The Danish Gambit
The Danish Gambit is a notoriously wild gambit beginning with 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3
The general fact about gambit lines is that the side giving up material is very aggressive in its approach and is looking to cook up something before the position simplifies.
Danish Gambit, in particular, is the one where white aims to quickly develop his minor pieces and generate some sort of an attack on black’s king-side. The main line proceeds with black accepting the extra pawn, and white recapturing with his
knight on b1. Some lines also include declining the gambit, and playing 3…d6/d5/Qe7.
The unsound nature of this gambit was proven using engines, and that is why it isn’t played at the top GM level. It became clear that if black plays logically accurate moves against this opening, white’s attack could be easily nullified leaving it with absolutely no compensation for the lost pawn.
However, the Danish Gambit could be a useful weapon against weaker players who fall into the traps that these gambits set out. Also, if there’s some sort of a time constraint, and moves are needed to blitz out, it could potentially work like a charm.
