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[FEN ""]

1. d4 e5 { A40 Englund Gambit } 2. dxe5 Bc5 3. Nc3 b5 4. Nxb5 d6 5. exd6 Ne7 6. dxe7 Bxf2+ 7. Kxf2 Qxd1 8. Na3 Kxe7 9. Nf3 Qd6 10. Nb5 Qc6 11. a4 Qxc2 12. g3 Qc3 13. Nxc3 { Black resigns. } 1-0

I have suddenly encountered very similar opening lines several times in the past few days, where I play d4, my opponent plays the englund e5, I take the pawn, then take another pawn or piece with that pawn as they move their bishop out, then my opponent sacrifices their bishop to draw out my king and allow a queen queen capture. Is their a name for this opening trap? Lichess doesn't recognize it.

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    Not sure if it's bad style to post such links, but youtube.com/watch?v=oksV18QmCwo is a video by IM Eric Rosen on that trap. I assume a lot of people copied from it.
    – koedem
    Dec 15, 2020 at 16:02
  • @koedem, why would it be bad style? Looks like a valid answer to me.
    – Akavall
    Dec 15, 2020 at 18:41

1 Answer 1

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This is just a series of bad moves by black.

The video linked to by koedem says it's a new "trap," and quite frankly, it requires white to resign after dropping the queen to qualify as a trap. If white continues 8. Nxc7+, when the dust settles, white still has a slight advantage, having traded a queen for a rook, two pawns and a bishop. (In this continuation, white will exchange the knight for a rook and lose the pawn on e7.)

If white plays 6. Nxc7+ and captures the knight before capturing the rook, white ends up winning a rook and two pawns outright, and remove's black's castling rights. So black is taking the risk of a crushing loss in the hopes that white will blunder his way into equality instead.

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    In the linked video white plays 3) Ne3 rather than 3) Nc3. The trap in the video is a genuine trap (but leaves black in a bad position if white doesn't fall for it). Here it is just bad for the reasons that you point out (with Nxc7+ a good refutation). Perhaps OP was just misremembering the situation. Dec 16, 2020 at 0:03
  • @JohnColeman True, I am a HUGE Eric Rosen fan, and I watched the linked video right when it came out.
    – fartgeek
    Dec 16, 2020 at 3:13

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