Tag: albin countergambit

The Albin Countergambit Trap White Must Avoid

July 25, 2023

This is the second of my two-part mini series about the Albin Countergambit, based on a blitz game I played on Gameknot.com a few days ago.

In this video I go through the first few moves of the Albin Countergambit, which is a “counter gambit” to the Queen’s Gambit.

Next, I draw your attention to a trap that White must avoid on the 7th move and 8th moves.

The second half of the video looks at the Stockfish computer analysis of the blitz game that I played in the video that’s embedded in my previous blog post: easychesstips.com/what-3-be6-in-the-albin-countergambit

And here is the 2nd video in the mini-series:

The Albin Countergambit

Here are the opening moves of the Albin Countergambit, as expounded by John Watson in his book, A Strategic Chess Opening Repertoire for White (pp. 54-55):

  1. d4 d5
  2. c4 e5
  3. dxe5 d4
  4. Nf3 Nc6
  5. Nbd2 …

As can be seen, the point of the Albin Countergambit is for Black to advance his d-pawn to d4.

Against an inexperienced player, that could lead to a nasty little trap that White needs to avoid…

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What? 3… Be6 in the Albin Countergambit?

July 24, 2023

This is the first of a two part mini series based on a game I played a few days ago in which my opponent (Black) challenged my Queen’s Gambit opening with the Albin Countergambit, which goes like this:

  1. d4 d5
  2. c4 e5

It’s an exciting way for Black to play because after just two moves two gambits have been offered, one by White (Queen’s Gambit) and one by Black (Albin Countergambit).

I’ll talk more about the Albin Countergambit in my next post. Today’s post is about how the game itself played out.

An Unexpected Move…

Suffice it to say that after 3. dxe5 I was expecting that Black would either advance his pawn to d4 or take the c4 pawn…

Instead, Black surprised me by moving his Bishop to e6. I smelt a rat, but I was also vaguely aware that White must beware of a trap or two in the Albin Countergambit and was not certain that Black was hoping to spring one…

Black’s Blunder is the First And The Worst!

As it turned out, Black was the first to blunder, in the seventh move.

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