I never played Spielmann Gambit. Each time when the opponent chose the Alekhine’s Defense (1. e4 ♞f6) and the Scandinavian line (2. ♘c3 d5), I hoped that I met a defensive player who would go back with the knight under attack, and let me push my fearless pawn to e6. Nope, it just never ever happened. Well, the other option (3. e5 d4) isn’t half bad, but it’s not a gambit, and I love gambits. Let me at least play against myself and demonstrate the most interesting lines.
This pawn sacrifice had been introduced by the Austrian master Rudolf Spielmann, who was known as “The Master of Attack” and “The Last Knight of the King’s Gambit”. The idea behind the unusually early pawn move to the sixth rank was to jam Black’s position, weaken the king side, and generally slow down the opponent’s development. Black’s only reasonable response it to accept the gambit (4. … fxe6), as any other move to save the knight would end up with 5. fxe7+ and a significant advantage for White.
As you know, I usually pick a suitable game from my game site, BrainKing.com, to demonstrate the strategy and tactics of the opening in question. However, there was no real selection this time, as the only Spielmann Gambit game in the BrainKing.com database wasn’t actually played by strong players, so the commentary will be a little longer to highlight all blunders and suggest stronger lines.