Almost always a pawn - one, sometimes two. Sacrificing a piece in the opening is rarer and demands exact calculation. What comes back is one of four things, usually several at once:
Hence the difference between a gambit and a blunder: a sacrifice buys compensation, and the compensation is named in advance. A pawn given away for nothing is not a gambit, it is a mistake.
The most direct example is the King's Gambit: on move two White offers the f pawn to knock the black pawn off the centre and open the f file for a future rook.
A second example is the Evans Gambit, where the sacrifice comes on move four and serves a different purpose: the b4 pawn deflects the bishop on c5 while White gains time to build the centre with c3 and d4.
Both are covered with variations in the openings catalogue.
The most famous opening with the word gambit in its name is not, strictly speaking, a sacrifice at all.
Black may take on c4, but the pawn cannot be held - White wins it back in nearly every line. That is why the Queen's Gambit is called a conditional gambit: there is no material sacrifice, only an offer that is usually better declined.
A neighbouring word is countergambit: that is when the second player answers a gambit with a sacrifice of their own.
There is no universal answer, but there is a working rule for a beginner: taking is fine, holding on at any cost is not. An extra pawn is worth exactly one pawn, while being three moves behind in development costs more.
| What to do | When it makes sense |
|---|---|
| Accept and give it back later | almost always: take the pawn, and at the first pressure hand it back and finish developing |
| Accept and hold | if you know the line to the end and are ready to defend for several moves |
| Decline | if the opening is unfamiliar: a quiet central move or a developing move almost never loses |
The danger of an accepted gambit is not the pawn but the traps that usually stand behind it: your opponent has played this position a hundred times and you are seeing it for the first time. The typical ones - opening traps.
The liveliest ones, from the common to the rare.
| Gambit | First moves | What the sacrifice buys |
|---|---|---|
| Queen's Gambit | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 | the centre; the pawn comes back |
| King's Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. f4 | the f file and the centre |
| Evans Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 | a tempo and the centre |
| Benko Gambit | 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 | pressure down the a and b files |
| Danish Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 | two pawns for two diagonals |
| Blackmar-Diemer | 1. d4 d5 2. e4 | a fast attack |
The full list with variations - the catalogue, and by colour - openings for White and for Black.
Yes - and this is one of the rare cases where the advice runs against "play solidly". A gambit teaches what is otherwise hard to learn: counting time and piece activity instead of material.
The practical side also favours them: an opponent at your level usually does not know the lines, takes the pawn and starts defending, and defending is harder than attacking. Games come out short and meaningful - five minutes to go through afterwards, not an hour.
One caveat: a gambit is not "I gave a pawn and I hope". Before sacrificing you should be able to say in words what you are getting. If there is no answer, the move is not a gambit, just a bad move. Where to start with openings - learning chess as an adult.
A sacrifice of a pawn or a piece early in the game in exchange for something else: fast development, extra moves, open lines or the centre. What separates it from a mistake is that the compensation is named in advance.
From the Italian dare il gambetto, to trip someone up. In wrestling it described a move where a fighter gives up his own balance to throw the opponent. The term entered chess in the sixteenth century.
By intent. In a gambit material is given deliberately and you know what you get for it - tempi, lines, the centre or an attack. A blunder is losing a piece for nothing, simply by missing something.
Taking the pawn is usually fine, but holding on to it at any cost is not: an extra pawn is worth one pawn, and being three moves behind in development costs more. If the opening is unfamiliar, it is calmer to decline and finish developing.
No, which is why it is called a conditional gambit. The pawn on c4 can be taken but not kept - White regains it in almost all lines. A genuine sacrifice happens in the King's Gambit or the Evans Gambit.
It is when the second player answers a gambit with a sacrifice of their own instead of accepting: the opponent offered material, and you offer yours in return.
Yes. They teach you to count time and activity rather than material, and opponents at the same level usually do not know the lines. But the sacrifice has to be deliberate: if you cannot say what you get for the pawn, it is not a gambit but a bad move.
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Nearby - opening traps, openings for White, openings for Black and the glossary.
At the board since childhood: hazy about his rating, precise about every rook he has blundered. Counts an evening as a good one if the opponent stayed to talk afterwards instead of rushing off to check with an engine. Message →
