Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Nf3/2...Nf6/3. Bc4/3...Nxe4/4. Nc3

Rather than recover the pawn, White invites Black to trade knights. White's plan after 4...Nxc3 is to take back with the d-pawn, opening up their queen's bishop, and threatening 5.Ng5 to win material. This enters the Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit.

Black's strongest response objectively is to accept the gambit with 4...Nxc3, in which White invariably responds with 5.dxc3. While the engine doesn't think this gambit is that great (giving an evaluation of -0.5) it is a great weapon to use in faster time controls, and White wins an estimated 60% of games from this position. This is unlike the Stafford Gambit, because of the extra tempo of white in playing the move Bc4. Therefore, unlike the Stafford Gambit, in which White has many good ways to defend the pawn, in this gambit, every method of defending the pawn, instead of the move 5...f6, lose immediately on the spot.

Probably the safest way to decline the gambit is with the move 4...Nc6, which transposes to the Center fork trick position in the Four Knights game. Black should be slightly better and the game is much quieter, though if white insists on playing a gambit, he could continue with the move 5.O-O!? which leads to slightly different positions from the normal Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit.

Black could also move the knight back to f6 or d6, in which white will eventually recover the pawn on e5, leading to a roughly equal position.