Win with the Halloween Gambit!!!

This game happened on the board next to me in a tournament. The loser, (much higher rated) was visibly upset after the game. Quite brilliant play by white, who absolutely dominated his opponent. 

I learned this gambit playing vote-chess on the Thailand team, with a player named Poompat, who was very familiar with it's entertainment value!  Great to play in blitz, especially if the opponent is not familiar (as is often the case!  

I do not believe that white has much of a compensation for the missing piece.

Just one way of playing the black side, and i'm pretty sure there are more than that.

Very nice game fryedk. I feel that against higher rated opponents, such offbeat openings often give you a better chance than you would have had playing "standard" lines.

@luvavum: It's not as "quick and easy" for Black as it might seem. At The Unsound Openers here at chess.com we even played this in vote chess against a strong opponent and finished after 30-ish moves in a draw.

(Actually we won due to our opponent timing out, but the position was a perfect draw)

As you can see, that way of playing had occured before, and white can get a good game too.  As Fiveofswords said, the easist way is probably just give back the piece, like with 5...Bg4 or something, as when white gets the piece back his pawn structure is rather shabby.

I don't see why black should not hold on to the piece, it will always be White that has to prove compensation, that simply is not there. but as many piece-sac gambits they can be dangerous, but only in blitz games imo.

Just another simple way to play the positon, and keeping solid advantage as black.

Practically, black has many ways to slip up, its a much safer bet giving back the piece and getting a good endgame. Here's an old game of mine (where I was black)

The question is, how many people would think of giving back the piece so soon if they haven't studied this opening beforehand (and I bet most people haven't)?

I suppose on chess.com even the most insulting if openings are playable..

7. Qd4 looks good for white. With either ...Bxc3+ or ...Nxc3, black is going to lose the bishop pair.

I have read in an opening book by Larry Kaufman that the following can be considered as a refutation of the Halloween-Gambit: 

Black keeps a small edge in the line mentioned above, but I still believe that the BEST way to totally refute the gambit is to hold on to the extra piece. @#11 - 10.h4 blundered a pawn. 10...Bxb3, 11.axb3 Nxh4 leaving White with only one pawn for the piece and no hope.

@OtakuAndrew: There are so many bizarre gambits, you can not expect people to learn all the "refutations" by heart. That's not the point of chess either.

The Halloween Gambit is pretty ok and scores rather well in practice. Databases prove this. Maybe it is unsound in the end, but I expect that a prepared player under 2000 rating has good chances against an unprepared opponent (so: most) of similar strength.

When I was 11 and playing in an u12 national championship my opponent played this against me. I remember when he played Nxe5 he immediately looked up to see my reaction. My coach had shown it to me once before, so it wasn't entirely new to me but I still didn't know any concrete variations. I took the piece and played Ng6 after d4. I don't remember much but I got pushed back more and more and eventually lost the game. It was the only ever time I had it played against me, on OTB but neither did I see it online. 8 years ago, 2-3 years after that game, I stopped playing e5.

@luvuvum:

Apparently Be4 rather than Bb3 is the best way. Anyways, here's what Tim Krabbe has to say: (Euwe agreed with you that 7...d5 gives black a decisive advantage)

"One can hardly criticize Euwe, in his openings series, and Keres, in the first (1974) edition of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, for not taking the Müller - Schulze seriously and, again, sticking to Cordel's analysis. Keres devoted one line to the gambit, simply adding "-+" to Cordel's 7...d5 - Euwe, as we saw, said that after 7...d5 8.Bxd5 c6 'Black has a decisive advantage,' adding that 7...c6 8.Qf3 d5 9.exd6 Qf6 10.Qe2+ Kd8 is 'another refutation'. 

    That Cordel hit the nail on the head is the perhaps surprising conclusion that can be drawn from Brause's Internet practice. Cordel's 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4. Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4 Ng6 6.e5 Ng8 is indeed the most dangerous line for White, and the position after 7.Bc4 is crucial. (See Diagram) 7...d6, 7...Bb4 and especially Cordel's own 7...c6 are then good continuations, but the value of the 'refutation' 7...d5 is disputable. Often, a game develops where White has two central pawns against a knight, not unlike the Cochrane Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7) which came out of the closet when Topalov played it against Kramnik in Linares 1999 (draw, 31 moves), or Bronstein's famous 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.d3 h6 7.Nf3 e4 8.dxe4 against Rojahn in the 1956 Olympiad (1-0, 40 moves.)"

Granted this is blitz, and black could have played better, but the fact that an IM lost shows that the line is still dangerous. 

This topic motivated me to play a Halloween game again. Far from perfect, but I didn't enjoy it any less.

It's great way for under 2000 rated players specially in rapid/blitz. U2000 are still greedy... you will not see black returning piece or playing d5. No. Those moves are from higher level and by strong positional players. Players who play 1...e5 fight (except those berlin ones) and will defend the piece and that white will have advantage.

Played it against veteran who knew very well sharp openings like Kings Gambit and many with e4 e5. But looks like he never saw that one. He played N back to c6 and got pushed a lot and played Qb6 variation and later he lost. As said its great opening against ego and greedy players. 

You should not play chess that is perfectly sound, it's boring way unless you are above 2200 and want career or something, but rather chess that strikes at your oponent, to shake him, etc.

It looks really, really bad for white. Black's only problem is he has such a wide choice of good continuations that he could lose on time. In the game, of course black chose the weak continuation, Nc6.

I remember the first time I faced this having never seen it before. The guy played Nxe5 and I thought 'Is this a joke?' I was crushed in under 30 moves, I don't remember how the game went exactly, only that my position was horrible and never got any better.