Paleface Attack

White spends move two on a humble pawn nudge that claims e4. White quietly holds the door open to a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit.

The name is a dated joke at the expense of the 'Indian' defense it meets, Western-movie slang doing duty as opening taxonomy. The move itself, 2. f3, stakes a claim to the e4 square before a single piece has developed. The costs are printed right on the label: the king's knight loses its best square, the kingside gets a little airier, and Black learns exactly what White wants. In exchange, White gets to fight for a big pawn center on his own terms.

For many of the people who play it, though, 2. f3 is really a ticket to somewhere else. After 2...d5 3. e4 dxe4 4. Nc3, White has reached the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit with f3 already in. This is the romantic pawn sacrifice Emil Josef Diemer spent a lifetime promoting. White lures an opponent who thought he'd signed up for a quiet Indian game. Players who open with 1...Nf6 rarely expect to be defending a gambit by move five. That ambush value is the opening's best feature.

The honest problem is that Black doesn't have to cooperate. Declining with ...g6 or ...e6 leaves White with a move that mostly loosened his own king, and the immediate ...c5 hits d4 at the exact moment White is least developed. Against a King's Indian setup White can steer into a Sämisch structure where f3 is respectable theory. That is the grown-up justification for the move. But the player choosing 2. f3 should be choosing it for the gambit, eyes open.