The Englund Gambit Revisited

The position above was from my recent game in an opening I'm familiar with. 1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 Qe7 { A40 Englund Gambit: Main Line }

The Englund Gambit, relying on a surprise trap for unsuspecting White 1.d4 players. This opening has a serious drawback of leaving the king side undeveloped. I'm very aware of this trap and how to take advantage of it and wrote about it in this post many moons ago.

The game continued4. Nc3 Nxe5 5. e4 Nxf3+ 6. gxf3 d6 7. Bf4 Be6 8. Qd4 Nf6

I played the same position in 2022 (https://lichess.org/VIxCs9z5Q7eV) and many games thereafter. White already has the advantage as Black's King side is undeveloped and his King is stuck in the center. He can't castle Queen-side because my own Queen is targeting his a7 square. Meanwhile, White has a great lead in development and can open lines to attack Black's uncastled King. 9. O-O-O Qd7

Qd7 to make room for his Bishop on f8. It gives White an additional target though. 10. Bb5 c6

After c6, now the d6 square is weak.11. Ba4 d5 12. exd5 Nxd5 13. Nxd5 Bxd5

Lines have been opened and now there are a lot of ways to win. Moves like 14. Qe5+ or 14. c4 are also decisive. 14. Rhe1+ Be7 15. Qxg7 Rf8 16. Qe5 Qe6

The position above is reached. White to move and win material. 17. Rxd5 Qxe5 18. Rdxe5 f6 19. Rxe7+ { Black resigns. } 1-0

Full game: https://lichess.org/mT0Wf1QU