Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. d4/2...exd4/3. c3

Danish Gambit
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation(FEN) rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/8/3pP3/2P5/PP3PPP/RNBQKBNR

Danish Gambit

White chooses to play an aggressive game. By giving a two pawn material advantage to his opponent, Black spends two moves to capture both of the pawns, and has to deal with a massive attack. Black has few choices here:

• The most common move for Black to play here is to take the pawn, 3...dxc3.

• However, another common alternative is to safely decline the gambit and play 3...d5 or 3...d6.

Theory table

1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3

	3	4	5
Danish Gambit Accepted	c3 dxc3	Bc4 Nf6	Nxc3 Bb4	=
Sörensen Defence	... d5	exd5 Nf6	Bb5+ Bd7	=
Nimzowitsch	... Nf6	e5 Ne4		=
	... d6	cxd4 Nf6	Nc3 Be7	=
	... d3	Bxd3 Nc6	Nf3 d6	+=
	... Qe7	cxd4 Qxe4+	Be3	∞

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References

• Batsford Chess Openings 2 (1989, 1994). Garry Kasparov, Raymond Keene. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.