Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Nf3/2...f5/3. Nxe5/3...Qf6/4. Nc4

Latvian Gambit
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) rnb1kbnr/pppp2pp/5q2/5p2/2N1P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R b
Moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 3. Nxe5 Qf6 4. Nc4
ECO code: C40
Parent: Latvian Gambit

Latvian Gambit, Leonhardt Variation

4. Nc4

Black remains a pawn down, but White's knight has run off, so Black may now dream of playing …d5 in one move. That pawn on e4 will have to be cleared out of the way first, with 4...fxe4. (If Black delays, White will play exf5 and retain the extra pawn.)

References

• Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.