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The Schuhler Gambit is a line in the Sokolsky Opening.

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1. b4 c6 2.Bb2 a5 3.b5 cxb5 4.e4

White gives away their b-pawn here. Stockfish claims this actually gives a small advantage to White, (although I analyzed only to depth 25) while bxa5 gives a small advantage to Black.

Why is it good and what is White's plan?

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    I'm very sorry for the pronoun - it was not intended at all.
    – TwilightSparkle
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 14:59
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    I would assume that the reason for White having a slight is the fact that White's pieces will have much quicker development than Black's if Black tries to maintain the extra pawn
    – Scounged
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 18:37
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    @Scounged Ah, I see, e4 attacks the b5 pawn with the bishop. Is it considered a pseudo-gambit like Queen's Gambit?
    – TwilightSparkle
    Commented Sep 13, 2020 at 2:11
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    @ReinstateMonica Ah, yes, and analyzing with Stockfish again it seems to be the best move for Black - but why? And after that a3 looks like a necessary move for White, now or later - but why?
    – TwilightSparkle
    Commented Sep 13, 2020 at 8:18
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    @ReinstateMonica Looks quite the reverse to me. If Black keeps the pawn he just wasted one move moving a flank pawn, have a very ugly pawn structure and is behind in development. Something like Nc6 would be much better. I'm an order of magnitude weaker to most members of this site anyway, so...
    – TwilightSparkle
    Commented Sep 13, 2020 at 10:40

1 Answer 1

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Trades off time and space for a side pawn that loses more time for black if they try to keep it.

c6 was not a good response for black on move 1

in the position shown master results show an 80% win rate (draws =1/2) for white with zero losses

black would do far better with 1 ... d5 e5 or nf6

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