Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Nf3/2...Nc6/3. c3/3...Nf6/4. d4/4...Nxe4/5. d5

White attacks Black's c6 knight. Black has two main options; going into a calmer continuation with 5...Ne7, saving the knight; or going into the extremely violent Vukovic Gambit with 5...Bc5!!, focusing on piece development with an attack on f2.

5...Ne7 is the mainline. This saves Black's knight but undefends e5, and White can recover the pawn. After 6. Nxe5, 6...d6?? falls into a common trap: 7. Bb5+, and Black cannot wrest control over the d7 and c6 squares without positional and material losses. Instead, Black redeploys the knight to g6, opening up bishop and the h file for their rook. 6...Ng6 7. Nxg6 hxg6⩲.

5...Bc5 is the violent Vuković gambit, where Black sacrifices an entire knight for a lethal attack on f2.

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. d4 Nxe4 5. d5

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