Elephant Gambit

Yesterday a friend was demonstrating how to mess with your opponent, so after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 he played 2...d5.

I’ve definitely seen the position before and probably even figured out the correct move at one point, but over the board yesterday I couldn’t remember what worked for me in the past.

My opponent was a friend who plays casually, but sitting next to him, coaching and commenting, was the recent winner (of his division) in a national championship. I’d watched my less experienced friend eagerly capture pawns with his queen in previous openings, so I went for e4xd5 in hope of Scandinavian like moves where I get to develop while chasing his queen. Instead, he was coached to play e4 and proceeded to chase my knight around while developing his pieces.

I had hoped I could use my opponent’s weak habits to trick him into giving me a better position, without the intervention of the co-opponent. Instead, I learned once again not to play hope chess.

Tags: chess