Folding Shovel's Gambit
The Folding Shovel's Gambit is a variant of the second Stab variant of the Communistic Attack of the Anderssen Defense following upon the Ware opening, classified under the ECO key P76. It got its name from the rumor of causing grandmasters to collapse in laughter, get a heart attack and lose on time after viewing it's movelist. It's not to confuse with the Rattlesnake Gambit, which arises from the first Stab variant.
The Folding Shovel's Gambit is created by the following moves:
| 1. a2-a4 | b7-b5 |
| 2. b2-b4 | c7-c6 |
| 3. a4-a5 | Sb8-a6 |
| 4. h2-h4 | Sg8-f6 |
| 5. d2-d3 | g7-g6 |
| 6. Sb1-c3 | Lc8-b7 |
| 7. Sc3-b1 | h7-h5 |
| 8. g2-g4!? | ... |
Origins[edit]
The Gambit was discovered first in 2019 by Witschnay Hudrithshepatshinsson. Hudrithshepatshinsson, however, was not taken seriously by the chess world due to his development of the "Five Knight's Game" which aims for a quick pawn promotion (for more details, please read Five Knights at Fischer's). Therefore, the Gambit would not become popular until 2028.
The ancient Vladimir Kramnik rediscovered it when he searched for a way to avoid the Liechtenstein Game against Vesselin Topalov (1. e4 e5 2. a3 d5 3. e:d5 c6 4. d:c6 Nd7 5. c:b7 Qe7 6. b8Q += ).
Kramnik tested out the Folding Shovel's moves against Topalov who replied accordingly to his wishes. The pawn sacrifice in the 8th move confused Topalov so much that he made the catastrophic mistake 8. ...Qb6?? and lost the game. Afterwards, he lamented that he originally planned to play 8. ...g5??, which, however, is to view as a pure waste move that is not developing any pieces.
Since then, the Gambit was a favorite especially at world championships. It is remarkable that even beginners below 1,2k elo use this opening frequently and are able to at least draw against players with 2,5k elo. Possible connections to the rumor of making standfast players collapse in laughter (turning them into fallfast players) were largely ignored; the opening has still to be refuted, as well. It was officially recognized by the FIDE (Federation of International Dedication to Experiments) in October 2028.
Analysis[edit]
1. a2-a4 b7-b5
Anderssen's Defense, named after the 1879 deceased grandmaster. Mainly because he was unable to contradict.
2. b2-b4 ...
The Communistic Attack. White sends out his leftwing pawns and gets ready to overthrow the first pieces.
2. ... c7-c6 3. a4-a5 Sb8-a6
The second Stab variant is, in general, viewed as the best continuation. Not recommended is 3. f3 Sarkozy's Defense), since after 3. ...e6 4. g4 Black would easily win with 4. ...Qh4#.
4. h2-h4 Sg8-f6 5. d2-d3 ...
The main continuation of the Stab variant, also named Vodka Attack. Alternatively, the Obama Advance (5. d4) would be possible.
5. ... g7-g6 6. Sb1-c3 Lc8-b7
In a match vs. Anand in 2029, the 2nd in world ranking, Fabiano Caruana, played the Reversed Delayed Vodka Attack here (6. ...d6), but proceeded to lose quickly. F3 (now Reversed Kamikaze Defense) is still shit, but that's not really limited to this special position.
7. Sc3-b1 h7-h5
Opening expert Magnus Carlsen criticized this move as immobile and rather recommended 7. ...Qc8, followed by 8. ...Kd8, to surprise the opponent and force him to lose time.
8. g2-g4!?
The magic Gambit move, after which White is guarenteed to win, no matter whether Black captures or not.
What do you mean, White is undeveloped and his position is disastrous? Have you eaten a chess engine? The White advantage is obvious.
Conclusion[edit]
The Folding Shovel's Gambit can enter various lines, including Ulf's Game (17. Qe2), the Lasker Cascade (23. ...Bxh1, 24. h8Q Bxa1) and the Significantly Less Modern Benoni (42. Qc1+ Ne1 43. Kd2+ Kg2 44. d4 Rh8 45. d5 Qa3 Qh2 with the threat of 46. ...Qh4, followed by 47. Rg7 Qh6+ [47. Rg8 Qh8 48. e:d5 Qg8 += ]). The overwhelming majority (~96,8%) is won for White.
Possible Answers[edit]
Multiple experts say that the Folding Shovel's Gambit is close to impossible to refute. The chess-interested boss of the brewery Pils Bury explained in a conference in 2030: "White is playing with his opponent. Just look how the Queen's Knight leaves his hideout and immediately returns afterwards. It's a guerilla tactic you haven't seen in chess yet. No attempts to control the center. A perverse mashup of Fischer and Réti. The grandmasters break down on a mental level." Other masters quickly agreed and started to collect votes for a petition to remove the a-rank on the chess board, getting rid of the Folding Shovel's Gambit. The corpse of Tony Miles (1. ...k6), however, abstained in the final vote, so everything stayed the same.
Numerous masters quit playing tournament chess, becoming depressive. From the world championship 2034 onwards, participants stopped playing actual chess, only drawing the colors per game. The White player, assumed to always play the Folding Shovel's Gambit, was automatically given the point then.
Old master Garry Kasparov recommended in an interview to simply counter 1. a4 with 1. ...e5. He immediately demonstrated it against Topalov, sacrifed his rook on e4 and won in 9 moves. 1. ...e4, however, is viewed as incredibly boring, since it was fully calculated until move 40. Even more, in 2031, FIDE decided "for the benefit of the chess game" that no boring default openings like Macedonian, North Korean or even Sicilian (ugh) were allowed to develop from any opening ever again. (Also, draw offers before move 100 were banned, the length of world championships was limited to 1 game and the loser would be physically forced to lick his opponent's boots at the following press conference.)
Now, aside of dry moves like 1. ...e5, there are some theoretical novelties, which haven't been tested yet though. A strongly discussed concept is to decline the gambit and start exchanging as many pieces as possible. With this play, the Folding Shovel's Gambit will, by about move 40, result in this end game:
Analysts found out that 41. ...Kd7!!!! will draw here. However, some months are probably still about to pass until this improvement is made popular (in other words, until someone has copied it into ChessBase).