  a gambit (from ancient italian gambetto, meaning tripping) is a chess opening in which a player, more often white, sacrifices material, usually a pawn, with the hope of achieving a resulting advantageous position.edward r. brace, an illustrated dictionary of chess, hamlyn, 1979, p. 114. isbn 0-600-32920-8. some well-known examples are the king's gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4), queen's gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4), and evans gambit (1.e4 e5 2.nf3 nc6 3.bc4 bc5 4.b4). a gambit used by black may also be called a gambit (e.g. the latvian gambit&mdash;1.e4 e5 2.nf3 f5 or englund gambit&mdash;1.d4 e5), but is sometimes called a "countergambit" (e.g. the albin countergambit&mdash;1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 and greco counter-gambit, an old-fashioned name for the latvian gambit). the word "gambit" was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 by spanish priest ruy lÃ³pez de segura, from an italian expression dare il gambetto (to put a leg forward in order to trip someone). lopez studied this maneuver, and so the italian word gained the spanish form gÃ¡mbito that led to french gambit, which has influenced the english spelling of the word. the broader sense of "opening move meant to gain advantage" was first recorded in english in 1855.  ==strategy== {| class="toccolours" style=" margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border:none; font-size: 95%; clear: right; padding:0" align="right" |+ |- | |  |} gambits are often said to be 'offered' to an opponent, and that offer is then said to be either 'accepted' or 'declined.' if a player who is offered a gambit captures the piece (and thus gains material) the gambit is said to be accepted. if the player who was offered the gambit ignores it and instead continues 
Chess_openings Chess_terminology