Englund Gambit

Black offers the e5 pawn straight away and races the queen to b4/b2 to grab material back or provoke a mistake, betting that an unprepared White player mishandles the queenside. It's objectively dubious with best play - White keeps the extra pawn - but at club level it wins a lot of quick points because the traps are sharp and the correct defenses are obscure.

• The headline trap is 4.Bf4 Qb4+ 5.Nbd2? Qxb2 6.Rb1 Qa3 - White's natural-looking knight move drops the b-pawn and tangles the queenside rooks, so if you're Black, always check for Qb4+ hitting b2 and an undefended rook or bishop before playing anything else.
• As White, the correct answer to Qb4+ is 5.Bd2! (not Nbd2), meeting ...Qxb2 with 6.Bc3, hitting the queen and developing with tempo - most club-level White players don't know this and either lose the exchange or waste moves untangling.
• Watch for the Stockholm trick 3...Qe7 4.Qd5!?, forking c6 and f7 at once; Black equalizes the threat with 4...Nb4, hitting the queen and c2 rather than panicking and losing a piece.
• Both sides commonly misjudge the extra pawn: White should just finish development (Nc3, e3, Be2/Bf4) and hang onto e5 rather than chasing Black's queen around the board, while Black's compensation is piece activity and traps, not a guaranteed edge - don't play on hoping the gambit 'just works' if White defends accurately.
• If White declines with 2.d5 or 2.Nf3 instead of grabbing the pawn, Black should stop looking for gambit tricks and just develop normally (...Nf6, ...Bc5/...Bb4, ...d6) - trying to force sacrifice ideas against a sound setup only loses time.
• A frequent Black blunder is playing 3...Qe7 automatically without checking that 4.Nc3 or 4.Bf4 first defends everything, then discovering there's no real follow-up if White simply castles and returns the extra pawn with e3/Be2 - have a concrete plan (Qb4+ ideas or ...Nxe5 recapture) before committing the queen.