The Chicago Gambit

Then you agree. Sacking a piece or even 2 pieces in the opening doesn't constitute suicide . The idea of a gambit, whether it's a pawn, 2 pawns, a piece, two pieces lies in the compensation. Are you sufficiently compensated for the material by virtue of position, development or initiative?  That's what makes gambits fun - you put it all on the line right in the opening and say "prove me wrong!" If you stick your tongue out, so much the better.

As Pawn&two at chessgames.com observered in his typical precise manner:

This game is also included in Jacques Pope's book, "Harry Nelson Pillsbury - American Chess Champion". The game also appeared in print in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 01/12/1899.

Playing White was D.T. Phillips. The game was played in a simultaneous exhibition in Chicago, IL on 01/07/1899. This simultaneous exhibition was unusual in that Pillsbury played both chess and checkers. His score at chess was +20 -2 =5 and his score at checkers was +7 -1 =2.

I'm often found dangling my tongue in a taunting manner after throwing my pieces away. I have found it has a confusing effect on my opponent who usually turns away and offers a draw.

This has been less effective online though, and has the negative effect of keeping my wife and kids away from me.

 I agree. A better alternative is the Dnaish Gambit if you want a firey game or put weaker players nerve to the test!

There's an interesting article by Tim Krabbe about the Halloween gambit, i.e. the Chicago Gambit with an extra knight move each, here:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/tour/breeze.htm

Very interesting Chelex! Thank you.

i think that it is not applicable to play because to lose a piece with no exchange of piece is so very hard to play, usually if your opponent was good in playing chess..

i suggest further analysis for this kind of opening!! 

hahahahahah what a great story! that would be so funny if it was true!

I think that gambit is better (or less worse) in the four knight opening:

 It could be very interesting in blitz games of course.

Another alternative to these crazy ideas could be the Salvio Gambit:

Salvio Gambit???

sirfraijo, please, please tell me where you saw that name attached to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ .

I suspect there's a Salvio Gambit in the King's Gambit family that features a White Bishop capture on f7, but the above line in the Giuoco Piano, as far as I know, has always been attributed to Alonzo Wheeler Jerome.

Finding a connection to Salvio would be truly revolutionary. Do tell.

For those interested in Jerome's Double Opening, come on my my blog: http://jeromegambit.blogspot.com

i would really like to play that in one of my games (not in an inportant one), it seems to lead to fun positions if played wildly...

even if white didn't have to sacrifice a piece, black could still defend the chicago gambit position if he played well.

There is no need for controversy over the name "Chicago Gambit".  This - poor - opening is known as the Schulze-Muller Gambit.

Here is a line I came up with that will destroy the white center, the only plus he has. Check the move list to see what happens if white declines the pawn. Also, I messed up the annotations. Sorry. If white plays Nc3 instead of c3, then comes Bb4.