Queen's Gambit

Opening

The opening is the first phase of every chess game. There are over 1,327 chess openings. In the opening both the sides develop all their pieces to active squares, the side which has more active pieces has an advantage in the middlegame.
A Gambit is an opening in which you Gambit / Sacrifice a pawn or two in exchange of the pawn, you get an Attacking position / Attack the opponents King. A few of the commonly played openings are :- The Ruy Lopez, The Italian Game, King's Indian Defence (KID), King's Indian Attack (KIA) etc. A few of the well known gambits are:- Queen's Gambit, King's Gambit, Evans Gambit etc.

In this blog, we will see how to play The Queen's Gambit.

The Queen's Gambit

The Queen's Gambit is one of the oldest known openings in chess. It was mentioned in the Gottingen manuscript of 1490 and was later analyzed by Gloachkino Greco in the 17th century. This opening is followed by the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4.
Black can respond in different ways. A beginner one might feel that it is good to take the pawn as no other piece is supporting it. The main variations which we are looking at are:-

• Queen's Gambit Accepted
• Queen's Gambit Declined
• Slav Defence
• Albin Counter-Gambit
• Elephant Trap

Now let us look at them briefly.

Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA)

In this variation Black accepts the c pawn, here black is up a pawn but has only one central pawn i.e. the e pawn. White can directly play e4 gaining full control of the centre and attacking the c4 pawn with the Bishop. Black usually continues developing the pieces, but if Black tries to protect the c4 pawn then white might have a slight advantage.
The notations for the this opening is 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxe4.

Queen's Gambit Declined (QGD)

In this variation Black plays e6 defending the d5 pawn.This is one of the most common reply by black. Here black blockades the white Bishop but it develops to b7, after the centre opens up the Bishop would be standing on the longest diagonal attacking the white king side g2 pawn. Black develops the queens knight to d7 preparing to play c5. Black usually castles on the king side with the dark squared Bishop on e7, white has options of castling on both the sides. Black usually takes the c5 pawn only when the light squared Bishop develops to e3, here Black gains some tempo by making the white move more than once in the opening.
There are many transpositions in the queens gambit declined. In QGD transpositions black might not reply with d5 on the first move, the other moves might be e6 / Nf6 etc.
The notations for the QGD is 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be3 cxd5 7.Bxc5 Nbd7 8.0-0 b6 9.Re1 c5 10.Be3 Bb7 and so on......
The QGD is usually played by all Grand Master's in all time controls.
The notations for one of the transportation is:1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d5 3. Nc3 e6
There is a trap in this variation which you can use in your games. It is followed with the moves:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 dxc4 4. e4 b5 5. Nc3 a6 6. a4 Nf6 7. axb5 axb5 8. Rxa8

Slav Defence

In this variation of the Queens Gambit black responds with c6. This variation is less popularly played. The main ideas from Black's perspective is to take the d4 pawn. White cant take the c5 pawn easily as black plays b5 to solidify the structure. In the Semi-Slav Defence Black plays e6, here the light squared bishop becomes cramped but black would have a very solid structure. In both Slav and Semi Slav Black's queen's Knight develops to d7, both white and black castle on the Kingside. White can also play the exchange variation by taking the d5 pawn, in this variation both white and black have equal advantage.
The notations for this variation is: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Bf5

Albin Counter-Gambit (ACG)

In the ACG Black sacrifices a pawn but in return gets quick development of pieces. After c4 black gambits the e pawn by playing e5, creating some tension in the centre. It is a very dubious reply but if white doesnt play carefully black can take advantage of the quick development. The main variation of this opening is: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 4. e3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 dxe3 6. Bxb4 exf2+ 7. Ke2 fxg1=N+ 8. Rxg1 Bg4+ 9. Ke1 Qxd1+ 10. Kf2 Qd4+ 11. Kg3 Qe3+ 12. Kh4 g5+ 13. Kxg4 h5+ 14. Kf5 Qf4#

The Elephant Trap

The Elephant trap is one of the most common trap in the Queen's Gambit,it starts of with the Modern Variation, Nc3 Nf6 and Bg5 black plays a dubious move Nbd7 connecting both the knights. White tries to take an advantage of the pinned knight in f6 and takes the d5 pawn with the pawn then the knight and black stuns white by taking the knight with the knight, White tries to be greedy and takes the queen, Black immediately checks the king with the Bishop eventually winning back the queen and then winning a Knight. The notations for this trap is:- 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Nxd5 Nxd5 7.Bxd8 Bb4+ 8.Qd2 Bxd2+ 9.Kxd2 Kxd8.

I suggest everyone to play the Queen's Gambit in their games, study each variation thoroughly by analazing on an Analysis Board and playing more tricks and traps! You can follow me for future blogs,challenge me when I am online and press the Heart button if you learnt something new from this blog.