Original subtitles

what's up guys welcome to the chess giant

this is Solomon Ardell and in today's video

we're gonna be going over a fun

aggressive

and surprisingly dangerous response to the move E four

in which we now play e 5

and against the move night of 3

the most popular options are knight c 6

defending the pawn the Philidor defense

and the Petrov defense with knight f 6

but in today's video guys

we're gonna be going over the crazy off key move d 5

the elephant gambit absolutely crazy

response to the move e 4 and night of three

and to be honest guys

when I first set out to make this video

I was expecting

the elephant gambit to not be very good

I thought it was gonna be one of those cheap gambits

where you rely on your opponent making a dumb mistake

and handing you the game but guys

the elephant gambit is surprisingly good

and most white players are not prepared for it

the first thing that this does is take white

out of its comfort zone

I myself playing with the white pieces

I'm you know guys I'm

I'm nothing like Magnus Carlsen

or Gary Kasparov or anything

but I'm around 2150 and to be completely honest

there's no move I hate to see more than the move d 5

with the elephant gambit I mean

I could take on d 5 but e four is played

and something just doesn't feel right

I could take on E5

but then all of a sudden Bishop d 6 ideas come in

and I'm just not really familiar with this position

needless to say guys most players

even expert master level players

are not prepared for the elephant gambit

now in today's video

I'm gonna be showing you guys all the main variations

so that you can be prepared for anything

that comes your way and the first two moves

that are definitely the most popular

and I think really

the only two moves that give white an advantage here

are E takes d 5 and knight takes d 5

so let's first take a look at the move E takes d five

guys against the move e takes d 5

we're always going to push with e 4

attacking the knight on a 3

and now white again really has two main options

there's only two moves here for white

that give white a better game

and the first one is night e 5

against which we're simply going to take on d 5

centralizing the queen and attacking that knight on e 5

and following the move d 4

we're going to use the old impassant rule

take on d 3 and after knight takes d 3

now play knight c six against the move night c 3

attacking the queen on d 5

we're not gonna play a passive move

like Queen d 8 or queen d 7

we're gonna play Queen a 5 in Scandinavian style

type fashion and against the move bishop e 2

play bishop f 5 and against the move castling

I really like castling queenside in this variation

I mean

I personally actually like Black's position more

black has good developmental chess

an active queen on a 5 an active knight on c 6

and an active bishop and rook

that are both putting pressure on the knight on d 3

needless to say this is a very uncomfortable position

for white to play and that's exactly what we want

coming out of this opening

so one option is night e 5

in which we're simply going to take the pawn on d 5

however the most popular option is actually Queen e 2

pinning the pawn on e 4 to the king on e 8

so obviously we can't take the knight now

but we can defend the pawn with knight f six

and following the move night c 3

play bishop e 7 reintroducing the idea of e takes f 3

taking the knight so now after knight takes e 4

we're not gonna take the knight and trade down

the played night takes d 5

and really no matter what white does here

we're gonna Castle Kingside

and now white is in an interesting predicament

white would love to Castle Kingside

but the problem is is that there's a bishop in the way

so at the master and grandmaster level

the most popular option is Queen d one

and by doing this

white is freeing up the square on e 2 however

now black can play f 5

attacking the knight on e 4 and after knight g three

play c 5

followed by knight c 6 and after castling play g 5

now

this is from an actual game played by the fide master

Steven Buker playing with the black pieces

as he was going against

none other than the former world champion

Boris Spassky here

the fide master made an upset

against the former world champion

beating Boris Spassky with the elephant Gambit

and we'll go over that game in one of our next videos

so guys that covers e takes c 5

in which we play e 4 attacking the knight on f 3

what about the move Knight takes c 5

well against knight takes c 5

we're not gonna take the pawn on e four

but simply play bishop d 6 attacking the knight on e 5

and then after d 4 now we can take on e 4 and now why

it has some interesting possibilities

the main line is the move knight c 4

attacking the bishop on d 6

and now we're just gonna play knight f 6

Castle kingside

and if bishop g 5 ever comes into the game

we're simply gonna play h 6

and then bring our bishop back to e 7

defending the knight and preparing a knight d 5 idea

and following castling kingside

we can now play knight d five

really the idea here is that if Bishop takes E 7

we could play Queen takes E 7 and now we have F 5

F 4 and F 3 ideas and if night to e 3 is ever played

we can play knight f 4

active knight and attacking the bishop on e 2

I really like Black's game here

so guys in this position knight c

4 is literally the main line at the grandmaster level

against the Elephant gambit

and I still like Black's game

what if white plays a move like knight c 3

now Knight c 3 is not the most popular option

but I actually recommend this move for white

I think that white gives a slight advantage

out of this variation here

black can play bishop takes c 5 and after d takes c 5

we're now gonna snatch that queen off the board

play the move bishop f 5 defending the pawn

and now white has an interesting idea with night b 5

and it seems as if white has debunked

the elephant gambit attacking the pawn on c 7

but now we can just play knight at 6

and after the move bishop e 3

play knight e 7 followed by knight d five and guys

if you plug this into a computer program

it will give white a slight advantage

but if this is the best variation that white has

against the elephant gambit

I think that proves

that this is far from a cheap or bad gambit

and lastly let's go over a move like bishop c 4 guys

I mean bishop c 4 is a very logical option

at least it seems like that

looking at the position here

the knight and the bishop on c 4

both attacking that weak pawn on f 7

but here black is completely okay

in fact I would argue that black might even be better

we're gonna play bishop takes c five

and after d takes e 5 take on d 1

this is a key idea in the Elephant Gambit

and after king takes d 1

play knight c 6 attacking the pawn on e 5

and white might be tempted to play a move

like Bishop d 5 looking to attack the knight

and attack the pawn on e 4

but against the move bishop d 5

we're not gonna take on e 5

but play bishop g 4 with check attacking the king

and after king e 1 Castle queenside

now guys notice that if bishop takes e 4

we have a game over with rook d 1

so White's best option would be to play knight c 3

defending the bishop on e four

but now we can play night takes e 5

and after bishop takes e 4

play knight f 6

we're attacking the bishop on e 4 and guys

just look at the activity of Black's pieces

a very active bishop on g 4 an active knight pair

an active rook on d 8 and an active rook on h 8

that's gonna come to e eight

and putting pressure on the king

on top of that guys the king on E1 has already moved

so white cannot castle for the rest of this game

I really like Black's position here

and it is extremely uncomfortable for white to go on

from this position

so that covers the main two options with E takes c 5

and night takes c 5 and honestly

against both I still think that black has a good game

but let's go over some of the side variations

and see what happens what about the move night c three

I mean I could see a lot of white players playing this

white is not comfortable taking the pawn on e 5

or the pawn on d 5

maybe they haven't studied the variation that much

I mean I'm I'm rated around 2150

and I still have never really created a good response

against the elephant gambit

so it's not out of the ordinary

for white to play a normal

quote unquote move like night c three

but now we're not gonna take on e 4

but push with d 4 and after the move night e 2

I really like this f 6 idea

look at the pawn chain here

from g 7 all the way to d 4

I mean black has a very

nice space advantage in the center of the board

and no player playing with the white pieces

especially playing e 4

would ever want a position like this

I mean after the move night g 3

we can now play Bishop e six

and now black is looking to play night c 6

play Queen d 7 Castle Queenside

start just hurling down the pawns

on the king side of the board

but what if white wants to stop this with bishop b 5

check I actually think that bishop b 5

check is probably White's best option here

but we're still completely okay

we're gonna play c 6 attacking the bishop on b five

and after Bishop a 4 play Knight c 6

and often times in this position

white will play Bishop b 3

looking at this position

the bishop on a 4 really isn't doing much

and the bishop on e 6 is very strong

controlling the light squares for black

so bishop b 3 is a very logical option

but it's okay we can just take the bishop

then play the move d 3 another key idea

in many of the variations in the Elephant Gambit

and now white can easily get into trouble very quickly

I mean looking at the moves

he takes c 3 we now take with the queen

and notice how we're attacking e 2 and f 1

so now

the king on e 1 can't castle and if white plays a move

like knight e 2 trying to castle

we could play bishop c five

followed by castling queenside

we have a very active queen on d 3

a huge space advantage

an active bishop on c 5 attacking the f to pawn

and a knight on a 6 that's soon gonna come to B 4

and c 2 Black has a completely better game here

so guys one of the moves is knight c 3

another option that white could play

and this will be the last move that we go over

is c 3 often times white plays c 3

looking to fight for the center of the board

and also prepare queen a 4

but here guys we're not gonna take on e 4

but simply play knight c 6

and if queen a 4 is played

it seems as if black is in some serious trouble

I mean White's putting pressure on the d 5 pawn

the knight on c 6 is pinned right now

e 5 can be taken but guys

we're simply going to play Bishop d seven

and now obviously the knight can't take on e 5

and obviously the queen can't take on c 6

but white can play E takes d 5

and it appears as if black has just lost upon at move 5

has the elephant gambit been debunked

well guys

we're actually doing this on purpose now

we play knight d 4 attacking the queen on a 4

and this knight takes away both b

3 and c 2 from the queen

so now the queen really has no option

but to go all the way back to d 1

in which we take the knight off the board

and after queen takes f 3

we're now going to play Bishop d 6 followed by f 5

and after a move like d 3

continue to play natural

developmental chess with knight f 6

Castle kingside and now after castling kingside

we can play queen e 8

with ideas of queen g 6 attacking the bishop

we also have future ideas of e 4 and f 4

the bishop pair is going to become alive

and we're going to bring this a rook to e 8

we have great attacking chess here

and it's honestly a lot of fun

if you'd like to see The Elephant Trap

a totally different opening but cool chest trick

click the video to the left

if you'd like to explore more chest openings in general

click the playlist to the right

leave a comment to let me know what other videos

you'd like to see on this channel

and as always I appreciate you guys

thanks for watching peace