Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Apr 14, 2018 05:32 PM UTC:
The 2. Ef3 Gambit
I've been playing a match against Kevin Pacey (game log here)
and I started with what I considered to be obvious moves but accidentally played a gambit on my second move: 1. f4 f5 2. Ef3.
I didn't notice but this was a gambit because of 2. ... Qi4:
Now the unprotected pawns at i2 and f4 are both attacked. In retrospect this seems like a reasonable gambit because black
has to sacrafice some significant development to grab a free pawn. After our game progressed well past this point (so as not
to cheat) I had ChessV consider this position to a depth of 16 (depth measured in half-moves) and it considered black to be
ahead by a third of a pawn. I then had it continue playing at 4 hours per move. At least 20 half-moves in, it still thought black's
advantage was about the same - still calculating to a depth of 16 - so basically a total depth of 36. But ultimately white
caught up, overtook, and went on to win on white's 62nd move.
So the jury is still out on this gambit, but it looks like a good opening. I think white probably has the advantage if black
plays 2. ... Qi4. To see the full ChessV self-play game, which took over a week of processing power, you can download the
saved game file here.
The 2. Ef3 Gambit
I've been playing a match against Kevin Pacey (game log here) and I started with what I considered to be obvious moves but accidentally played a gambit on my second move: 1. f4 f5 2. Ef3. I didn't notice but this was a gambit because of 2. ... Qi4:
Now the unprotected pawns at i2 and f4 are both attacked. In retrospect this seems like a reasonable gambit because black has to sacrafice some significant development to grab a free pawn. After our game progressed well past this point (so as not to cheat) I had ChessV consider this position to a depth of 16 (depth measured in half-moves) and it considered black to be ahead by a third of a pawn. I then had it continue playing at 4 hours per move. At least 20 half-moves in, it still thought black's advantage was about the same - still calculating to a depth of 16 - so basically a total depth of 36. But ultimately white caught up, overtook, and went on to win on white's 62nd move.
So the jury is still out on this gambit, but it looks like a good opening. I think white probably has the advantage if black plays 2. ... Qi4. To see the full ChessV self-play game, which took over a week of processing power, you can download the saved game file here.