Chess Openings: Learn NOT to Play the Duras Gambit!
On this YouTube chess channel, we have covered chess openings for black against e4 including the Alekhine’s Defense, French Defense, Pirc Defense, Scandinavian Defense, Owen’s Defense, Caro-Kann, Defense, Sicilian Defense, and many more. These are all top tier chess openings for black, which will give you a great chance to win games fast and beat higher rated players while improving at chess. However, today’s chess opening is just the opposite! In fact, the Duras Gambit is arguably the worst chess gambit ever created! In today’s video we cover the chess opening theory (if you even want to call it that) and what to do if you find yourself playing this terrible chess opening! The Duras Gambit is not a top tier chess opening for black, and should NOT be used in tournaments! However, the Duras Gambit is fun if you are messing with your friends or even playing bullet chess online, and want your opponent to use a few seconds on the clock. After covering some of the opening lines and variations, we will analyze a game by Magnus Carlsen in which he beat a GM using it! (I think this speaks more to Magnus Carlsen being good than the opening!) We hope you enjoy learning how NOT to play the Duras Gambit!
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:57 Chess Opening “Theory”
7:07 Magnus Carlsen Somehow Wins With It!
CHECK OUT VIDEOS BELOW FOR MORE CHESS CONTENT:
Chess Openings: Learn to Play the Ponziani Opening!
Top 10 Chess Openings for Black Against d4!
Top 5 Chess Players of All Time!
Chess Openings: Learn to Play the Pirc Defense!
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Why in the world would you walk into an obvious discovery check like that?
For people who enjoy the Duras, I'd recommend trying out the Colorado gambit, which comes out of the Nimzowitsch Defence: 1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 f5?!Note that this is still not a great opening, but it is far better than the Duras because the knight on f3 blocks the diagonal; many beginner and intermediate players will accept but then hold on to the pawn, which is a mistake.
The only reasonable alternative to 2 … Nf6 is 2 .. Nh6, I think planing to block the queen check with …. Nf7. This leads to an exchange of queens where White is a pawn up and can win tempi on Black's king on e6 or Black has to accept an isolated pawn on e6 instead – a winning position for White.
First
I somehow have a 100% win rate with this opening. 8 games I’ve played with the opening all in rapid.
Was looking at your animal themed defense videos and was surprised i didn't see one on the Black Lion defense. Any plans?
I've played this a lot. The surprise factor of it has won me ~60% of games.
Magnus probably played all, I mean all, the openings out there with awesome results 🙂 . . . Nice content man 👍
I like this! Gonna play it tomorow in classical tournament game against 2200 rated player
YOUR PAWN IS A TRAITOR AND A COWARD!
Okay, Solomon, I'm not gonna play it. But it makes the Latvian Gambit look SO much better now! Oldrich Duras must have had cigar smoke in his eyes and finger-slipped that. I bet he was one hell of a poker player too.
Thanks, Solomon. Now I'm going to go through your treatment of the Latvian from a year ago, with
fresh eyes. Avanti.
Fundy gambit 😅
Iv won a lot with this
I don't know the origins of this gambit name, but my Star Trek geek senses tingled.
This is my favorite gambit. I play it almost always after the e4 move. The results are satisfactory. From my own experience I can say that it is worth playing a castling queenside this gambit.
Ive won quite a bit of games with the Kf7 variation. People tend to become overaggressive because of the weak king and often blunder material or fall into a trap. If people ignore it and continue developing normally, it is still very playable after taking the pawn.
Yo! You really did a video about this! XD well is cool to have so many options available, now trolls have something thatt suits their mood. 😀
"This is the worst oppening"… I'm very, very sad….. ANYWAYSSSSS
Thanks 👍 👍 👍 👍
I play the Duras gambit but I hide my king on the queenside. Fun opening.
Should be called the Duress Gambit, as any sane person who is not the best chess player in the world would only ever play this under duress.
Honestly it's not that bad blitz. I wouldn't try this in classical, but it really works well to take people out of their theory, which is what allows most of us to play fast. Easy wins when your opponent takes 1 minute on the second move
you should play king F7 as the second move for black and activate the king, if white pushes their queen its possible to mate them pretty quickly
I just pushed f5 against e4 in a game online. Wish me luck you guys 😂
Duras Gambit is good!
I like during the Duras Gambit where you gambit that pawn then take center opening up your bishop to take the pawn back taking control of the center.
Haha! I'm about 1500 and have been playing this for a while with 48% win. It's obviously objectively bad, but it really throws alot of people off. As long as you don't allow a check, you get your pawn back and control the center half the time, and even when you don't get the pawn back your opponent is confused and winging it from go. I generally just get the knight out, push the D pawn, the H pawn & castle queenside.
The duras makes the Latvian look like the French defense
h4: hello
looks like kings gambit with black
Sorry to be a statistics nerd, but at no level on the Lichess database is 2)…Nf6 the best option. 2)…Nh6 has the highest win rate so it's a shame you didn't cover it.
Who was Duras? When did he invent this gambit? Did he win against some strong players when playing the gambit?
So many questions without answer…
I played this before I studied chess. Bd3 kind of kills it.
I just SMASHED a guy in blitz with this… reminds me of the king's gambit for white (which i love). Guaranteed at the lower level of play no one will know any theory here.
after kf7 it is +4.7 for white
The Duras gambit is very very very good at low rated at like below 1800 I think.
lol bro just play d6 2nd move and u can develop into a great game.
After bishop d3 defending the pawn, c5 intead of e6 is more interesting
He a queen but he gave a knight and pawns
I was curious about the position after … Qh5 – what is the queen ended up on h3 instead. Well, in that case Bxd2+ isn't even the best move according to the engine and I am not surprised. White would be better.
According to the engine the best move is actually 3 … d6 planing to hide the king on e7. White is certainly much better, but it's not that clear to me, since Black gets the bishop pair and a relatively harmonious position.