The 7 WORST Chess Openings (According To Stockfish)

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:41 - Senechaud Countergambit
3:39 - Mosquito Gambit
5:41 - Matovinsky Gambit
11:45 - Orsini Gambit
14:21 - Frederico Variation
17:09 - Jerome Gambit
20:11 - Tumbleweed/Drunken King

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[joachimfrank]

The drunken king variation looks like a precursor to the bongcloud.

[rodbenson]

An interesting thing about some of these bad gambit is the precision required to refute them. I guess the age of stockfish has also weakened them as everyone can now quickly learn the precise sequence of moves to refute them.

[reddy]

It's funny how serious Nelson is when discussing such silly openings

[arrowofkira]

I love how the drunken king variation is probably just named after black sees Kf2 and is asking White : "What's that move, are you drunk?" Yeah...
Btw I'm personally curious if Nelson found some actually good gambits, especially because after the poll last week he was probably looking for some and even read through 500 pages of his book trying to find something. Nelson you're the best <3

[pgue]

The Drunken King is actually really fun to play, and I've beaten high rated players with it. White, with seemingly random moves, invites black's queen to remove all the king's pawns, after which 4 of whites pieces are free to chase the queen around the board. If black isn't careful, queen traps are possible, along with knight forks and other mayhem. And black usually isn't careful and goes for the quickest mate. Of course it's total garbage, but when you beat a decent player with it, it's really funny.

[eneskutuk]

Botez Gambit can be mentioned as well. It is basically sacrificing the Queen for the piece activity. It can be used in many openings to confuse the opponent.

[christopherheckman]

A bit of history about the Tumbleweed Gambit: It was apparently popular in Nebraska between WWI and WWII. There were whole tournaments where that was the opening that was always played.

(sources: Chess To Enjoy, Andy Soltis, and a chess newsletter from the Nebraska State Chess Association)

[Cyberangel]

Funny enough, the Matovinsky Gambit has a couple of games in the lichess Master database and Black even won a couple of games. I think especially on lower time controls this gambit has some potential.

[SmilingIbis]

I recall a quote attributed to Korchnoi: "If you're going to play stuff like this, why bother studying openings?"

[COOL_DAD]

Someone used the mosquito gambit against me when i was newer, I think he checked mate me with help of the black bishop. After i saw it again I researched it and stopped all attacks rather quickly. I haven't seen it in over a year, but every once in awhile i see it

[chingyincheng]

Hey nelson, can you make a specific video about bongcloud? It will be helpful for blitz and bullet

[DM_Curtis]

"Openings don't matter. You can open with a4 if your tactics are good." -- Ben Feingold

[jortz]

Old german literature(specifically "Schachmatt: Eine lehrreiche Plauderei für Fortgeschrittene über den Mattangriff im Schach" on page 56) mentions an opening called "Elefantengambit"(literally elephant gambit). It has nothing to do with the e4 e5 elephant gambit(which is called "Mittelgambit im Nachzug" in german). It goes 1. e4 f5,
2. exf5 Kf7, 3. Qh5+ g6, 4. fxg6+ Kg7, 5. gxh7. In the game shown in the literature white actually gets mated.
It's around +5.0. But i've actually played hundreds of blitz games with it, it is a blast to play, gives some very fun positions.

[benjaminoechsli]

Your technique of working through the gambits, explaining how they connect back to more mainstream openings, giving the viewer time to think about what they might do next, etc. makes me feel like I'm in Chess 301, and that's great. Thanks!

[togishere]

I've actually played the Matovinsky gambit 4 times before. According to opening explorer, I've won all of them (against people my rating). It's a really good gambit

[justarandomanimegirlpassin]

thats a really impressive work going through an entire chessbook mr. whoever you are chess vibes keep it up my guy not only the content is interesting but its educational to bit weaker players

[SurfTheSkyline]

The Jerome Gambit is indeed really fun in blitz and bullet when people don't have the chance to think about what they are doing without introducing time pressure in the middle and end game

[RikMaxSpeed]

Fun video, how much of the book can you debunk like this?
"The best way to refute a gambit is to accept it" (Steinitz, Capablanca, Bronstein and friends)

[apestogetherstrong]

Drunken king is just 17th century bongcloud

[kittleo]

The Stockfish 15 NNUE evaluation at depth 30 for each of these are as follows:
Senechaud Countergambit; +2.6
Mosquito Gambit; +3.27
Matovinsky Gambit; +4.23
Orsini Gambit; -3.17
Frederico Variation (actual name being Sicilian Defense: Hyperaccelerated Dragon, Fianchetto, Frederico Variation); +2.86
Jerome Gambit; -4.06
Tumbleweed Variation; -4.16