In this lesson, I’m excited to share with you my new favourite chess opening gambit for White after 1.e4. It happens in the Scotch Game after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4. White then sacrifices another pawn 4.c3, which leads to the aggressive Goring Gambit.

If black plays the most common move, which is just to capture the pawn on c3, white can just bring out the bishop with 5.Bc4. Black usually continues to gobble up pawns with 5…cxb2, which white can recapture with the other bishop.

White’s idea in this gambit is to achieve a very active position with a lot of attacking opportunities. The sacrificed pawns allows white to initiate strong attacks towards black’s kingside with the bishop pair.

Those familiar with the Danish Gambit may see a similar setup. But there is a difference. White develops the knight on f3 first before bringing out the bishops.

This aggressive gambit also has many traps. One of these traps even has the potential to defeat the 16th world champion Magnus Carlsen!

That may sound too good to be true but he actually lost to this, as this launches very powerful attacks which are hard to counter.

Explore the Chess Openings Lesson Guide to find lessons organized by opening strategies. Improve your play from the first moves with a clear, topic-based approach.

Aggressive Goring Gambit Video Lesson

Watch the video lesson to learn how you can use this aggressive gambit to crush your opponents.

You can find the PGN of this opening gambit below:

If you want to learn all the fundamental things about chess, including openings, then you need to check out Level Up Your Chess. This course has six sections covering, not just the opening, middlegame and endgame. It also covers how to avoid blunders and how to study and train effectively.

And my big promise in this course is that studying just one section is enough to boost your chess rating. So, go ahead and check it out.