The Rousseau Gambit (or Ponziani Countergambit after
Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani
Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani (9 November 1719 – 15 July 1796) was an Italian law professor, priest, chess player, chess problem, composer and Chess theory, theoretician. He is best known today for his chess writing.
Life
Ponziani was born in Mode ...
) is a
chess opening
The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''op ...
that begins with the moves:
:1.
e4 e5
:2.
Nf3 Nc6
:3.
Bc4 f5
The gambit is named after French chess master
Eugène Rousseau. White can decline the gambit by supporting the e-pawn with 4.
d3. The resulting position is similar to a
King's Gambit Declined with colours reversed, and White's aiming at Black's weakened . Black will have trouble
castling
Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king (chess), king two squares toward a rook (chess), rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king ...
kingside, and Ng5 is a likely threat. White's position is better, but still requires careful play.
Key themes for White are to attack Black's kingside and to avoid attempts by Black to the position. Exchanges involving White's are particularly suspect.
White responses
Gambit Declined: 4.d3
White can decline the gambit and wait to capture the f-pawn. 4...Bc5
transposes to the
Lucchini Gambit.
Gambit Accepted: 4.exf5
White still has a good game after the inferior 4.exf5, but the position is less clear. Black usually plays 4...e4, which White may meet by 5.Nd4 Nf6 (5...Nxd4 leads to trouble after 6.Qh5+) 6.Nxc6.
4.d4!
White gets a clear advantage with 4.d4!:
* 4...fxe4 5.Nxe5 d5 6.Bb5 Ne7 7.0-0 a6 8.Bxc6+ bxc6 (8...Nxc6? 9.Qh5+) 9.f3 Bf5 10.Nc3 +/− (Bilguer ''
Handbuch'').
[
]
* 4...d6 and now:
** 5.Ng5 Nh6 6.d5 Nb8 (6...Ne7 7.Nc3 f4 8.g3 Ng6 9.Bb5+ +/−;
Maróczy) 7.Nc3 f4 8.h4 Bg4 9.f3 Bd7 10.g3 fxg3 11.f4 +/− (
Sozin).
** 5.dxe5 and now:
*** 5...fxe4 6.Qd5 Qe7 7.Bg5 Be6 8.Qxe4 +/− de Rivière–
Anderssen, London 1862.
*** 5...dxe5 6.Qxd8+ Nxd8 (6...Kxd8 7.Bg5+ Nf6 8.Nc3 +/−
Morphy–Worrall, London 1859) 7.Nxe5 fxe4 8.Bd2 Bd6 9.Bc3 +/−
Löwenthal & Medley vs. Morphy &
Mongredien, London 1857.
* 4...Nf6 5.dxe5 Nxe4 6.0-0 Bc5 7.Nc3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 h6 9.Nd4 g6 10.Nb3 +/− (Bilguer).
See also
*
Latvian Gambit
The Latvian Gambit (or Greco Countergambit) is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. e4 e5
:2. Nf3 f5
It is one of the oldest chess openings, having been analysed in the 16th century by Giulio Cesare Polerio and then the 17th cent ...
*
List of chess openings
This is a list of chess openings, organised by the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' (''ECO'') code classification system. The chess openings are categorised into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken up into one hundred ...
*
List of chess openings named after people
''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' lists 1,327 named openings and variants. Chess players' names are the most common sources of opening names. The name given to an opening is not always that of the first player to adopt it; often an opening is name ...
References
External links
*
*
*{{cite web , url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/mcgrew13.pdf , title=Gambits In Many Dimensions , author=Tim McGrew , date=2003-09-22 , publisher=
Chesscafe.com, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206203906/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/mcgrew13.pdf , archive-date=2012-02-06
Learn to play the Rousseau Gambit
Chess openings