The
Englund Gambit is a rarely played
chess opening that starts with the moves:
- 1. ?!
Black's idea is to avoid the traditional closed queen's pawn games and create an open game with tactical chances, but at the cost of a pawn. The gambit is considered weak;
Boris Avrukh writes that 1...e5 "seems to me the worst possible reply to White's first move". It is almost never seen in top-level play, although
Paul Keres once tried it. The gambit is occasionally seen in amateur games and in
correspondence chess, and the 3...Qe7 version of the gambit was frequently used by
Henri Grob.