo either way so black's game isn't lost after Bx as many think.

Edit - It's really one of those openings that everyone knows is probably unsound but no one can really prove it. Like the Latvian and the grob.

Originally posted by anthias
I don't understand why people play Nxf7 in Traxler. It can be easily refuted by Bxf7 ch and you are up a pawn with a compromised black king.

Yeah, easily refuted...
Game 3485585
Game 3741863
😛