Editing Gambit (section)

== Soundness ==
A gambit is said to be 'sound' if it is capable of procuring adequate concessions from the opponent. There are three general criteria in which a gambit is often said to be sound:
# Time gain: the player accepting the gambit must take time to procure the sacrificed material and possibly must use more time to reorganize their pieces after the material is taken.
# Generation of differential activity: often a player accepting a gambit will decentralize their pieces or pawns and their poorly placed pieces will allow the gambiteer to place their own pieces and pawns on squares that might otherwise have been inaccessible. In addition, bishops and rooks can become more active simply because the loss of pawns often gives rise to open {{chessgloss|files}} and {{chessgloss|diagonals}}. Former world champion [[Mikhail Tal]] once reportedly told [[Mikhail Botvinnik]] that he had sacrificed a pawn because it was simply in the way.<ref>{{cite book |title=Russian Silhouettes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3iJBCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 |first=Genna |last=Sosonko |date = 6 June 2014|author-link=Genna Sosonko |access-date=31 January 2016 |publisher=New in Chess|isbn = 9789056914851}}</ref>
# Generation of positional weaknesses: finally, accepting a gambit may lead to a compromised [[pawn structure]], holes or other positional deficiencies.

An example of a sound gambit is the [[Scotch Gambit]]: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4. Here Black can force White to sacrifice a pawn speculatively with 4...Bb4+, but White gets very good compensation for one pawn after 5.c3 dxc3 6.bxc3, or for two pawns after 6.0-0 inviting 6...cxb2 7.Bxb2, due to the development advantage and attacking chances against the black king. As a result, Black is often advised not to try to hold on to the extra pawn. A more dubious gambit is the so-called [[Halloween Gambit]]: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5{{chesspunc|?!}} Nxe5 5.d4. Here the investment (a knight for just one pawn) is too large for the moderate advantage of having a strong center.