Borg Gambit

The Borg Gambit transfers the reversed-Grob idea of the Borg Defense to 1. d4. Here the queen's pawn has already opened the c1–h6 diagonal, so 1...g5 does more than weaken the kingside: it puts a pawn en prise immediately. The most frequent and engine-preferred answer is 2. Bxg5, which wins the pawn while developing. Black's compensation is meant to come from ...Bg7 against d4, a ...c5 break and pressure on the half-open g-file with ...Rg8, but it is generally judged insufficient, and the engine gives White a large advantage. The tempting 2...f6 fails, because 3. e4 fxg5 runs into 4. Qh5#.

White can also decline. 2. c4 and 2. Nf3 are the next most common replies, and an early recorded game in 1987 saw 2. Nc3. After 2. e4 the game transposes to the Borg Defense line 1. e4 g5 2. d4, where Black has the extra option 2...g4, inviting 3. Qxg4 in order to gain time against the queen. The gambit is rare in tournament chess and appears mostly in blitz. White scores better in online games, though Black wins far more often than the evaluation would suggest.