Chess960: Opening Puzzle no.11

Hit upon an interesting, exciting and unusual pawn gambit that makes a good little puzzle. The gambit is wonderful because white gives up a pawn and exposes his king to check yet still retains an excellent game.

SP493 e4!?
Assuming black accepts the gambit,
pick the square that makes this gambit
so promising for white.

The answer and the solution method is given below

 

 

 

Solution method:

Start by playing the obvious moves and study the state of the board:

1.        ...dxe4

2. fxe4...Qxe4+

3. Ne3...defending the check

 

With this board position, see that black's queen is attackable with initiative and that black's next move is not simple.

4.       ... f6?! (just any move for example)

 

Answer: The c6 square is white's most attacking square for the future after:

5. Bf3...Qe6

6. Nb4 and white is threatening to plant either a knight or bishop on c6.
Not only is c6 very weak for black, but white's overall development potential far exceeds the loss of the pawn.