Danube Chess
- Chess Friends Books
- Oct 2
- 6 min read
Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!
One of the greatest things about chess is that it connects people from all over the world! You can say chess is like a river! Rivers just flow, not bothered by borders, connecting countries, cities, and people!
In this blog post, we want to celebrate chess and rivers, by talking about openings named after cities on the Danube River!
The Danube River is the second largest river in Europe, and one of the world’s most international rivers, connecting many countries! It starts in the mountains of Germany, and flows through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, eventually reuniting its waters with the Black Sea via the delta in Romania, and Ukraine! Danube has been inspiring not only for chess, but also for art.
Let’s listen to the beautiful Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss II, while we sail down the Danube River, exploring the Vienna Game/Vienna Gambit, Budapest Gambit, and Belgrade Gambit!
Ahoy, and welcome aboard the Danube Chess Cruise! Our first stop is Vienna!
The Myth Sarang: The Vienna!
The Vienna is one of my favorite chess openings! It begins after 1. e4 e5, 2. Nc3, as shown below:
This move deviates from the main line 2. Nf3, but is still a strong choice for beginners all the way up to 2000. If Black plays 2. Nf6, we can play 3. Nf3, which transposes to a mainline of the Four Knights, 3. d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 with ideas like Qd3, Be3, and long castle (O-O-O) is also totally cool.
But, by far my favorite line in all of the Vienna is 3. f4! This is known as the Vienna Gambit, as we sacrifice a pawn for active piece play and center play. Here’s the initial position of the Vienna Gambit shown below:
You might notice that this looks somewhat like the King’s Gambit (1.e4 e5 2. f4) but with Knights on the board! If they take the pawn in the King’s Gambit, it’s good, but if they take in this, it’s really bad! You are completely winning and let me show you how.
If 3… exf4?, we play 4. e5!, taking space in the center with a tempo (we talked about tempo in the last blog, go check that out!) . Remember, our motto is active pieces in this opening! If black plays 4. Ng8, we will play 5. Nf3!, activating another piece! The reason we play this is we need to cover Qh4+ as Black or else we are in deep trouble! Black can also play 4. Qe7, but then we respond with 5. Qe2! with a similar position.
Ok. Back to 4…. Ng8 5. Nf3! Black plays 5… d6! Trying to maybe defend his pawns with dxe5 and potentially Qh4+ if we take back. We will keep our pawns together with 6. d4! Black takes the pawn with 6… dxe5, and now we don’t take back, we play 7. Qe2!! This move pins the e5-pawn to the King and activates the queen.
Now I’m going to show you a nasty trap. Black plays 7… Nc6. We play 8. Bxf4! Utilizing the pin on the pawn to take this free pawn. Black thinks that they have a free pawn with 8… Nxd4?? We play 9. Nxd4!! Qxd4 10. Bxe5!! This will win material eventually. If you don’t win material then you’ll still have a great lead in development. Here’s a GIF of the whole line:
Once you study all the other lines in the Accepted, the lines in the Declined (3… d6, d5, etc. after 3. f4), and the copycat lines (1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6), you will be crushing your opponents in no time!
The Legend Vivaan: The Budapest Gambit!
I’m going to talk to you about the Budapest Gambit! This Defense for black starts with 1. d4 Nf6, 2. c4 e5! as shown below.
This looks a bit crazy at first, and isn’t particularly good if white plays properly, but it has a lot of traps, two of which I'll show below.
The first one has White being a little greedy and playing what seems to be natural moves. The line is 3. dxe5 Ng4, 4. Qd4 (attacking the Knight) d6 (guarding the Knight with the Bishop), 5. exd6 Bxd6, 6. Qxg7 (yay free pawn… or is it?) Be5 (you see what’s coming?), 7. Qg5 Qxg5, 8. Bxg5 Bxb2 and you’ll win a Rook!
The next line actually leads to an opening checkmate! Don’t believe me? Just watch!
Here’s how it goes:
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 (this is all the same as last time) 4. Bf4 (a natural move to guard the e pawn and a good move) Nc6 (normal move developing a piece while putting pressure on the e pawn) 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. a3 (feels normal to attack the Bishop but watch out!) Ngxe5! (go ahead and take my Bishop!) 8. axb4 Nd3# (SMOTHERED MATE!)
The Man Benji: The Belgrade Gambit
Now, further down the river, I am going to talk about the Belgrade Gambit! Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and one of my favorite cities in the world! I played chess in Kalemegdan, volleyball on Ada Island, and chilled out with cool swans on the Danube River:
Belgrade feels like a second home to me. So, when in a recent tournament, playing as black, I faced this strange move Nd5 out of my trusted four knights: WHY DIDN’T I KNOW IT WAS THE BELGRADE GAMBIT?! I was happy that my opponent played it, though, because it gave me the opportunity to learn this opening and now share it with you!
The Belgrade Gambit probably got its name thanks to Mihajlo Trajkovic, the player who developed and analyzed many of its lines in the 1940s. He was from Belgrade, hence the name!
The Belgrade Gambit goes like this: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nd5!?
The best response for Black, according to the engine, is to not take the second “free” pawn, but play Nb4. Check out GM Daniel Naroditsky’s stream here to learn a proper response.
Here I would like to highlight what could happen if Black accepts the Belgrade Gambit and takes the pawn on e4. This move is very tempting (ooo, a free pawn!), but then White can play Bd3 attacking the knight.
One option for Black is to go back to Nf6. White doesn’t want to trade its beautiful knight just yet, instead playing Qe2+. Black can get out of check with Be7. Then, White goes Nxf6 to ruin Black’s pawn structure, making it harder for Black King to castle. White is still down two pawns, but has more active pieces and a better pawn structure.
Another option for Black, after White’s 6. Bd3, is to retreat the knight to Nc5. According to the engine, it’s the best move for Black, but there is a juicy trap that can happen. White castles (O-O), and Black wants to do the same, so it moves the bishop to Be7 in preparation. White moves the rook out to the open file, Re1, and, when Black castles, there is a brilliant combination for White! Can you find the ideas from this position?
You got it! Take the bishop with a check, and no matter what Black does, the sequences are crushing! Like this Greek Gift, Bxh7+!!, for example:
Isn’t that cool? Thank you, GM Simon Williams, for sharing your analysis of the Belgrade opening lines! You can look at more of his analysis here.
The Belgrade Gambit isn’t very popular because many people don’t know about it. But it is a pretty powerful opening, where Black has to be extra careful to avoid getting into a bad position. Check it out!
Now, before we go, here is a river of knee-slappers for y’all!
Why did the Danube River win the best chess commentator award?
Because it has a really good stream!
***
A river as a chess commentator?
I know! Pretty ex-stream!
***
Why does the river play chess online only?
Because it doesn’t like getting out of bed!
***
What did the river say to its opponent when he played f3 against it?
“Water you doing, man?”
***
Why did the river sign up for a chess tournament?
Pier pressure.
***
What did the Danube River do with its chess prize money?
Put it in its banks.
Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!
The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivi
Comments