Stafford Gambit

People (at least me) always relate Stafford Gambit with IM Eric Rosen, a famous chess streamer. It is a variation of the Petrov Defense with 3…Nc6?, a theoreticaly lost position for black, assuming perfect play.

Top chess engines, like Stockfish, don’t favour these types of gambits because black is lost in material, and with deep enough analysis you can almost always avoid blundering and convert your advantage into a win. However, under tight time control, (like in bullet/blitz), you can always fall into traps and lose tons of material, and that is the main goal of stafford gambit.

Please Note Eric’s “Oh No My Queen!” Line

White thinks black is blundering and losing its queen after 6…Nxe4!!, but simply forgot white can checkmate in a few moves despite down a queen.

There are Youtube Videos on the latest traps (there are infinitely many traps for black!). There is a very recent one posted on Eric’s Youtube Channel, below I’ll show the game (analysed by Stockfish)

In this position, please try to find the best continutation (there is only one, a brilliant(!!) move).