My friend, James S. Welborn, likes to play the Englund Gambit. Here is a game he submitted to me for review where he tried to go “Englund” on his opponent but the game ended up transposing into an English or even a Slav. The Englund Gambit starts with 1 d4 e5. Play normally continues dxe5 Nc6 and the fun begins. In James’ game the “Englund” flavor is lost pretty quickly because white kept choosing the boring route.
[Event “Live Chess”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[White “chess_g”]
[Black “bigcaptain”]
[Result “0-1”]
[BlackElo “1351”]
[ECO “D11”]
[WhiteElo “1304”]
[TimeControl “5+2”]
1. d4 {Notes by Chris Torres.} e5 {James is trying for the Englund Gambit.} 2. c4 {I wish white would play like this against me sometime. Better, of course, is to capture the pawn.} Nf6 3. Nc3 {I wonder what white has against capturing. dxe5 with Ng4 looks interesting and should favor white.} c6 {I like exd4. After white recaptures with the queen black gets to “develop with threats” by placing the knight on c6.} 4. e3 {At this point I am pretty sure that this would be classified under the “English Opening” which usually starts with 1 c4.} Bb4 {exd4 might be better but white has never won a game after black plays Bb4 here.} 5. Nf3 {appears to invite trouble. Nge2 would be better in my opinion.} e4 {Trouble has shown up.} 6. Nd2 d5 7. a3 Bxc3 {I do not see much upside to losing the bishop pair here. Bd6 would be better.} 8. bxc3 Bg4 9. Be2 {Instead of reacting with defence white should have played Qb3 and attacked.} h5 {This is my kind of move although Bxe2 is probably better.} 10. h3 Nbd7 {Highly inaccurate. Before going hog-wild with this kind of attack Black needs to let white castle.} 11. cxd5 {If white takes the bishop here he should win the game. Based on his play, white seems to lack any aggression in chess.} Bxe2 12. Qxe2 Nxd5 {cxd5 should have been played to preserve the center pawns.} 13. c4 {Again, white does not capture. Nxe4 wins a pawn.} Nc3 14. Qf1 Qa5 15. Nb3 Qb6 {Qa4 is much better.} 16. Nd2 Qa5 {c5 is the obvious improvement.} 17. Nb3 {This is the mother of all blunders! White should be dead now.} Qa4 18. Nd2 Qd1# {A nice accurate finish for black.} 0-1
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