Omega Gambit

The Omega Gambit answers 1...Nf6 with 2. e4, putting a second pawn in the center where the knight can simply take it. Accepting with 2...Nxe4 is the most common reply, about half of all games, and Black scores well after it. White then has two plans. 3. Bd3 drives the knight back with tempo and relies on a lead in development and the half-open e-file; after 3...Nf6 4. Bg5 this is the Arafat Gambit. 3. Nc3 offers a knight trade, recapturing with the b-pawn, so that Black's kingside is left without its defensive knight. Neither line is thought to give full compensation, and engines give Black a slight edge in the starting position.

Black can also decline and move into an ordinary 1. e4 defense: 2...g6 reaches the Norwegian Defense of the Modern, 2...e6 the Mediterranean Defense of the French, 2...d6 a Pirc, and 2...c6 the Masi Variation of the Caro-Kann. The gambit first appeared in a 1906 game between George Hutton and Alfred Axtell. Clyde Nakamura took it up in 1985 and named it after the film The Omega Man.