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On this page of chess-openings-for-beginners.blogspot.com we will learn the Latvian Gambit chess opening. The Latvian Gambit starts with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 and occupies the ECO code C40 (ECO stands for the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings; C40 is 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3). The official name of the opening is Latvian Counter-Gambit but usually the chess players call it as Latvian Gambit.
Welcome to the Latvian Gambit chess opening which is aggressive for black, considered dubious, played very rarely at master level, not played at top-level -- but which is beautiful for chess beginners, popular among the correspondence players and beginners and which is worthy to try!
I. Latvian Gambit: Data and Variations
Chess Opening: Latvian Gambit
Other Names: Latvian or Greco Counter-Gambit
Moves to Memorize: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5
ECO Code: C40
The Latvian Gambit is one of the oldest chess openings and was very popular in old times. It was analyzed in the 17th century by Gioachino Greco and called Greco Counter-Gambit. Then the Gambit was named after the Latvian players headed by Karl Behting who contributed a lot to the theory of this opening at the beginning of the 20th century (the Behting variation of the Latvian).
The Latvian Gambit is a sample of the Open Game chess openings which start with 1.e4 e5, and the parent of the Latvian Gambit is the King's Knight Opening with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3... On the second move black pushes the undefended f-pawn on f4 (conducting gambit) to sacrifice and undermine the white center: the Latvian is like a King's Gambit for black ("reversed King's Gambit").
The Latvian Gambit is highly recommended for chess beginners to learn -- as an Open Game, it is struggle from the very beginning, with tactical fight... It is a Gambit which is also recommended for beginners... The Latvian Gambit is aggressive, risky, and may be dubious for black... Is the Latvian Gambit sound? Why do chess masters play the Latvian Gambit so rarely?
We will answer the above questions below, but just before few sayings of chess players on the Latvian from a chess forum on chess.com: • "The Latvian Gambit, though a very aggressive Black defense against white, is a great opening with good merits and supports good chances against white!", • "It's too aggressive and isn't very good because white gains a tempo and developmental edge and white USUALLY gets a space advantage; however, black can get solid if they play it properly."
• "After extensively analyzing it with some computer buddies and real buddies, white can get a very longterm and easy advantage if played the correct variation." • "I have come to the conclusion that it is sound but it just is not practical for OTB (over-the -board) play. In some lines black is very close to lost, and in others just positionally worse. However, most of the lines are very sharp and tactical, and most people don't know much theory. If you are playing against players below say 2200-2300, and you are familiar with many of the tactics, and are good at calculation... then it can really throw your opponent off!"...
Today's technologies gives the proper answer to the above questions. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5, the chess engine evaluates the position on the board as follows: +1.65 at depth 10, +1.48 at depth 20, and +1.42 at depth 30. The first +1.65 means that the white position is much better as if white won 1.65 pawns in material. The chess engine estimation prompts the following.
For the grandmaster and chess master, 1.65 in chess engine evaluation does matter. It is a big luxury for them to gift 1.65 advantage at the very beginning of the game -- but it is nothing to worry about for the chess beginner. Moreover, if the beginner know how to play the Latvian Gambit, he or she shall overcome the resistance of another beginner who doesn't know the Latvian.
There were attempts to prove that the Latvian Gambit is mistaken, and the experts do not recommend to play the Latvian for black -- however, today the Latvian Gambit is still alive... Yes, it's nice opening for chess beginners and rare opening for chess master (in 2019, the Latvian was played at master level as 1 game to 10000 with master ratings being at 1600-2100).
Some chess master players, rated at 1600-2100, intentionally play the Latvian Gambit to get both the position complicated and the opponent confused. Sometimes it works... The Latvian answering statistics are shown below. For white, the best answer for the Latvian Gambit is 3.Nxe5. The Latvian Gambit has 7 official variations, and it must be a good chess opening for the beginner to try...
Latvian Gambit Answering Statistics and Official Variations
Below is answering statistics to the Latvian Gambit chess opening:
3.Nxe5 ~55%, 3.d4 ~10%, 3.exd5 ~10%, 3.Nc3 ~8%, 3.d3 ~8%, 3.Bc4 ~5%.
To learn all 7 official variations of the Latvian Gambit with chess engine evaluations showing for each variation who is better and how much, click the following link:
• Learn 7 Official Variations of the Latvian Gambit
Note. Having visited the above link, now you know that the best for white is the corkscrew counter-gambit variation of the Latvian Gambit. As for black, the best is the Behting variation. Now you also know that the Nimzovich variation is the most common in today's play of the Latvian Gambit. Unofficially, the Nimzovich variation is called as the Main Line.
II. Latvian Gambit: How to Play the Main Lines
You may learn the main variations of Latvian Gambit. To see them, use Video 2: Latvian Gambit - How to Play; which is below. To see Video 2: Latvian Gambit - How to Play, click the Play button below:
• If the opening video has not shown up, please wait a little.
• If the video stops, drag a little right the player's handle.
See in writing the Latvian Gambit variations, which were shown in Video 2:
• Latvian Gambit, Main Line:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Nxe5 Qf6 4.d4 d6 5.Nc4 fxe4 6.Be2! Qf7 7.Nc3 Bf5 8.0-0 Nf6 9.f3! Ng4
• Latvian Gambit, Leonhardt Variation:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Nxe5! Qf6 4.Nc4 fxe4 5.Nc3 Qg6 6.d3 Bb4 7.Bd2 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 d5 9.Ne5 Qf5 10.dxe4 Qxe4+ 11.Be2 Nf6 12.0-0 c6
Note. The above video and the playing information are turning to be old -- instead, special links will be placed next below to show you how to correctly play proven lines of the Latvian Gambit, including the Main Line of the year 2019.
• The Latvian Gambit Answering Statistics and Calculated Lines
• How to Play Main Line or Nimzovich Variation of the Latvian
III. Latvian Gambit: Download PGN File
Below you can download the Latvian-Gambit.pgn file to see how the Latvian Gambit works in real games at the chess master level. To read the file, you will need a PGN Viewer Program. See Lesson 16 to download a PGN Viewer Program - You need it to open and replay all chess games within a PGN file. Before downloading the PGN file, please read how the Latvian-Gambit.pgn file was compiled.
The Latvian-Gambit.pgn file was specially created in the following way:
• The file includes main variations and displays how to correctly play some of them.
• In addition, the file includes 16 real games played in 2008-2009 on Latvian Gambit.
• The real games were selected randomly, all players are FIDE rated 1691-2462.
• All the names of the chess players and their ratings were removed.
• The game results and tournament names were removed as well.
• The real games are shown from the beginning to the end of opening phase only.
• At this point, the opening positions were analyzed by a computer program.
• You will see the result of the program's analysis, like this...
• "If White finds a best line ..., White will be better at 0.83 pawns."
• The computer program's analysis will help you:
• To analyze each chess opening position.
• To understand how to correctly enter the middle game...
To see how Latvian Gambit works in real games, click the following link:
• Download the Latvian-Gambit.pgn File, 10 KB
Note 1. The above file is to be downloaded from Google Drive. First click the above link to open, then click the download icon to download.
Note 2. To read the above PGN File and see the chess games inside it, you will need a PGN Viewer software.
You can find more on chess by clicking the following link:
• Chess Videos Blog (a sister chess blog)
• Chess Openings for Beginners - See All Lessons
This completes the lesson on the Latvian Gambit chess opening. The next opening to learn is the Center Game (see Lesson 25 in the list of all lessons. Find the link to all chess opening lessons at the top of this page, or just above).
