Openings · C21–C22

Centre Game

Open the centre on move two and accept an early queen sortie — or give the pawns away and call it the Danish.

1.e4 e5 2.d4played as White

The idea

2.d4 opens the position before anybody is developed. After 2…exd4 White either takes with the queen, accepting that she will be chased and using the time to castle long, or plays 3.c3, the Danish Gambit, and gives up one pawn or two for the diagonals.

Both versions are club weapons rather than main lines, and both are perfectly playable if you know what happens when the gift is refused — which is the part almost nobody looks up.

Practise the line

You play White; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 20/2

1.e4e5
2.d4

Your move. Drag a piece, or tap it and then its square.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Kicking the knight with e5

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.e5 Ng4

The mistake: Gaining space with 5.e5 while the queen stands on e3.
Why it costs: 5…Ng4 attacks the queen and eyes f2, and 6.Qe4 d5 wins the pawn back with the initiative. Pushing a pawn past your own queen is how a queen that had merely been chased becomes a queen that is in the way.
Instead: 5.Nc3 and 6.Bd2, castling long as fast as possible. The queen on e3 is only tolerable while the rest of the pieces are coming out behind her.

The Danish, accepted to the end

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 cxb2 5.Bxb2 d5

The mistake: Expecting the two-pawn gambit to leave Black defenceless.
Why it costs: 5…d5 gives one pawn straight back and shuts both bishops down. After 6.Bxd5 Nf6 Black develops with tempo and is a pawn up in an ordinary position; this has been the known answer for about a hundred years.
Instead: Take on c3 with the knight instead of playing 4.Bc4 — 4.Nxc3 keeps the lead in development without spending the second pawn — or meet 5…d5 with 6.exd5 and play for the open lines rather than the material.

The Danish, declined

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.cxd4 Nc6

The mistake: Having no plan for 3…d5, which is what a prepared opponent plays.
Why it costs: Black hands the pawn back at once and reaches a position where White's extra tempo is worth very little. Every attacking idea the Danish is played for needs Black to have taken twice on c3.
Instead: Know it as an isolated-queen's-pawn game: 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.Be2 and play the position for the d5 square, not for an attack that is not there.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.