Irish Gambit

Origin

The chess historian Edward Winter traced the origin of the Irish Gambit to an article published in the Columbia Chess Chronicle on July 16, 1887. The author of the article claims the gambit was invented by an Irishman named Dennis O'Flaherty. The article ends with these words: The Oxford Companion to Chess contains a similar story about the origins of the gambit: In 2018, the writer Shawn Gillen published an autobiographical essay entitled The Irish Gambit. Gillen begins by presenting the Irish Gambit as an ethnic joke, and goes on to compare the "[l]ogical thinking and the discipline required to play chess" to stereotypes of Irish people:

Chicago Gambit

|rd| |bd|qd|kd|bd|nd|rd |pd|pd|pd|pd| |pd|pd|pd | | | | | | | | | | | | |nd| | | | | | |pl|pl| | | | | | | | | | | |pl|pl|pl| | |pl|pl|pl |rl|nl|bl|ql|kl|bl| |rl The Chicago Gambit is derived from the Irish Gambit. The Oxford Companion to Chess defines it as follows:

:1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Nxe5 Nxe5 :4. d4

A doctor named D. T. Phillips used the opening to defeat Harry Nelson Pillsbury in a simultaneous exhibition in Chicago on January 7, 1899.

The Oxford Companion to Chess describes the Chicago Gambit as "unsound" and compares it unfavorably to the Müller–Schulze Gambit.

References

Works cited

References

1. Winter, Edward. "Unusual Chess Openings".
2. Soltis, Andy. (August 1997). "GM Follies".
3. "D. T. Phillips vs. Harry Pillsbury".