The Chess GAMBITS Tier List ft. Hikaru Nakamura

in this video hikaru and i put together a massive  tier maker of many popular gambits the target   audience for this video is about 1500 rating and  lower the 1 500 and up version will be uploaded to   hikaru's youtube channel in the future if there's  anything that we missed that you want in part two   let me know in the comments below all right so  yeah so let's start i'll all be counter gambit   exactly so what are your thoughts uh well let  me just toggle back here to uh to our overlay uh   d4 d5 and against the queen's gambit you play  the move e5 um i i actually really like the album   i've i've taught it to a a handful of people and  it's who's the pioneer of this maurizievic at   the highest level like it's um i'm not sure the  history exactly i suspect it was played at the   highest level maybe and sometime in late like the  1940s or 1950s potential i'm not i'm not sure the   time period exactly there's a period where i think  it was popular um and that faded into obscurity   until alexander morozev sort of resurrected  it in around i want to say like 2004 2005.   i think if i have to if i had to give it a  ranking i would probably give it the ranking of tons of tactics or easy to equalize  because obviously there is this legendary   trap where you can under promote to a knight and  win right exactly yeah because after work you won   there's bishop g4 which is winning and to be fair  this is actually a legitimate game but something   something that that that can happen in a real  game unlike this ridiculous it's not on here   right let me check quickly um it's not unlike  oh it is on here but yeah so anyway i remember   the other day for whatever reason i end up on  youtube and um because we'll be talking about   this later as well but there was this this  england gambit um uh how did how did it go   how did black at the bishop there was there was  some video that eric rosen had where you you just   hang in peace somewhere do you remember this one  bishop you mean this oh yeah yeah and you play   knight e7 yeah and you you hang your knight and  then you have this bishop f2 ridiculous ridiculous   nonsense um and so for whatever reason maybe  it's because the youtube algorithm it knew that   something like that was on my mind or something  but i saw his video and um and i was like i was   absolutely appalled and disgusted to see this um  in a video frankly so um so yeah and this one kind   of is complete nonsense because you just hope for  a prayer but in the in the albin this can actually   legitimately happen with bishop b4 because bishop  d2 is the right is the main move and then takes   and this whole thing would take on g1 and um and  so it is very legitimate i myself played it for a   period as as well a couple of times at the highest  level obviously we're doing this for beginners so   i kind of i mean i i sort of agree with you i  think i i think it's legitimate i don't think you   get into a lot of trouble um the way you can with  other canvas so i kind of would agree where where   would you put it i'll put it into tons of tactics  for now i'm gonna put it i'm gonna rank it in um   in the beat here so i i i don't know about very  powerful but i i'm willing to put it up into very   powerful if white just plays normal moves like g3  bishop g2 and um like white can get a totally okay   position so i think i mean white can also make a  draw like mr vrooz and kobian did against me too   in the world world open where i think it went  d4 like it was like knight after knight c6 um   i think it was like knight bd2 knight ge7 g3  knight g6 bishop g2 so it was something like this   wasn't exactly this but something like knight f3  and bishop f3 and um i think we drew our game in   like 15 moves so white can also do that and just  make a draw yeah i think i think at a at a lower   level it's very common to go e3 my only problem  is that if white just learns like the move a3 and   then stops bishop to b4 then uh and then plays  like normal moves but yeah of course e3 looks   extremely natural the other thing is if you play  this gambit sometimes white will just do this   and true but but you can also make the argument  that when white does this it's not it's not as   good it's similar to when you play the budapest  game but if white tries to play an e3 where   um generally someone plays e3 you can just  take on d4 and then after like knight f6 and   quick development bishop b4 you're just  much better yeah the problem is that you're   not you're not getting like the gambit  style stuff you you actually have to use   your brain which can be very intimidating for  some of us in a way yes but at the same time i   would argue that after like e3 taking knight  f6 it's very easy development with bishop b4   castles and rookie that's something that i think a  beginner will be able to internalize very quickly   well i'm putting it in beats here what do you  think oh sorry yeah yeah beats here so yeah i know   i i agree i think tons of tactics is absolutely  correct i 100 would put it there as well okay uh   alakins gambit um i don't actually know what that  is sorry so you're gonna have to refresh me what   is that i i don't know what it is either oh okay  okay it's actually funny like i i i made the list but what is the alakan's campaign e4 knight  f6 what oh wait is e4 knight f6 e595 d4 b5 i literally i literally have  never seen this before okay um okay uh i i've literally never i think  this is what it is i'll double check   um uh yeah yeah i was like that's what it  looks like pulling names from a list and i okay um fascinating yeah that's what it is i think okay well this  what is the what is the point of of of b5 bishop   takes b finally the point is you go c5 here and  if oh wow and if they take you of queen a5 check   yeah this is um certainly original very different  uh it's something i'm not familiar with at all   b5 that is okay um well my first instinct is that this  belongs in one trick yeah i mean i the fact   that i literally have never seen it before i mean  now i'm gonna go study it obviously uh it tells me   that yeah you're gonna catch somebody with this i  mean i might play well i can't play today because   the only chess i'll be playing most likely will  be ringing kings but yeah i definitely will try it   um sometime because because at the at a  high level it it it this is the main line   for white like white will play knight f3 and  then and then so if you play wow b5 amazing   um probably taking it is completely fine for  white no and then c5 yeah you just don't you   just don't make the mistake and it'd be  fun yeah i mean probably you can go like   actually i do wonder though just how bad it  really is because i'm not sure that it's that bad i mean because if you get c takes d4 bishop this  is interesting i i mean white must be winning   here but without knowing it i do kind of wonder  if it's not a good trick idea all the bishop c4   c4 knight piece yeah probably bishop c4 has  to be winning for white because of knight b6   i assume you can take on f7 and take on c5  and the kings i mean this must be winning   right although i don't know because bishop  b7 hits g2 you can go e6 chuck and if king   e6 then you take take and you have queen g4 i i i  think for beginners this is still it's definitely   one trick because the thing is like yeah your one  trick is that they take twice and there's a chance   it happens there isn't because people really like  to take stuff so that's true yeah no that's a good   point exactly so i'm gonna say i'll still say one  trick but anyway that's uh i've put it into one   trick um belgrade gambit this next one belgrade  gambit is you mean belgrade right yeah i i don't   know i've always said bill grodd but that might  be completely wrong i think it's it's because i   in russian there's an e on the end yeah but i  think it's like the city is pronounced belgrade   because it's named after or who knows man i i  don't know um we can rank my pronunciation of   but i like this one a lot so this one is for white  and it goes this is a e4 e5 and then it's in the   four nights right and then it's d4 pawn takes  d4 and knight to d5 is what it is right and   this is this has been played i think by a lot of  strong grand masters um again at the upper levels   actually i would say at the upper levels even this  is playable it's just it's just equal blackness   what they're doing but it's not something where  you end up in a lot of trouble i would say   um and at the beginner level i mean i think it's  i will i'll i'll let you i'll let you lead no you   you can i mean you're we but i think it's already  i think it's a great opening i think it's a great   opening primarily because in this position black  basically has like one way to equalize or like   two ways right and they're both very obscure i  think black has to go knight before or something   or bishop e7 bishop e7 yeah bishop b7 is the one  that i the one that i know um but yeah other than   other than that it's like uh it's very easy to  end up in trouble very quickly if you don't know   what you're doing like here and then you know uh  either either bishop d3 or queen e2 right like is   the point and then i think bishop d3 and bishop d3  and castles if i'm not mistaken i thought although   i could be wrong in this i haven't looked at this  in a long time um but i do know knight e4 is wrong   yeah maybe even just queen e2 f5 bishop g5  maybe it's even a simple something like this   yeah in fact this looks right actually  because you your queen is kind of trapped   h4 and then long castle so there's a lot of  uh seriously like annoying and and taking   the knight right away and basically like if  you're sub 1500 you're not going to be thinking   night before right exactly yeah yeah 77  yeah you're gonna be it's like i'm up upon   what to do it's just not it's not a normal move  and even then it's not it's not so easy to play   well then no more moves what is what what  do we rank it as uh i i'm gonna put it in   very powerful but i i it's the first candidate  to go into unstoppable yeah i think i think i   agree i think it's probably very powerful on  the borderline of um of unstoppable for sure okay this next one um next one we have the  benko gambit yeah uh banco for the black pieces   d4 knight f6 c4 c5 d5 b5 ah okay my first  instinct for under 1500 this is a terrible opening   but in the next episode this is great i re and  the point obviously being that you sacrifice your   queenside pawns and you get but hey carl i just  feel like this is so impractical and if you learn   this you'll never you'll never get it on the board  what do you think yeah i i mean that's always a   big issue even even sometimes like it's an opening  i've considered in games like must-win situations   you really want to play it and then after c5 your  opponent goes e3 and laughs at you there's like   yeah yeah where's your where's your gambit um or  even knight f3 for that matter it's the same thing   where it's like they just play something that's  objectively i mean it's very balanced but they   just they don't let you go into the uh go into  the gambit so i kind of agree i think the odds   of getting it are very rare um and again even if  you do get it there are a lot of really wild lines   like for example a6 f3 with e4 i mean this one  happened at beginner level but their lines like   this or you know even something like takes you  know takes and some knight c3 and a very early   e4 e5 i think it's a little bit too hard to  play um as white yeah so i think i'm going to   i'm going to put it for for this episode  into total trash i don't think it's   it it's not a bad opening but i think it's  completely impractical to learn it at this   level because this is never you're never going  to get it you might as you're better off playing   a budapest or something that's a lot more forcing  um right exactly yeah i i agree with you i i agree   at the beginner level i think that's that's  correct even though at a higher level it's   it's perfectly good uh this next one blackburn  shilling also for black uh it's in the name let   me just clear our moves we have a lot of moves  so e4 e5 knight f3 knight c6 bishop c4 knight d4   the point being that you want this to  happen knight e5 queen g5 you want this this   this check back mate and steven adams tweeted at  you once with this picture the nba player correct   yes the yes the uh i think it's a power forward  um or center i think it's power forward for the uh   is he powerful or is he a center i think he's a  he's a center but i also don't is is he still on   the thunder or did he get traded i'm not sure he  totally got traded he doesn't play for the thunder   anymore pelicans right pelicans yeah yeah yeah  so oh he plays for the okay so he plays for the   yeah new orleans new orleans pelicans yeah  okay well i'll let you uh what do you think   what do you think about this yeah i mean i think  it's uh it's it's a one-trick pony for sure um   is it better than that probably not again  it's it's if white just castles i think   for a beginner you're you're really gonna  struggle to finish your development as black   um at the start of the game so i don't know i  think it i i think to me it's a one-trick pony   for sure i i don't think it's total trash but  i i i think like you need you need some luck   i think it's it's uh it's a higher tier one trick  because it's i think a bit more natural than the   aliyokan's gambit but uh yeah the problem is  like if white just takes your knight for example   on move what is that four uh if white just takes  your knight on d4 like you will probably get blown   off the board because you don't know how to write  just castles in d3 and f4 yeah i mean it's it's   very hard a lot of beginner games i've noticed  from pog champs when people play e4 e5 and they're   very new they have issues stopping the threats  towards the pawn f7 in particular and in this   case um like if you go knight f6 there's e5 right  away and you kind of end up in trouble immediately   um if you play bishop b7 there's like queen h5  or even queen f3 like it's it's actually very   dangerous um yeah so i i think i don't think  it's total trash but i think it's definitely   a one-trick pony for sure yeah i i don't uh  i don't disagree i think it's a little bit   a little bit too much um this next one though i  think is is a very high tier one and the black   mart diemer i just deleted uh the board but yeah  it's for white and is the move order d4 d5 e4   i believe that is the main move order for this now  maybe maybe it can occur in a different move order   but as far as i know this is the main main order  yeah i mean i think it can also occur like i mean   i think it you can also have like an uh a bridge  variation with with knight f6 knights through d5   e4 takes an f3 yeah um or even like 94 94 takes  takes an f3 but um the main one is d4 d5 so you   can also what's interesting is if you play e4 you  could do this against anything with d with uh karo   khan for example or even like a you could throw in  kind of a french but the point is that like you're   trying to sacrifice your e pawn develop the knight  and then gambit yeah the f pawn sometimes you can   even take with the queen queen is not recommended  because there's a way for black to defend against   it but sub 1500 this stuff is murderous yeah  i i think it's very dangerous because the the   flow of the position with knight f3 just the  the quick development or knowing to go bishop   about four queens between castle queenside um i  think it's really really good really really good   i i i man i i don't i haven't thought about what  on this list is going to be unstoppable but i   think the black mardemer might be up there because  it can happen so easily and so naturally i'm gonna   i think it's it's the first unstoppable but you  could put it into very powerful i think for me   no i i think it's unstoppable based on the list  that i see here i think it's unstoppable for sure   and then there's a few others  that definitely will qualify um   i mean it's just it and unstoppable just really  means like you can generally get it more often   than not maybe eight times out of ten if you  play with white exactly get good chances budapest   budapest gamer have you played the budapest gambit  um the budapest gambit i don't think i no i don't   think i've ever i might have played it once or  twice so obviously gambit in the center you have   a choice of where to move the knight personally  i think knight g4 is a lot easier to play   than knight iv is also a good move 94 is losing  okay well yeah i've uh there's a certain i am   who refuses to to play the correct line of knight  before he keeps playing 94 hoping that like people   don't actually study chess and don't play a3 and  e3 because it's completely losing by force um   i mean there's someone there's  something okay i i don't i don't know   it literally loses by force but i still think he  tries to play it okay um anyway i yeah knight g4   knight g4 is the only one that's playable here  uh i i think that this is a this is one that's   easy to equalize because if white just takes  and doesn't do something completely insane   yeah like you know white has to really lose their  mind completely to to lose this game um to lose   a game here uh but well i think the thing is  white just has to know to take and go like uh   i mean i think for for like beginners you just  go knight f3 e3 and bishop b2 and it's yeah it's   not really a gambit um per se which is why i  think a lot of beginners it's actually more   suitable to play knight e4 um honestly to play  with fijerowitz and and you know like the dark   square attack with bishop c5 right or just like  or even just bishop b4 with knight c6 and queen e7   um so i mean the fujerowicz is like variation  is maybe i think for beginners better   again i mean playing it is very difficult  knight four is probably easier to play um   but i don't know i mean i i'll i'll let you  i'll let you say what you what you think i think   yeah i i don't dare dabble in this i've only  ever played night shift i get decent positions   but actually the problem is that at 2600 blitz  level even a decent position in this is like still   very depressing it's very you know boring  and dry so i think if you play knight e4 in   your sub 1500 you can win some very nice games  especially if you study the tricks correct uh   uh is it low tier tons of tactics or is  it easy to equalize is the question um um i'm gonna go with easy to equalize i agree  i i completely agree yeah because like there   are tactics but it's very limited it's only if  white white makes certain plunders that it works   yeah i think the album the difference with the  album is that when you lose your center pawn   the first one we did you plop the d-pawn in  the middle you're not losing a tempo and you   can just kind of speed up development so right  exactly but it's it's close they're obviously   mm-hmm there's their siblings um this next one  oh man this this one the danish the danish gambit   yeah uh you have a great in-depth video e4 e5  and d4 yeah i'll let you leave because you just   thought this the negrondo so well yeah the grinder  was playing bishop c4 i mean i think knight c3   technically is is maybe a slightly better at a  higher level um but in general i mean i think   the danish is a great game but i feel like the  danish is danish along with like the smith moore   are two of the best best sort of gambit openings  that you can play um as a beginner just because   it's very hard for black to respond due to lack  of development you know what i found out is uh   against the danish on on move three for black that  one of the best moves is uh queen e7 which is or   if you know about queenie but even with queen e7  if you follow the main line it's very difficult   for black so yeah but just to be clear someone  in my chat just said oh yeah this is just losing   after three queen e7 all right no it's it's really  not the point being that like after this you play   bishop e3 and uh you know good luck right exactly  yeah like you know good luck dealing with this man   like this even this position is very dangerous for  black um yeah because white just holds everything   and it it's it's one of these things where  you can watch one youtube video and try your   best but you're still going to get blown off the  board on move 10 because you're right exactly ah i i'm gonna go with unstoppable i think it's i  think it's a high i agree yeah you wouldn't have   taught it to negronu if it wasn't unstoppable so  well i mean i think i think it's something that   i think really gambits to some degree are fine and  there was a certain um swedish streamer who really   likes gambits but sora gambas like the danish  for example or or gambits like the the belgrade   they're i think relatively playable like you're  down a palm but they're playable but but a lot of   the games that another another streamer was really  interested in they're kind of just losing if the   opponent knows what they're doing and so that's  that you really have to differentiate between what   gambits are like maybe dubious but playable versus  games where if someone knows what they're doing   you just lose yeah and the other thing is about e4  e5 is that or d4 d5 which are two top openings are   you're gonna get it on the board every time like  80 percent yeah so yeah whereas the benko is is   pretty impractical um the next one the elephant  gambit so this one you're also probably going to   get a lot but there's a difference e4 e5 knight  f3 and you have to play with black you go d5   uh i'm not gonna lie i i i actually think the  elephant gambit is very bad um i think it's like   i think you're gonna get it a lot and i think  you're gonna lose a lot and you're gonna   what even is the trick of the elephant is it  like this i think it's e4 but i i was trying   to play this in a viewer arena the other day  and i was very confused because after queen e2   i wasn't really sure what why this isn't just  bad um oh it's very bad yeah you're you it's   it's terrible it's it's atrocious um and then if  you know if white takes this way you're supposed   to is it queen f6 or bishop d6 or something i  don't i assume it's bishop g6 because queen f6   is when you play latvian which i'm sure we'll  get to yeah but yeah i think it's bishop d6   yeah i think so bishop i mean i think this  one is okay for black but the problem is if   white takes on deep i i don't know what you  do like if you go e4 there's just queen e2   um yeah i i don't know maybe it's knight f6 d3  bishop before something like catharine castle   i mean i i don't even know but but like yeah i  think i mean i think it's very very dubious and i   i don't even see what i mean like i just i i don't  understand where you even get any or tricks or   play i have a very funny story about the elephant  gambit i had like a 7 800 rated student like young   kid and i was teaching them the elephant gambit  like just to show them different gambits like   latvian elephant we played a chess.com game and  they immediately played a cheater who played   queenie two and just destroyed like completely  and then was also cursing at them in a foreign   language and um i've got very bad memories of of  this queen e2 move just pinning and of course if   you take there is knight c3 and you lose so uh i  i i want to say total trash the problem is that it yeah you know what elephant gambit is going into  total trash yeah i i kind of agree with that i   mean i i would like to put it higher than that but  yeah i think it's it's actual trash but i don't   what is the picture i don't understand those look  like people those aren't elephants what's that   is that like a music cover or something i'm a  little confused yeah it's probably some like   sort of like historical like art piece and we're  just very uncultured i don't i don't know it's   the white stripes oh no i thought that might  be the white choice but they actually haven't   they have an album titled the elephant oh oh i  didn't know that hmm well this next one might not   escape this category as well uh d4 yes we have the  england right yes yes the expedited album counter   gambit the one main trick of this yeah seeing  that after takes knight c6 if white plays this   to defend the pawn on e5 with bishop  f4 you can go queen before a check   they should be right it's it's like the kind it's  like a sun ring it's yeah it's just a sunrise   and you just pray and hope that in  this position white plays bishop c3   so you could play bishop b4 they cannot  take if they take their bishop you take   with the knight if queen d2 bang bang mate  and you go home feeling like a champion   okay uh i had a kid lose like this in the last  round of the new york state championship once   and we were competing for a top five prize and  he came back in five minutes and i was like oh   my god buddy wait he won our loss no he lost he  lost with one hour on the clock he he fell into   everything he was very nervous so i've got  a lot of bad memories with these openings um   i think this is a high tier one trick i think  you will win a lot of games with with if it goes   but the problem is i mean hikaru they could just  like go here or not play any of the other stuff   and true um no i mean i i completely agree i would  say in general yeah it's uh it's pretty bad pretty   bad uh you could also watch the eric rosen video  which uh you talked about hoping for the trick   uh you you seem pretty opinionated on the  subject yeah i mean i i just think i just i   don't approve of it i mean because the problem  is like you sort of teach bad habits with this   like a lot of people are going to see and  they're like oh like it's really cool but   the problem is if someone doesn't take literally  they don't fall into it you just lose the game   like you just lose yeah like i tricks are always  good but when trick when someone doesn't walk into   a truck and you just lose by force um it's i i  just don't i'm not a fan of it you know i got to   tell you the highest rated player i beat with this  trick was in a three-minute game and they were   rated 2500 they were titled too uh but i got you  know how many people i've beaten in this position   down upon it's actually kind of embarrassing um  i feel really bad because they're like 24 2500   so uh don't play it and definitely don't play it  in anything more than three minute chess like i   will say this don't do it it's not gonna it ain't  gonna work uh but would you say one trick is fair   if yeah i i think i think one trick is is very  fair yeah i agree with that it's definitely   a one-trick pony cause i feel like for the one  tricks it's like if you land the trick you win the   game if you don't land the trick you have a bad  position and for the other gambits if they don't   even if you like if they equalize it's plenty of  play you could play attack a lot of creativity um   yeah i agree with that yeah oh this next one's  a good one the evans gambit any gambit in e4 e5   any gambit in e45 of course knight f3 knight c6  i love this move order because your options are   black goes here or here if knight f6 maybe you go  for your super cheese or you could play another   gambit but bishop c5 and b well but i mean d4 is  not really a gambit is it that's just that's just   i mean maybe is it on here scotch gambit i don't  know anyway let's let's keep going um the complex   of gambits in d45 is massive so you can you can  play a lot of really aggressive stuff i there's   not really much else i i think this is unstoppable  and it's not even a conversation i don't know i   think yeah i kind of agree with you i agree so i  think you're absolutely right like they take you   play c3d4 um my only my only thing would be i do  you would you recommend someone play the danish   or the evans um i like the danish more because  it's more to the point it's more straightforward   you you don't for someone who's a beginner  right for someone who's a beginner i think   it's just like there's a lot less to worry about  like knight f6 queen e7 takes that's about it   um because there's no guarantee you'll get the  evans and so there's so much more you have to   look at when you play the um when you play when  when you play bishop c4 and move three like first   oh they don't have to play bishop c5 they can  play knight f6 secondly i think you can even   just play something like bishop e7 and knight  f6 even something like d6 i think is playable   so there's really no guarantee that you're  gonna get it yep so i feel like it's i feel   like it's great if you can get it as a beginner  but i think the odds of getting it are pretty   low so i think most people are probably gonna  play knight f6 um or something like d6 yeah and   also there's a lot of beginners now who are like  playing this in king's indian or even h6 to stop   this move so you are not definitely  gonna need to come up with something else   uh right exactly pair it with something  yeah so i would say but as far as like uh   level on unstoppable where's i mean i'm yeah  i think in terms of the level i'm gonna put it   um i think it's third it's the bottom one so  far okay it's bottom tier unstoppable okay i'll agree from gambit oh from gambit that's  a fun one i actually don't know what that is   i think the from gambit is when you have black  they play f4 and you play e5 oh oh yeah yeah fr   oh i thought it was from oh it's froms okay it's  probably not pronounced i thought it was from like   um like isn't there like a guidebook or something  from a travel guide maybe but to be honest uh   i mean i even want to put this in unstoppable  because first of all why is your opponent playing   f45 i mean why is your opponent playing f4  uh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah fromers that's   what i was saying fromers yeah yeah yeah  that's why i got confused okay um yeah so   yeah i really like this too i think it's it's  great it's go ahead it's the same concept is   that you're just you know you're fighting  against the weakened king first of all   uh you'll remember my story from our other  tier list episode of the the school the   nationals games where a school for some reason  was playing f4 so the other team prepared e5   and the kid lost like this you remember this story   and then the next round they prepared the kid  to take and then the other guy played queen h4   g3 bishop e7 right which is and then the most that  he took right yeah which is the most savage thing   i've ever seen in my life um yeah so uh well don't  take the queen if that were to happen but yeah   i think i think the from gambit is really good i  don't know is it is it i think it's very powerful   but you're not gonna get it because not a lot of  people play f4 so right exactly or is it one trick   no it's definitely it's very powerful  probably mm-hmm do you think it's   i mean i i think what i would say um in in general  terms uh i mean is like like the you're saying   like you're saying d6 right normally yeah d6 yeah  i mean i like i there's some whole theoretical   discussion about this whole line i think it's  like g3 g4 94 between seven h2 h5 d4 h4 queen d3   and it goes on forever in the main line here  um i mean i think if you can get it it's great   will anyone ever play a four on move one as a  beginner i mean if you play f4 as a beginner on   move one i'm pretty sure you should get another  coach because no coach should teach a beginner   to play f4 on move one um at school i hope fired  that coach because i'm not going to say names but   oh man this wasn't your student what no no this  wasn't my mother it was a it was a school that's   pretty well known in new york city so okay  um yeah but i mean yeah just the notion of   playing f4 on move one i i think frankly is  insane i mean you just you should not play f4   and move one for many reasons many many reasons  um so probably probably put it in very powerful   and it could be your solution to f4 but you're  probably just not gonna face it very often but   well yeah i mean that's kind of thing you're  you're literally just not gonna face it like   it's just not gonna happen but if it does you'll  probably win a lot of if you play this gambit so   yeah i think it's very powerful just we'll put it  there because you just keep this in your toolbox   uh i got a lot of requests actually to make a  video about the bird opening and i just i don't   like why why do you all want to  weaken your king on the first move   i mean it's playable but unless you play like a  dutch generally speaking and of course dutch even   is pretty obscure across the board then it's like  there isn't really much of a point to it halloween   gambit yes now we're getting to the the real  stuff yes this is this is this is the content   right here um let me just flip my board you can  uh walk uh walk us through it uh the four nights   and one time let me uh let me just yeah we  gotta board with you okay so e45 knight f3   knight c6 and is it 95 here is it nice no no  it's knight c3 knight f6 and then you sound   ah right because i think i did this against  someone ideas and they're like oh this is the   irish gambit because in this one you just you  give a piece and you're like you you forgot to   play yeah yeah you're doing something else yeah  so so knight c3 knight f6 yeah knight takes e5   and d4 yeah no d d3 i'm sorry oh sorry sorry i  i meant to go d4 d3 would be tragic so yeah and   then of course you do this in some lines like  it's even okay for black to lose back the night   um you know for beginners this opening is actually  like very strong uh i'm already thinking tons of   tactics or easy to equalize i think it's  easy to equalize more than tons of tactics   but i feel like when people get this on the board  for white they win a lot because black has no   idea how to deal with like you know this this  this this yeah yeah it's very very dangerous um   yeah i mean what do you think i'm gonna  i'm gonna put it in tons of tactics   i think it's a very low tier tons of tactics  yeah because i here here's my issue uh i think you will get pretty good attacking  positions below like below 1100 maybe once   you go a little beyond that people are going  to start coming up with uh you know more solid   ideas like maybe you know bishop before just  something kind of more solid but i still think   for beginners yeah i still think your chances are  there i i don't think this is that bad honestly   i'm not saying you should play it but if you do  play it i think you're actually going to be okay   yeah oh i kind of agree it's kind of crazy i'm  advocating for an opening you're voluntarily   sacrificing a piece on move four but by the way  i disagree with you on where on where it goes you   put in tons of tactics i put at the bottom  of very powerful wow you put it above yeah   i think it's great opening especially for sub  1500 i mean i mean because it's not it's not   just about tactics i mean you're just you're just  attacking i mean you're you're just you're you're   just you're just attacking here just castles  f4 f5 queen f3 like your opponent has to know   how to play in the center um even d6 f4 like  defe i mean i just i think it's very powerful all right and i i mean yeah now now i'm gonna have  to do a halloween gambit speed run or something   well yeah everything we put in the top you  know you're going to have to play in some   sort of speaker which would be true  no but yeah i think you'll show that   there's a lot of there's a lot of potential no  i can i can i can match it up i can match it up   uh all right so next up we  have the icelandic gambit   yeah icelandic gambit is um i've heard of it  but i don't i don't remember exactly what it is   hold on i gotta i gotta look up the exact move  order actually okay yeah i mean because some of   these ones like i've vaguely heard of them but  it's like one of those things okay so it's e4   uh d5 so ed5 knight f6 so it's like the portuguese  yeah that's what i thought but against c4 you go   first of all they have to go  here and then you have to play e6   oh yeah yeah that's okay yeah yeah  i remember i i think um wait but is   is e6 writers c6 right i i think c6 is  right but i think what happens here is   like you get this but to be honest what happens if  they just go d4 this bad like some bishop before   i mean i assume it's bishop b4 knight c3 castle's  idea to play rookie and bishop g4 again i don't i   don't know this might actually be playable uh but  although after bishop d3 what is your next move   because i'm just gonna go 92 and i'm just  going to castle and you can't take because yeah   seven i mean i feel like i looked at this i i  think it maybe it was like sorry now i'm gonna go   off on a rambling ramp but i feel like it was like  in 99 or maybe 2000 i was playing the world youth   championship and um someone played this knight  f6 and for whatever reason i was looking at c4   um and then and then i think i think i  looked a little bit of both c6 and e6 here   but i definitely remember c6 being better i  think it's because of this because of like d4   like bishop b4 knight c3 and if  like maybe there's queen e7 here   maybe that's what it was but i just i i  know that there was some reason it was bad   um so i mean of course i was like 20 plus years  ago but hey like still i just i remember being   bad then so i i don't think it really changed  well the best thing that white can do after c6   like taking is very bad because you just give  away the d4 square and then black goes e5 but   white can just turn this into a car con and then  it's a mainline pan off so yeah i'm 90 years old   you guys in case you're wondering that's why  i remember things from 20 years ago um anyway yeah i i like ed5 knight f6 so that you don't  need to get your queen chased around but i   i think it's very equalize is not  even the right word it's definitely   easy to equalize and it's probably just for  white to get a completely normal position   yeah i kind of i agree with that at  the beginner level certainly i think uh   would it where would you put it i'm putting  it just in in like easy to equalize just   right next to budapest game but yeah i i  kind of agree i think that's that's fair   my logic being that even if white does completely  normal stuff which white will probably do   like yeah white is not it's difficult to play  gambits with black let's put it this way i agree   okay danish gambit oh this is a i love the yanish  so isn't it yanish i again i i don't i don't know   so i mean it's also called the schliemann it's not  even also why is northern lion the icon for this   yeah yeah yeah i was wondering why is northern  yeah i just noticed that too why is northern   a northern light so it's bishop b5 the rule lopez  and then f5 and the point being that you know you   i like it a lot i think there's a lot of really  creative attacking ideas um the problem is that   in terms of practicality below like 1500 this  is highly imp like there's not a lot of people   playing rue lopez and yes that's true but also  hikaru like you know white will go like d3 and   you still have to play chess it's not so  simple so i know it's not a great move but   you weaken your king i i just i i don't know i  i mean i i have mixed mixed opinions about this   i mean like i understand why you would play it  again i think at a beginner level it's actually   really dangerous again when you push the pawn  um you know and open up that d1 h5 diagonal   so i do think it's okay but i think  it's very dangerous because it   relies on um it relies on like playing  it like you have to find precise moves   so i i as a at a beginner level i don't i don't  i don't like that being said speaking of northern   lion since he is the picture for this for this  opening he is not a beginner he's like 15 1600   at the intermediate level it's already i think  a lot different so where would you put it oh i i   i don't know i think maybe we disagree i i think  it's easy to equalize i i don't i think you get   a good position but you have to play a full game  of chess you're not going to beat anybody out of   the opening so yeah i actually i don't disagree  because i i don't think it's one trick because   like it's it's something where you're not  really hoping for like e takes f5 necessarily   it's not trash for sure so i think it's probably  bottom tier easy to equalize for a beginner   yeah i feel bad putting northern line and easy to  equalize but but i do i do have one thing i want   to say which i thought was interesting you said  now this is based obviously on your your teaching   but you you're saying that a lot of people do  not play the roy lopez oh at this level no i   mean i also just don't i mean if you're sub 1500  i don't even think you should be playing the rue   lopez like i okay i think so i don't disagree with  playing but i thought a lot of people played it   anyway interesting no no no first of all at  scholastic level no way but it also depends   who you speak to you know if you go to um like  a maurice ashley stream he's very classical like   he's like you have to learn rulers you have to  learn main lines i think with adult learners   you don't need to learn the main lines like you  you can appreciate them and study those games   but chess has to be easy it has to be like fun and  come on right who's going to be playing mainline   ru lopez like it's just that's true no that's  a very good point yeah that's a very good point   i would never teach a kid the ruler press  like what am i going to do bishop a4 bishop   c2 c3 d4 like knight d2 knight f1 they just  come on um yeah i agree i mean i think for   player yeah i think certainly the beginner  level it's not the best opening for sure   anyway next up we have what the sorry what that's  uh that's uh yeah i just went with a mustache   king's gambit okay yeah so the king's gambit  right wow okay uh i i'm very overdue for a   a good youtube video on this this this  opening if you ever go to wikipedia   look at how many subchapters of this opening  exist and all their different names um my gut   is tons of tactics but it's really for both sides  if you're going to play this with white you should   be ready to die by the sword uh right i don't know  what are your thoughts especially if black plays   like any move like i don't know d5 yeah i mean i  think at a beginner level again it's so dangerous   i i just because again black can play like  bishop c5 and as a beginner what are you gonna do   i mean you're probably gonna play f  takes e5 and you just lose after queen h4   yeah likewise there's also knight c6 and again  if you're a beginner you could very easily just   take and again same thing game yeah um so i think  it's i think it's very dangerous i i mean i think   it's actually i'm just to say it's trash the  beginner level i think it's too hard to play   it's just also be because like even even even um  you know after bishop c5 even if you know knight   f3 d6 again you have to know how to build a center  with like c3 d4 yep there's knight f6 coming this   bishop is very strong it's it's a very it's very  difficult to play yeah so i think i think at the   beginner level it's definitely trash without a  doubt i i yeah i completely i completely agree   uh and black can play a lot of normal  looking stuff even if black takes   you are in some danger so you really let's put it  this way you've already made a very bold decision   not to do this so i think this is already you  lose some credibility i agree i don't think i   don't think yeah i i pretty much agree with that  i think yeah it's just it's it's uh insane so yeah   it's just definitely trash to me it doesn't even  get one trick because there's no trick like you   have to still play 10 moves of normal stuff before  you actually get to your position so i don't yeah   i would and to be clear you guys we're talking  about beginners we're not talking just across   the board we're talking the beginner level at the  intermediate level in the grand master level of   course is much different yeah especially if you  know the you know the theory and everything so   um compared to the other stuff on this list i i  would not i would not recommend it next one is   okay klusterbauer i have no idea what that even  is it's a meme opening no it's it's it's oh well   it's e4 uh d5 ed5 c6 oh okay okay okay okay um i  my gut is just easy to equalize i i just i mean   if i mean it's definitely an opening that you  can play in bug house like because if if if blo   if white takes you get quick development with  the knight in the bishop end of the game um and   normally like the theory is like knight f3 knight  f6 knight c3 and i think it's just like trades and   you take with a pawn and bring the knight out  very quickly um so like in bug house i think   it's a playable opening uh but in but in um yeah  but in in regular chess i don't know i don't know   well of course there is one point to this and  the one point is that you can take the center   and then if white like really isn't careful here  in place like bishop c4 you can play e4 and get a   very good position that's the point you kick the  knight out and you can you can play your chess uh   the issue is if if if white plays you know knight  c3 and you play e5 and white just doesn't really   let you go e4 or if white just doesn't even take  your pawn which yeah i mean i can just play d4   yeah i mean i i mean to me it's a one-trick pony  i i uh well i think the problem is trash really i   was gonna say easy to equalize because it's not  losing right it's not outright losing it's not   losing what do you mean if i take and i go knight  c3 e5 and knight f3 and it's not just losing i   don't think it's as losing as the other ones in  one trick that's that would be my argument like   england gambit is straight up losing i mean this  is like you're down a pawn you know i feel like   you can still make a comeback i mean in the  blackburn shilling you're literally dead   lost no if they don't play into your gambits  in the blackburn shielding probably um hmm   i i just don't think it's going to be so bad i  feel like if you play like you'll you'll you'll   see in your speed run you'll play this i think  i think i'm gonna put it as a one-trick pony   for me it's a one-trick pony okay i'll put it in  the bar i'll put it in in the bottom of easy to   equalize that's what i'll i'll do i i'm not ready  to put it in the same category somewhere kluster   bauer's rolling in his grave like how dare you  are still alive in which case that's embarrassing   probably not um all right here it is you talked  about this this is the opening you talk to   swedish grandmaster forsen the latvian gambit  yes uh 45 knight of three f5 right i'll let you   all take the floor i don't know much about this  actually i know it's not great but only if you're   pro oh i mean i think when i was younger there  was this guy actually you probably know who he   was i think his name was james west he's like a  master oh my god the philadelphia gambit i mean   yeah he's he's he's uh he he played i think he  played both i think he played d6 d4 i think like   he played he played this one for sure against me  but i think he also was playing he also played   this too there's another another guy i forgot  i forgot his name around master who i who who   used to always play this maybe it was karklyn's  actually um uh i think it was me it was uh andrew   karkland who or not i heard that eric karklyn eric  karklyn so used to play who used to play f5 um   so yeah like it's a it's a it's a tough  opening i mean certainly those are players   who are like very very strong um i think at the  beginner level it's very risky though because as   i saw like fourson when as opposed to played like  d3 um or even when they just took on e5 and played   like d4 it's it's very hard like even if you know  the right line with d6 knight c4 takes knight c3   to go queen g6 and then even like know that after  knight d5 i think king d8 is the right move here   um it's very very hard to play very very hard  to play so to me it's just trash just trash   there's nothing more fair fair yep i think it's  it's i mean if the king's gambit is in trash i   feel like with black weakening your king that  early now you're gonna get you're gonna get some   some comments like well why did you show it to i  think forsen just really wanted to learn gambits   so yeah but i mean that also comes back to  the point i'm saying about gambas there's like   there's a different there's i mean first of all  i think one thing that's great is at that level   trying to play gambits is i think how you should  be playing the game you should be trying to play   open positions in the spirit of the game rather  than something that's like very technical and   requires a lot of knowledge so i think i think  um i think playing gambits especially like   negrano also says where like he just wants  to have fun and he wants to play gambits i   think it makes a lot of sense but there's a fine  line between which gambits you can really play   on which canvas just uh get you into a lot of  trouble but again i would also argue it's not   our place to tell stream tell like anybody what  to play or what not to play they you know if you   they if they want to enjoy the game they certainly  should play what's going to make them happiest   yeah i agree what this is ah what the heck is  this the litterson one of my favorite this is   actually great this is actually great um yeah this  is a it's a great gambit uh you want to use three   yeah sure so it's 93 f5 d3 um no no yes no no  it's it's e4 right it's e4 oh sorry i i oh oh   i've i've i have the other other other one i think  knight f3 f5 e4 immediately is listed in gambit   oh so i play the correct verb yeah you play  the correct one yeah okay okay well actually   it says it says in the uh at the top it says  the deferred listening camera yeah yeah so i   think it kind of transposes um yeah cause the  e4 is not the correct order i don't believe   uh if i'm not mistaken right it's it's just yeah  i think e4 black can equalize so black takes   um and then after knight g5 knight f6 like d3 i  think the there's either there's some way so i   think e5 d5 somewhere i i've faced this sometimes  but i i had some gaming against duda where i think   i beat him in like 10 moves or something it's  ridiculous i think something like takes d5 knight   h7 i think he just resigned like in a couple of  moves oh my god because of this you have queen   eight you have uh yeah you've made i think  you've checked your check and then mate yeah   oh my god wait you have an even faster one you can  go here oh you can check here and take yeah true   yeah i had some game against doodle that was  really really gross i i think it was like   in st louis and he was just like lost after  like 10 moves it was really really disgusting   um but yeah see see so like i play the correct  one because this of course i don't believe this   order is correct with the e4 on move  too to i'm not sure why but generally   speaking it's not it's not correct i oh i  do this i do take take and i think c6 d5   the fact that you even look at this level why i  play the dutch so i have to i play knight f3 f5   so yeah but if you if you play the dutch oh yeah  that's true because someone could play this order   because again i only look at the correct order d3  because the e4 i stopped playing in classical i   stopped playing f5 in blitz it's like whatever but  in classical you had a very bad game against bella   who's who just completely killed me i played  like this this this so this system is yeah   this is just it's bad for black well the correct  way against d3 lobby just give you a little   just play knight six e4 e5 and kind of turn it  into a um sort of like a king's gambit reverse   yep this is what i started doing recently in blitz  i i don't recently okay i remember the first time   i looked at this because i was one of the early  pioneers in the dutch defense um like when it sort   of got resurrected the higher level like in like  2000 2000 and um i think it was like 2007 already   2007 2008 i was starting to look at the dutch  already and um and and i i was looking at litus   and gambit so i was trying to find something and i  think my conclusion even back then was like knight   c6 and e5 was best and even to this day when i  when i when i have occasionally played the dutch   and people played d3 e4 i still play knight c6 e5  so it is the uh the best way to play against it   and no one here will play the ultracritical yeah  i mean yes you can play d4 obviously but yeah   well no i'm just saying like i've never i get this  and i've never faced uh of course yeah yeah i mean   come on levi this is old news i was looking at  this like 12 years ago you know what's crazy   about that in the database this is still not  popular like knight c6 is not a lot of people   play this um this way with e5 oh and also there's  this there's the immediate one but then you can   play like you know just yeah i mean actually  this there have been some games with something   similar to this i feel like maybe not out of  this order but there have been some games um   uh where people have played this but i  think when you lose a tempo you get like   a favorable structure but it's playable for black  i think it's it's very easy to play um yeah well   yeah so where would you put it i think  this is a very powerful gambit for white   i if you play knight f3 first of all you play  knight f3 i don't know how much f5 you're gonna   get but i think it's very powerful i think  it's kind of like right if you get it yeah   if you get it because like again  if you're but you know i feel like   playing the dutch with black i i understand coach  is teaching the dutch i don't coach is teaching   f4 on move one i think is very dude obvious but  but teaching teaching students to play the dutch   against like d4 knight f3 or c4 i think  it's very reasonable yeah that being said   it's not going to happen much but if it does  i agree i agree i think it's uh it's very good   so the knight of three is very isn't knight  israel kind of like a very high class opening   move yeah it is because the best move doesn't  weaken the position at all so no no nothing is   weak so right you don't you don't weaken your  pawns in the center by pushing them yeah so uh well i put it in very powerful um this next  one milner berry you like this right you you   talked about milner berry before for i'm missing  the joke what's the joke about this picture   uh is this like a character in a  show is this like starcraft or not   sorry is this like a star trek or  something i i don't know what's a joke barry is a show oh barry is a show okay okay  oh it's all right um yeah barry is a show so   uh milner berry it the the one problem is that  it's very it's a very theoretical line it's   in the french defense you have to play e5 they  have to play c5 c3 knight c6 knight f3 queen b6   which is a main line and then here you abandon  defense of this kind of kind of with bishop d3   point b you pretend to hang upon right yeah  and then there's a bishop b5 check at the end   and you would be picking up yeah yeah it's just  a clean fossil pick up the queen on d forks the   king is in check um uh i think this actually also  belongs and very powerful because it's well even   if you don't get normally it goes bishop d7 to be  clear and now i'm going to give another story so   okay this is probably something you also have  heard of but basically when i was much younger   there used to be tournaments in at the long island  chess club in long island and um uh and it is a   gambit you guys because you give up the d4 pawn  like you're like oh it's a temporary one trick   but then you actually give away the pawn where  black and takes there's no check on b5 here   so you do in fact do again but you gambit pawns  um so like when i was very young i used to play a   lot of terms in long island and my stepfather was  my was my main coach for for a long time until i   got to master and um and he sort of taught me to  play the advanced french and there was this one   guy his name was harold stenzel who you i'm sure  and he's like he's an organizer now doesn't really   play chess obviously but i remember like in the in  the late 90s like my stepfather and i would always   like play against him and and normally after  this move rookie one blacks up two pawns here   and black's supposed to play queen b8 takes and  bishop d6 gambit one pawn but but he can finish   development in castle the king um but this guy  would the stenzel guy would always play this move   queen to d6 here trying to hang on to the uh hang  on to the two center pawns and not give it up and   um and so now that we're just looking at this  it reminds me of that's like probably in like   96 97 98 these early early years of my chess  career i i remember having to face this a lot   but you probably liked your positions yeah i  mean i i think it's bad for black objectively   trying to get greedy and hang on to the two pawns  there's an ip5 there's also queen f3 and bishop f4   um so so yeah yeah i do i do i think it's pretty  good for white would you say tons of tactics are   very powerful um i'm gonna say tons of tactics  just because again i think it's a tier below   the other ones the other ones are far more  practical well i agree i agree totally yeah   although i think we're gonna be seeing a lot of  french's and pog champs we already did like half   who took up the french for example so i think  we're probably gonna see a lot yeah there's uh   plus tons of tactics a little bit thin right  now so yeah no i think it's definitely tons of   tactics i agree i agree with that so next up we  have yeah nick monson just before we get into   this one i'm going to use the bathroom real  quick do you know the nick monson gambit this   next one this is uh i mean i'm yeah i know of it  because like everybody's spoken about it lately   um so yeah that's jonathan that's a guy in st  louis uh yes sir e4 e5 let me see if i remember   um so bishop c4 knight f6 d4 they take you castle  they take and then you go knight c3 yeah yeah   yeah because i remember like it's crazy how chess  evolves um uh because i i think when i was doing   preparation for the 2003 united states chess  championship um at the time i was only playing   sicilian but i knew like a i knew probably two  or three weeks in advance of the event that i   that in my first round i was going to be playing  against uh against jennifer jennifer shahadi the   uh former u.s women's champion who's who  does a lot of commentary on st louis and   against her actually i'll just give you  this this ties into something else but   i didn't really play e5 so i started preparing  for her and the two things i know she really   played was she played she could play spanish  and i was actually going to play the yanish   with f5 and the other thing i noticed was  that that yeah she could also play this um   play this uh sort of scott it's like scotch gambit  uh with like rookie one d5 takes 25 and knight c3   which is also very playable by the way yeah um  but i remember like i was analyzing this so it's   amazing to think how this this knight c3 move was  never a move in history until very recently right   until jonathan schrantz did something on it so  um it's it's very creative it's one of the most   brilliant things that i've seen um that is not  directly related to like you know a computer chess   game i assume that he looked at it with computers  but i don't think this was derived from a computer   computer chess game so yeah and and and the main  line it it there's all a ton of stuff on uh on   youtube and the biggest thing here is that uh  in in all this stuff you have to remember that   um so obviously there's there's king and king of  six i don't remember which one is losing or were   i think maybe even king f6 is okay um it's  amazing i think i think it's a fantastic   opening i mean even computers going 15 16 moves in  don't know what's going on so a human will never   know what's going on right uh it's excellent  if but the problem is you have to study it   you know but i think it's very realistic to  expect again i could argue you could actually   build your repertoire with this like you could  build a repertoire with like the evans gambit   um the neck mance and gambit uh and then you could  also build uh you could also build a repertoire   well i guess you'd have to look at h6 but as a  beginner i think it's actually very realistic   to play the uh play play the evans gambit in  in conjunction with the neck mounts and gambit   yeah because also as you get better you're gonna  face stuff that looks more normal more often and   you'll also memorize stuff easier right exactly  yeah and okay there's already a course apparently   on this so that means that it's it's really  no it's not it's a really no bs opening um   so is it is it unstoppable then um  i think for me yeah i think probably   i think it's unstoppable yeah i think it's the  bottom of unstoppable i i think it is for sure   yeah i agree congratulations to mr nakmansen  who made it to our our top tier um this next   one is great uh ortho schnapp um this what what  is the ortho schnapp i'm sorry i have no idea   so it's e4 e6 c4 de5 and then cd5 ed5 and queen  b3 um oh oh oh oh i didn't know this had a name   okay yeah i mean of course i've seen  this the first time i saw this was   when uh forsen wanted to play this against  hafu and um in pog champs uh he should have   well no no he did didn't he i i don't i don't  know maybe i'm pretty sure they actually played   this yeah they did they played in their second  game of their match and um i mean he lost but   he did play this and he got a good position yeah  all right i think he was winning i think he was   winning a quarter at one of the moments yeah  although um i thought i was being played the   other day as well much to my disappointment by  this norwegian guy um larso larth hogg yeah yeah   he he played it and there's a lot of actually  kind of like interesting lines so obviously   the point is the fact that it's losing yeah yes  other than that other than that no but the thing   is no one will know that they won't know how to  you know as a beginner yet yeah but to see an im   play something that's losing like just losing is  just disgusting but you know he was he was beating   her like he was getting winning positions from  the opening like it was crazy um so oh i think   he was losing for a move or two and then she just  blundered but anyway then again when you play   this you're probably always losing for a mover  too yeah so but yeah what actually is the line   after this for for black to be better is it queen  e7 i think it's queen e7 isn't it because it's   like d3 you go queen before i'm pretty sure it's  queen e7 with knight c6 yeah and the difference is   that if this this like you you open it all up and  this is actually good for for white this i think   yeah this is already very dangerous but i think  also can't you go knight c6 here with knight a5   yeah basically you have to like it's a  balance of a few weird moves with purpose   like you're trying to trade the bishop and then if  you can trade this bishop then you're much better   yeah exactly yeah black has to know this but  uh i would say i would say tons of tactics   i don't i don't this doesn't deserve to  be in the same league but i think that   oh yeah as a beginner it's it's i think very  very tricky very very tricky the other thing   is like someone could just like play c5 and now  like where's your gambit you're never gonna ever   yeah now you just have to play a sicilian  although it's a good sicilian although not   really because wesley lost in this to me  but hey who's counting well then you know   uh i'm gonna put tons of tactics it feels a bit  sharon in tons of tactics yeah i think i kind   of agree sure um all right so next up we have the  portuguese gambit well we already kind of had this   no a little bit yeah pretty pretty close so takes  knight f6 and it's is it d4 bishop g4 yeah yeah i   don't know you you've probably played i i don't  play this too often with with black i feel like   maybe have you played it i don't know with black  no no i've never played this with black no i've   always played the traditional scandinavian with  queen d5 yeah i'm more a fan of scandinavia than   i am of portugal let's be honest um well  so anyway the point here is you're you're   really you're really trying to instigate i played  this against canty actually because i saw that he   played the wrong move in the database he just gave  me this and even this is fine for white but i was   like okay this is easy kind of easy to play with  black true true yeah but this this is the critical   yeah like this whole line i mean again i think  in 1998 i was someone there's someone in the   world youth championship i think again  um or 1998 or 99 there was someone who   was always playing this i forget who it was  and so i actually looked at this quite a bit   um but i i thought at the time i thought  it was bad but it required precise play   i think for this level you will never  face this having said that i think true is there tons of tactics i mean not really  no but i mean i think it's very hard for white   i mean if you get this position after g4 and  someone's a beginner i mean like oh wait about   it yeah forget about it with all these pawns  out pushed like no development you're you're   just going to lose as a beginner so i mean it's  kind of interesting i think it's probably easy   to equalize to me just because i think most  people play like bishop e2 or knight f3 and   it'll just reach some sort of normal middle middle  game position yep i yeah very simple it's just   white doesn't have a huge amount of land mines to  walk through here uh so i think it's i think it's   just kind of plopped in there okay this next one  do we even have to look at the queens yeah i don't   think we even need to look at it i think it's  again just probably it's a game right easy to   equalize yeah that's the thing i'm gonna it's it's  not it's not an unstoppable gambit it's it's not a   guaranteed advantage for for white and also it's  you don't win if they take it or you know it's   very good but right well i mean oh i mean as as  players who are newer to the game you just play   e6 you just play the queen's game declined and  just go knight f6 very i mean probably the most   stable opening and and outside of maybe the royal  lopez i would say um yeah modern chess on the tier   of of gambits that are very dangerous but also  very practical it's it's very practical but it's   not very dangerous it's just an opening so um  yeah definitely easy to equal there's not even   tons of tactics it's just it's just a good opening  but it's not winning from the get-go dodge gambit   scotchgame let me just put this in here  yeah scotch gambit yeah so the scotch   gambit another opening that i remember here  have a lot of fond memories of knight six   is it d4 bishop c4 is it bishop c4 knight f6 d4  no it's it's different it's d4 it takes bishop c4   yep okay yeah yeah yeah so um yeah another another  another opening that like i didn't actually play i   i would credit my stepfather because he did not  actually um show me this one he just said play the   scotch you know because he because uh it's just  more open um whereas he always played the the   scotch gambit which which is uh i think a great  opening at the beginning level because after 96 e5   black has to know to play like d5 like it's it's  very hard to play or like bishop c5 c3 for example   um and like takes i guess is playable uh  with like bishop f7 but again i think i   think at the beginner level it's it's um it's  it's reasonable i think it's very reasonable   is it i actually you know who should have played  it was xqc he should have played scotch gammon   stuffs instead of the scotch i think yeah just  get development you don't necessarily need to take   your pawn back yeah um well yeah because also you  then like scotch gamma you can lump castles and go   into the knack manson as well yes like there's so  there's there's so many options for what you can   do with the scotch game but it's so flexible  here um very powerful or low tier unstoppable   i mean i think it's very powerful i would  say i mean because there's also the max lang   right yeah like some bishop c5 with d4 isn't  that yeah is bishop c5 castles the max link   i i don't remember what the max  lang is it calls this the hack   so but i think chess.com has some of the  openings wrong um for sure like what um   yeah yeah i think that in general most gambits  with d4 somewhere along the line it's gonna be   yeah i mean i think i think it's also because like  a bishop before then you play c turn it's kind of   like it turns into something similar to a uh to a  danish gambit as well like there are just so many   so many things that i really really  like about about just this order as well   so to me i mean i think it's um very powerful  it's it's yeah i think so i would say i mean   i think yeah yeah i would agree yeah from  gambit is up there listed and there's a   lot of stuff it's very high tier i would  say it's very very high tier very powerful   uh yeah i i think it's very powerful i think  it's it's not at the top but i think it's uh   i think it's probably the second one okay so  this next one uh so we put that one there the   next one we have uh agent smith the smith yeah  well what to say i mean sicilian and you make   them play your game i i don't know i don't think  there's much more to say i think it's just a   very good opening very good yeah i mean i think  mostly i would actually say if you're a beginner   and someone plays this and you play stone i think  you should actually just go d3 yeah just ignore it   um that's what i say or you can do what i  did when i was very young like i remember   um i i would always take and play like knight c6  knight f3 and then i think i would always play   this line with d6 bishop c4 e6 castles knight f6  i mean you can also play like this just straight   development with like a bishop with like bishop  b7 and castles and then e5 at the right moment   um but i i actually think if you're a beginner you  should just you should kind of just ignore it with   d3 if you can uh because it's just it's very it's  it's simple this is what's gonna make this opening   tons of tactics for me rather than unstoppable is  that that big difference with the danish is that   someone in this opening blindly copying you will  see this bishop right and they'll just block it   and i think through that kills so much of  your ideas like you don't get anything on   this diagonal and then if black just plays  sensibly black can get a decent position i   i think that the difference with king's pawn  gambits is because the pawn always ends up on e5   your bishop is right diagonal yeah exactly  diagonal's always open agreed yeah totally so   i'm going to put it in the very top of tons of  tactics uh but just because oh i agree i agree   i i i i i it could be a very powerful but i also  kind of want the tier lists to look aesthetic   tactics is very barren so uh yeah and very  powerful we'll get a lot more because i think   we're about to get i'm about to get a few well  i'm sorry what is this picture of eric wrote   i don't actually what is this picture i think  they i think they did our boy dirty man they they   picked the worst photo of eric rosen on the  internet um even eric rosen no that is eric   rosen but i mean it's like yeah yeah that's  like a teenager just getting facial hair but no   one had the shaving talk with you yet you know  yeah oh man jaren why did you get that picture oh man yeah wow okay um stafford gambit  yeah with e4 e5 and then knight c6 correct   if this was a couple months ago i  would i would put it at the very top   but i don't even think it's a one trick  i think it's just easy to equalize   but i could put it in the bottom of tons of  tactics because there's really one line you know   for white right it's like yeah but again like the  thing is didn't david pac-man play this against   like hafu and i mean the thing is if white plays  h3 and stops knight g4 you just resign basically   i mean you just lose right yes and even  if you if you study some of the lines   uh yeah i don't know if it's h3 or like bishop  e2 or so i think in this variation there's this   so you have to be a little careful but even i  don't i don't know what i don't know if i take   yeah there's some like something stupid like oh  for beginners you have to be a little careful a   little bit a little bit you know with some okay  okay yeah i mean again though what i would say   is i remember when i saw that game like the way  that hoffu just got a winning position like just   playing just just sort of thematic moves just kind  of basic just obvious move stopping the threats   um i just think for a beginner there's just  no way to really there's just no way to   to get a good position plus i think a lot of  people just play like this or also true you just   ignore it completely yeah yeah very true very with  this um but i i'm sure people in the chat have a   sample size of a lot of stafford games and they  probably win a good amount of them um but uh yeah   i mean i i'm not i'm not uh if someone says can i  play the correct stafford oh is this order wrong   no this is completely right no this is the  this is yeah yeah okay okay yeah i wasn't sure   someone just said but then it isn't stafford  that person needs to go watch a youtube video   right exactly yeah so so where would you put it i i think the other gambits and very powerful  aren't objectively losing that's the problem   like the stanford is objectively it's it's it's  lost yeah yeah so i'm gonna put it into tons of   tactics but i'm gonna put it higher i'm gonna  put it i'm gonna put it lower personally i think   i think the problem is that objectively  speaking it is flat out losing all the   other stuff is not losing right right i agree  um eric we love you also i didn't pick that   picture of you so please don't hate me um i  hate jaren that's it um okay staunton gambit   yeah starting gambit right stunting  gambit i i man i got i love this i love d4   f5 e4 yeah so i mean i'll i'll give now it's  story time again uh so i played e4 my entire   career so from um from the time i started playing  shots in 1997 um till till about the time that   i was about 2400 level international master i  always played e4 and move on that's all i did   just e4 nothing else um but when i played this  term at the pan american uh championship under   20 in uh in bolivia in la paz i believe in 2000  and uh was it 2003 i want to say it was or 2002.   anyway during that term i actually started  learning how to play d4 on move one and um   and there were a couple of american players who  would who would always play the dutch defense   so i kind of what what i learned was just  to play e4 takes and go knight c3 knight f6   and bishop g5 and this was my main opening  against the dutch because at that time   other than players were like 20 who were like  2 400 plus nobody knew to play knight c6 here   knight 6 is the best move by far everything else  i think is actually generally really really bad   for black yep uh all those lines like e6 and g6  i feel very confident you said knight c6 is the   best yes definitely yeah yeah i had a dutch  book like four or five years ago and it was   like yeah knight c6 and then you just have to  basically remember queen d4 and queenie two um   i play queen e2 with white and sometimes  queen d4 but i mean it's very it's very   sharp it's not clear-cut um but if black does  not play knight c6 here after bishop g5 is just   lost and there's that famous game right the  edward lasker game um with like takes takes   and uh like bishop d3 knight f3 yeah even like  a worst case scenario you get a completely great   position it feels like um how does that how did  that last game go it was something like what was   it was like i don't know there there's that it  was it was not on the manual it's the other one   uh let me find it because i i'm pretty sure  it was a thought in gambin unless i'm mistaken   let me see uh let me pull it up yeah yeah yeah  so oh it was out of a different order but it   was the same thing so the game was it was  it actually was a staunton but it came from   a different order it came from uh it was like d4  e6 knight f3 f5 knight c39 f6 bishop g5 bishop e7   um takes takes e4 but it did turn into it  turned into this and it was like b6 95 castles   um bishop d3 bishop b7 queen h5 this is  a beautiful game i'll just show it for   you guys because it's really nice it's queen  takes h7 ah h7 yeah takes king king can't go   back says chuck mate with the two ponies they  cover the squares so you go king h6 check here   check here or not h sorry you go check king  f4 g3 king f3 check here check here in castles wait i've never even seen this game what wow no  there's no way you've never seen i've never seen   i i didn't would i i've spent my entire childhood  playing three-minute blitz on the internet chess   club i've never seen this i mean i didn't actually  know what i didn't know the name i didn't know   actually the players of this game until very  recently um when someone pointed out to me   but yeah this is i mean i mean uh oh  my god no i've never seen this wow   wow that's crazy uh yeah this was uh this was  the edward lasker not related to manual uh this   error laster against um sir george  thomas he wasn't a sir after this game   oh my and not in like the you know like that way  i meant like in the he got unknighted or whatever   for for losing like this they were like we taking  that title away from you oh yeah no but but i i   just i remember that game because it it kind of it  transposed didn't start out as a staunton gambit   but that's why like when you play um once when  some someone when you play aston gambit this   whole line with bishop g5 if they go e6 you get  that same position but takes a knight f3 and it's   basically like just a great great version of like  a french almost except the pawn is here not f7 so   it's really really good for white well going back  to d4 f5 e4 i think if the from gambit isn't isn't   it's just the from gambit except you're playing  white is really what it is uh basically yeah   uh and of course just the one kind of whole  point of all this why black can't just hang on   to this is because bishop f6 and queen h5 check  and mm-hmm right you go check classic uh kind   of like the half sun or the two two thirds sun  ray with queen d5 and now white's just winning   top tier very powerful oh i think  for me i think it's probably uh   i think it's i think it's probably unstoppable i  think it's unstoppable again you're not going to   get it that frequently because not many people  are going to play the dutch but it's definitely   unstoppable okay and besides they also make the  best besides the staunton they also make the   they like literally make the best  chess pieces yes they are named after   so uh staunton it's of course named after howard  staunton right i'm assuming so uh okay yeah that   makes sense yeah tennis all right is that draco  who's this is that draco yeah i thought it was but   i didn't understand i don't know why it's i don't  know who who is that i don't know i i have no idea i'm i'm seeing my chat i'm waiting for my  chat tell me who it is yeah some we usually   have some sort of detectives i lord tennyson  no it's not malfoy so i i don't know who it is   i mean it's it's not it's not a  blonde do bob either that's for sure ben 10 who is ben 10 i   well i can show what the tennis and gambit  is after e4 d5 white plays knight f3 or   knight f3 d5 and e4 um are you aware of the  intercontinental ballistic missile variation   uh i mean but that's just a meme off a youtube  video right corazon actual game yeah correct um   the icbm after takes here you go for the pawn  and hear the gambit rather than going knight c3   to win the pawn back you play the move d3 uh  black doesn't have to i mean doesn't doesn't   bishop c4 just equalize bishop c4 is also a  good move yeah the speaker is completely fine   i'm just gonna show the icbm uh the the the trick  is that if they take and you take with the bishop   and they attack the knight right yeah could be a  seven in check yeah yeah the shoulder g6 on the   queen yeah right exactly yup uh i've actually  i gotta tell you been playing this gambit   and i get some pretty fun positions even with the  fact that you can equalize with black well i would   assume e takes d3 is actually i mean maybe it's  maybe yeah i was going to say it looks it looks   very wrong like you're just going to castle the  queen 2 with d1 and play in the center and you've   got this this bishop and the knight developed  right away so it actually yeah if black takes   that's fine of course black can also just play  h6 and laugh at you and you play a very boring   end game yeah so i've had that happen i've also  had um i've had like c6 now you're in a coral con   true true good point yeah oops uh so they could  like french i think it's uh i think it's easy to   equalize but there are some tactics yeah no i  kind of agree with that yeah i think it's very   easy for black to just not engage with you right  agreed totally so but there's uh there's a big   trick urusov do you know the urus of gambit the  urasov okay so so what are we putting it in first   i put it in easy to equalize with black yeah yeah  i think that's fair okay um so then we have the   urusav uh i've heard of it but i'm not not 100  sure what it is so the urus of gambit exactly   i'm actually looking up the exact move order  because they all have oh okay so it's e4 e5   uh bishop c4 knight f6 d4 oh okay yeah yeah  of course obviously yeah it's completely fine   this is the uber saw of you guys not  the oolus obviously urusav yeah okay okay okay okay okay um all right  uh good very good tons of tactics   i think i mean i think it's what i would say  is uh um no a chat's going insane uh i think   it's very good i think it's very good oh you  could also get it in a petrov i guess because   if you played knight f3 knight f6 some sort of  like like i don't know but d4 is a different   one oh d4 takes bishop c4 true and then it can  become the monsoon they're all kind of related   yeah i mean it yeah like 96 and then exactly  it's the scotch game or like the max lang   or or um or yeah or not monster yeah it's all  kind of the same thing yeah like i mean the whole   thing is yeah does it belong and unstoppable  then um i feel like we're i mean diluting yeah   i think i think it's i think it's definitely  yeah maybe why not i think it's unstoppable okay so then we have we have the vienna cam but that picture  looks familiar doesn't it yeah that's   uh that's that's uh that's off twitter that's  baby gotham at his first chess tournament   wow and your parents took a picture of you at your  first shout out yeah actually technically my dad   was behind me but he's cropped out because  i wouldn't my face didn't fit i guess but uh   yeah this was uh this was in the susan  polgar chess club in forest hills queens   i think i actually i think i was  there i think i went there one time   like how long was it around it was around january  2003. right but and she when did she close it   this i don't know i don't know okay because i mean  it was it was it was still open to like 2006 or   something i know i went to some club that she had  somewhere in new york early in the 2000 or like   mid mid 2000s but anyway all right um okay so next  next up we have the vienna so e4e5 knight c3 i'll   let you take it away because this is uh you've  done a lot a lot of videos on this yeah well the   vienna gambit specifically is like it's this and  i mean to be honest of all of the gambits it's the   least deserving to be called the gambit because  you're not they can't actually take the pawn they   take the pawn they're just straight up loose i  think every single gambit on this in this list   is actually legitimately offering  something so it's kind of a fake name   uh well but at the same time they play knight six  some move to you can't play a force after e takes   up four they do accept the game yeah resign yeah  so against the the the max slang uh you get the   backslash yeah but i think knight like knight  c6 f4 is a little bit different but i think in   general if you're going to play the vienna i mean  what can i say i i've said enough about it it's   something i recommend to a lot of people i  think a lot of people also found a lot of   success with with the vienna if they're  not going to play knight f3 systems so   it's it's unstoppable and uh for  me it goes right in the top and   i don't even have to ask any questions so i'm  gonna put it in very powerful okay into my yang   that's that that's that's so people uh people like  will win 45 percent of games with knight f3 but if   once they switch to vienna they'll be winning  like 60 65. now obviously as you get stronger   even me i've beaten im's and gm's at like 70 with  vienna i won't beat you but again it's like there   was this very funny game in the vienna um how  did it go i had this vienna game i think it was   f4 let me pull it up because i i don't remember  exactly how it occurred but let me let me see if   i can find it um it was in the u.s championship  uh was it against your mulinsky or no it's not   that one that that was this uh one with takes  takes queen f3 96 bishop b5 i believe against   shermalinsky in the 2007 u.s championship and  um yeah in stillwater oklahoma i know the one i   was thinking of was in st louis uh it was actually  it was i'll just show it was very funny it was um   so it was knight f6 f4 d5 um e takes d5  knight takes d5 and then i played f takes e5   okay so it looks kind of weird right yeah black  takes you take and they play queen h4 chuck   so you can't go g3 cause the queen e4 yeah so i  played kingdom e2 he played bishop to g4 played   knight to f3 knight to c6 and now i played queen  to e1 between the h5 and now i played king d1   i take c5 bishop e2 and um i mean it was a  long game it it ended in a draw but um it's   just pretty funny the way that you you sort of  rearrange your king your queen on the back rank   uh so i just thought i'd point that out  wow this is the most legitimate version   of uh isn't this a transvestite or something see  i i really yeah it is but i'm i'm too afraid of   i'm not sure if we're allowed to say that anymore  you know go with uh what i don't know man i don't   they're gonna start saying that we're like  naming it i don't know man i you know i you   we didn't name anyone and it's a legitimate word  in the english language i know but i'm too scared   i'm too scared you know you're brave you're brave  you're more brave than i am it's a legitimate word   in the english language we're not talking about  anyone like i i know what is wrong with people   anyway okay a lot of stuff don't get me don't  get me started what's wrong with people but uh   yeah i uh and but that's it you're right you uh  i mean yeah anyway um all right so yeah i just   thought i'd point that out because you rearranged  the king and the queen on on d1 and e1 here   so um it's like very weird but it's it's kind of  playable i like uh i like the the vienna a lot   and i think that if someone wants to play  it then yeah yeah i know it's definitely um   it's definitely playable it's it's  a great opening overall i would say last one yeah we have one more we have the   is are those chicken wings what  i think that's a pokemon hikaru no i look like a pokemon am i wrong  is that just not a pokemon at all i thought it was like i don't know that's a  transformer oh oh okay oh okay yeah okay we're   both very wow all right well i'm gonna get  cancelled i mean that's yeah that's like wow   okay all right so yeah so the wing gambit right so  the wing gambit another opening that you you like   which is e4 c5 now b4 where you basically again  you start pushing your pawns on the wings you   gamble the pawns on the wings of the board well  in my defense i i play a3 then b4 but also i only   like this against the sicilian you could also play  this against like the french you could play true   like this this c5 and then b4 oh this one i am  not from isn't this just losing is it well there's   something in the french no with this is called  the frankel gambit which i've never even heard of   i have no idea what that's supposed to  mean oh if it's never i've literally   never seen this move in my entire life this  before movie oh i literally have never seen   it i've seen it yeah i've seen it ah are  you young links not learning proper chess   yeah what to say i've i don't i literally i've  never seen this move i've never seen this yep it's   ridiculous and then you're trying to you basically  just want them to like take and then play a3   so yeah but i mean all they do is take on d4  they ruin your pawn structure because they   understand that the whole point of pushing is  to build a pawn chain so they break your pawn   chain and you just lose your pawn in the center  of the board you gotta remember i'm just telling   you what exists i'm not saying i play this i'm  saying this is out there man yeah exactly yeah   uh you know heroin exists i don't do it you know  it's kind of one of those things all right like i   just because i know it exists doesn't mean no i  definitely don't recommend it against that uh but   you could also play this against like for example  you could play like knight f3 against the sicilian   and then play like b4 true yeah also true so yeah  i mean i i think like i actually like your a3 more   even though i think it's bad too but i like  it more exaggerated b4 if they know to play   takes a3 d5 it's very unpleasant right  away for black or for white i mean   yeah plus like it's one of these things even  if you land it what do you what exactly have   you gotten just some kind of like obscure  queenside open lines i guess it's it's not a   it's not a completely awful right i will  say however there was of course the wing   gambit of course is very infamous because uh  the shortest game ever in the united states   championship occurred in it and there was this  game between uh cameron shirazi and jack peters   i believe it was held in 1907 was it 70s or 80s  i thought it was like 73 or 83 um but there's a   game where when pawn takes pawn queen takes pawn  pawn takes pawn and after queen e5 white resigned   um because you're just gonna lose your rook in the  corner of the board so uh it is pretty infamous   for that reason as well because because uh it  was a it was a five move game um in the united   states championship featuring the best players  in the country so uh yeah definitely not yeah   yeah not even six moves i think just just on that  one game alone uh this should go into one trick   yeah well well but i mean one trick for who  though this is a white game but not a black game but it's not it's not totally trash right  like i feel i mean i know you can play e5   and it's kind of playable kind of but it's  it's also uh it's it's not great i mean i   think it's i think it's probably playable is  where i would put it like i think it's it's   something i mean general terms it's like  playable it's not great it's not terrible   um i don't know where it goes though because there  there aren't a ton of tactics i mean one tr i   guess it goes in one trick even though technically  like i mean probably goes in one trick right   yeah that's what that's what i said i think it  goes in one trick it's kind of it's kind of it's   kind of worse than easy to equalize it feels like  yeah yeah agreed totally yeah i think it's like   it's it's not trash though it's not total trash so  it has to go into one trick and again you guys are   talking about beginners we're not talking about uh  about like intermediate or or grand master level yeah this is uh this is episode one so primarily  for about 1500 and and below i think it's a   good list i'm pretty i'm pretty happy with this  list in general don't weaken your king too much   and weaken your opponent's king open your  lines for your bishops your queens your knights   and the quality of the opening itself is not  what determines where it goes on this list   it's also the practicality of it how often you'll  land it and how much theory you have to study so

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 1,356,145

Keywords: gothamchess openings, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess guide, gothamchess e4, gothamchess, tier list, tier list chess, tiermaker, tiermaker chess, tier list hikaru, hikaru tier list openings, openings tier list, chess openings tier list, chess gambits, stafford gambit, stafford gambit eric rosen, eric rosen stafford gambit, chess openings, chess openings for beginners, chess openings for intermediate, chess tier list, chess tier list hikaru, chess tier zoo

Id: S9N6Bo7BBPg

Length: 95min 48sec (5748 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/DGenerator]

The reason for him being here on a non-queen-trading gambit is that his "What the heck is the Jaenisch Gambit?" video is the top video search result for the gambit.