The Gambit [antikvár]

AN OLD BUT FORMIDABLE WEAPON The gambit The history and origin of the word is quite involved. The earliest application of the word to chess playing was ostensibly made in Spain: the term "gambit",was brought into chess vocabulary by Ruy Lopez {Libro del juego del ajedrez, 1561) who applied it to the Damiano Gambit in the form gambi-to. The Italians seem at first to have readapted the word as gam-bitto (G. Polerio in MS, 1575, who opposes giuochi piani to gi-uochi gambitti)\ later they employed the native form gambetto, from which the earliest English form "gambet(t)", and later the English "gambit" come. The word itself is derived from the Italian word gamba, meaning "a leg"; and gambitare, meaning "to set traps". ItaUan wrestlers speak of gambitare, by which they mean "to set traps to catch the legs". The gambit, a cunning and sharp method of opening a game, does, indeed, conceal a lot of dangerous traps and snares. In offering a gambit one of the sides (more often White) sacrifices a Pawn or two, although occasionally a piece may be involved, to gain time or space, to break up the opponent's centre, or to set the stage for an early and more effective attack against the enemy King. If, in reply to a gambit offered by White, Black also resorts to a sacrifice, striving to achieve the same objects as his opponent does, then this method of fighting is called a counter-gambit; if, however, a sacrifice is turned down by Black, we speak about a declined gambit.