Today I want to present you with a tricky and deadly gambit that I’m sure can bring you a lot of victories. But, in order to understand where this gambit comes from, we are going to take a brief look at the Stafford Gambit.

Stafford Gambit for Black

The Stafford Gambit is one of the most dangerous lines that happens in the Petrov Defense after the following moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nc6!? 4. Nxc6 dxc6. Black sacrifices a pawn for quick development and piece activity. This position can be very dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing because some of the most natural-looking moves can lead to a disaster.

Here is a quick example.

 

Stafford Gambit Refuted?!

However, nowadays many players know the good and easy way to refute the Sttaford Gambit.  Here is also the video lesson about the refutation of this dangerous gambit.

Stafford Gambit for White

Now that you know how dangerous this gambit can be, imagine what will happen if White manages to get the position (almost the same position) with the reverse colors. In this case, White will have an extra tempo. Let’s take a look at the following sequence. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4!? Nxe4 4. Nc3!? Nxc3 5. dxc3. 

Now we have almost the same position as before, but with a very important difference. The bishop on c4 is a stronger piece now because it’s aiming at the f7-square. That means that we have an improved version of the normal Stafford Gambit. Now let’s check Black’s most popular moves in this position.

Black’s Most Popular Move

In the game below, Black played the most popular move, 5…d6??, which is a huge blunder because of 6. Ng5! with the double threat against the f7-pawn.

 

Black Tries to Castle Quickly

Black’s strategy of developing his bishop on c5, followed by 6…0-0 simply fails. White has 2 minor pieces and the queen attacking the black king.

 

Black Plays 5…f6!

According to Stockfish 5…f6! is the best move and gives Black the statement of a clear advantage; however, things are not simple. This is not an intuitive move and, at first glance, it seems to be an ugly move. Nevertheless, Black protects his e5-pawn and covers the g5-square.

The clear downside of this move is that it weakens the a2-g8 diagonal and Black cannot castle. More than 36K players had played this move, but even if your opponent manages to find this move, he or she is likely to blunder in the next move as you are going to see.

 

The Best Way for Black to Face White’s Stafford Gambit

To finish, let’s see a game between two master-level players. This game shows how Black has to play against this gambit, but even here White has plenty of practical opportunities to complicate it.

 

If you want to know more about how to attack effectively, I highly recommend grabbing my course ATTACK AND WIN! This course is designed to be a step-by-step tutorial that will convert you into a strong master of attack.