The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves:
27-449: It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a gambit because White appears to sacrifice the c-pawn; however, this could be considered a misnomer as Black cannot retain the pawn without incurring a disadvantage. The Queen's Gambit is one of the oldest known openings in chess. It was mentioned in the Göttingen manuscript of 1490 and
54-453: A lower quality than those in Damiano's work. He admits that they might nevertheless be more instructive, since López gives a larger number of variations. Other authors have given varying opinions about the quality of López's analysis. López only rarely presented variations that ended in checkmate. Instead he concluded lines with comments such as how black must lose his queen, or that white has
81-529: A number of quotes (in Latin) from classical authors. The second part focuses on openings and is López's legacy as "the father of opening theory." Third comes a hostile appraisal of Damiano's opening analysis. López's final chapters are devoted to odds chess, where he again criticizes Damiano's approaches to these games. In this work López presents sixty-six games, of which twenty-four were taken from Damiano's 1512 book. According to J.H. Sarartt , López's games are of
108-474: A sound gambit is the Scotch Gambit : 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4. Here Black can force White to sacrifice a pawn speculatively with 4...Bb4+, but White gets very good compensation for one pawn after 5.c3 dxc3 6.bxc3, or for two pawns after 6.0-0 inviting 6...cxb2 7.Bxb2, due to the development advantage and attacking chances against the black king. As a result, Black is often advised not to try to hold on to
135-626: A struggle with rivals in their fields, for example: "The early election was a risky gambit by Theresa May ." The Spanish word gambito was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 by Ruy López de Segura , from an Italian expression dare il gambetto (to put a leg forward in order to trip someone). In English, the word first appeared in Francis Beale 's 1656 translation of a Gioachino Greco manuscript, The Royall Game of Chesse-play ("illustrated with almost one hundred Gambetts" ). The Spanish gambito led to French gambit , which has influenced
162-401: A very good game. Not many games can be confidently attributed to López, and those that can are incomplete. One such game was recorded by Polerio, and was played during the contests between Italians and Spaniards before King Philip II: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Qe7 5.b4 Bb6 6.a4 a6 7.Ba3 d6 8.Qe2 Bg4 9.d3 Nf6 10.Nbd2 Among the analysis Ruy López gives in his treatise is an example of
189-664: Is divided into two major categories based on Black's response: the Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA) and the Queen's Gambit Declined (QGD). In the QGA, Black plays 2...dxc4, temporarily giving up the center to obtain freer development. In the QGD, Black usually plays to hold d5. Frequently Black will be cramped, but Black aims to exchange pieces and use pawn breaks at c5 and e5 to free Black's game. Technically, any Black response other than 2...dxc4 (or another line with an early ...dxc4 that transposes into
216-465: Is fully titled Libro de la Invencion liberal y Arte del juego del Axedrez, por Ruy-López de Sigura, clerigo, vezino de la villago Cafra. Digirida al muy Illustre Señor Don Garcia de Toledo, ayo y mayordomo del serenissimo principe Don Carlos nuestro Señor. , was published in 1561. López divided his book into four parts ("books"). He first presents several mythological origins of the game, and discusses its benefits, rules, and strategies while interspersing
243-533: Is more probable, however, that López visited Rome only once (in 1559) and that Salvio's chronology is incorrect. Around the year 1574, López was still at the royal court in Spain when di Bona, then Paolo Boi , arrived on their tours of Europe. Their meetings – which also included Ceron – are sometimes considered the first international chess tournament . Boi and a much-improved di Bona defeated López and Ceron in Madrid, in
270-581: Is sometimes named a "countergambit", e.g. the Albin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5) and Greco Countergambit (the original name for the Latvian Gambit). Not all opening lines involving the sacrifice of material are named as gambits, for example the main line of the Two Knights Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5) in which Black sacrifices a pawn for active play is known as
297-417: Is still frequently played. With 2.c4, White threatens to exchange a wing pawn (the c-pawn) for a center pawn (Black's d-pawn) in order to dominate the center with e2–e4. Black cannot hold the pawn, for example: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 b5 ? (Black tries to guard their pawn but should pursue development with 3...Nf6 or 3...e5) 4.a4 c6? 5.axb5 cxb5 ?? 6.Qf3 ! winning a piece. The Queen's Gambit
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#1732870011482324-402: Is unclear how useful this general maxim is since the "free moves" part of the compensation is almost never the entirety of what the gambiteer gains. Often, a gambit can be declined with no disadvantage. A gambit is said to be 'sound' if it is capable of procuring adequate concessions from the opponent. There are three general criteria in which a gambit is often said to be sound: An example of
351-504: The king's bishop , the game transposes into the Catalan Opening . Gambit A gambit (from Italian gambetto , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices material with the aim of achieving a subsequent positional advantage. The word gambit is also sometimes used to describe similar tactics used by politicians or business people in
378-524: The King's Gambit in particular went well beyond earlier writing such as Damiano's. He also was the strongest player in Spain, and possibly Italy, for about twenty years. As Andrew Soltis describes: "At that time, the best players of modern-rules chess lived in Italy and Iberia. López is believed to have easily beaten the most skilled Italians. He may deserve the title of world champion, but that title did not exist until
405-432: The "Knorre Variation", though it may be described as a "gambit". On the other hand, the Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4) is not a true gambit as Black cannot hold the pawn without incurring a disadvantage. As is often the case with chess openings, nomenclature is inconsistent. Gambits are described as being "offered" to an opponent, and that offer is then said to be either "accepted" or "declined". In modern chess,
432-571: The English spelling of the word. The metaphorical sense of the word as "opening move meant to gain advantage" was first recorded in English in 1855. Gambits are more commonly played by White . Some well-known examples of a gambit are the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4) and Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4). A gambit employed by Black may also be named a gambit, e.g. the Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5), or Englund Gambit (1.d4 e5); but
459-674: The QGA) is a Queen's Gambit Declined, but the Slav, Albin Countergambit, and Chigorin Defense are generally treated separately. There are so many QGD lines after 2...e6 that many of them are distinctive enough to warrant separate treatment. The Orthodox Defense and the Tarrasch Defense are two important examples. (See Queen's Gambit Declined for more.) After 1.d4 d5 2.c4: If White chooses to fianchetto
486-554: The appreciation of positional play , the Queen's Gambit grew more popular, reaching its zenith in the 1920s and 1930s, and it was played in all but 2 of 34 games in the 1927 World Championship match between José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine . After the resumption of international chess activity following World War II , it was less frequently seen as many players moved away from symmetrical openings, tending to use an Indian Defence to combat queen pawn openings; however, it
513-489: The extra pawn. A more dubious gambit is the so-called Halloween Gambit : 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 ?! Nxe5 5.d4. Here the investment (a knight for just one pawn) is too large for the moderate advantage of having a strong center. Ruy L%C3%B3pez de Segura Rodrigo " Ruy " López de Segura ( c. 1530 – c. 1580) was a Spanish chess player, author, and Catholic priest whose 1561 treatise Libro de la invención liberal y Arte del juego del Axedrez
540-438: The great rival schools of chess which divided the players of the 18th and early 19th centuries had arisen, López yet belongs essentially to that school of chess which we are accustomed to associate with the name of Philidor. In his analysis, and especially in the games in his second book, we may trace the genesis of that theory of Pawn-play which Philidor reduced to a system two centuries later. Ruy López's surviving treatise, which
567-510: The late nineteenth century." López's reputation suffered from the writings of the Modenese Masters . Ponziani described López as unfruitful, unmethodical, and having made little advance on Damiano . H.J.R Murray argues, however, that the Masters' criticism of López is unfair and likely stems from his play's resemblance to Philidor's , who was their school's great rival: Living before
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#1732870011482594-621: The locals. He apparently acquitted himself well, although the only account of these games is given in a single sentence by López himself. One of those players was Il Puttino , an epithet for a young Leonardo di Bona . López also learned the term gambit from the Italian players. In Italy López encountered Pedro Damiano 's treatise on chess, Questo libro e da imparare giocare a scachi et de li partiti , but did not find much value in it. This may have inspired López to write his own book, Libro de la Invencion liberal y Arte del juego del Axedrez , which
621-439: The presence of Philip II. López was again able to best Ceron. The years of López's birth and death can be estimated only very approximately; a lifespan of ca. 1530–1580 is commonly given without evidence. He was likely born before 1534, and lived until at least the 1574 contest. Ruy López's contribution to chess was mainly to its opening theory; Peter J. Monté has described him as the "father of opening theory". His analysis of
648-408: The typical response to a moderately sound gambit is to accept the material and give the material back at an advantageous time. For gambits that are less sound, the accepting player is more likely to try to hold on to their extra material. A rule of thumb often found in various primers on chess suggests that a player should get three moves (see tempo ) of development for a sacrificed pawn, but it
675-553: Was later analyzed by Gioachino Greco in the 17th century. In the 18th century, it was recommended by Philipp Stamma of Aleppo and is sometimes known as the Aleppo Gambit in his honor. During the early period of modern chess, queen pawn openings were not in fashion, and the Queen's Gambit did not become commonplace until the 1873 tournament in Vienna . As Wilhelm Steinitz and Siegbert Tarrasch developed chess theory and increased
702-748: Was one of the first books about modern chess in Europe. He made great contributions to chess opening theory, including in the King's Gambit and the Ruy López (or Spanish) opening that bears his name. López was also the strongest player in Spain for about 20 years. López was a native of Segura de León , a town in Extremadura , Spain. In 1559, while living in Zafra, López was called to Rome by Pope Pius IV on ecclesiastical business. During his stay in Rome, López played chess with
729-439: Was published in 1561. López was the strongest player in Spain for nearly twenty years; his nearest rivals were Alfonso Ceron (of Granada) and Medrano. López and Ceron played before King Philip II of Spain , impressing him enough for López to earn a benefice and a golden chain displaying a rook. López was also esteemed for his ability at blindfold chess . Alessandro Salvio writes that López travelled to Rome again in 1572. It
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