Blackmar Diemer gambit
The Blackmar Diemer gambit is an interesting opening in which we sacrifice a pawn for development advantage. Of course, you can get other advantages too, but the main objective is to get black attacked fast.
Different from other gambits that we have covered so far, the Blackmar Diemer gambit is not as risky as other options. And, in most cases, you will have either your pawn back or some compensation for the material.
The Blackmar Diemer gambit can provide you many chances of winning, but you need to play your cards right. Also, we could say this is like two gambits in one, there are two lines that you can choose, depending on the kind of positions you want.
There, sure is a lot of options with this opening, so it is good to try it out. Also, if you encounter the Blackmar Diemer gambit you can have a hard time if you don’t know the right moves.
If you want to become a master at playing the Blackmar Diemer gambit make sure you read until the end. After the reading, you will be able to go out and win some games with the new opening you learned.
The mainlines of the Blackmar Diemer Gambit
We can have the Blackmar diemer gambit on the board after the moves:
Other move orders take you the same route. For example: 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e4 dxe4 4.f3.
You can clearly see the purpose of this opening, sacrificing a pawn to get a development advantage and controlling the open f and e file. White will have many chances to attack here, and there are many ways to play this gambit.
As we mentioned before, if black takes the pawn (4…exf3) white has two options to continue:
- Nxf3
- Qxf3
We will have a look at both moves now:
In the case of simply taking the pawn with Nxf3 White will try to attack the kingside using the open files. The idea will be to put pressure along those diagonals and put pressure using also the space advantage we have.
The game may continue like this in this case:
And we have an ok position, where both sides have chances. But white is probably better in this position.
The second option is the move Qxf3 which is an even sharper option. Even though many people don’t like this position for the simple fact that it gives up another pawn, is interesting.
Many people simply try not to choose this line because the computer hates it. However, in practice, it has worked really well for white, which means at least that black has a hard time defending this.
In a blitz game could be an interesting weapon to choose, the game could follow like this:
And still the position is very unclear.
Plans and ideas of the Blackmar Diemer Gambit
The ideas of the Blackmar Diemer gambit are to attack, simply attack, and you have to follow the attack principles. White will have to seize its space and development advantage, the main idea being that you can checkmate fast.
Or at least, get a position where you have compensation for your pawn. It’s important to know that you can choose to play an opposite castle position or you can castle short. Many people using this opening choose to castle long, which gives more possibilities to attack with the kingside pawns.
But there are also good ideas for black for a quick a6-b5-b4 that you need to look out for. The important principle of not showing your intentions too early in the game enter here.
Focus on developing your pieces first, and try to delay the castle as long as you can, this way you don’t leave the opponent with a clear idea of where to attack.
Honestly, the line with Qf3 is not too recommended, of course, it has possibilities and you can have a decent position out of that. But you shouldn’t try it in so loose time controls, it is something that must be done to surprise your opponent in a blitz game.
Sample games of the Blackmar Diemer gambit
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