Word.ws English Dictionary

Stafford gambit

Stafford gambit noun: a chess opening deriving from the Petrov Defence (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6) after which black gives up its king's pawn and plays the queen's knight to the C file (3. Nxe5 Nc6), especially when followed by (4. Nxc6 dxc6).

Noun

Stafford gambit (plural Stafford gambits)

  1. A chess opening deriving from the Petrov Defence (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6) after which black gives up its king's pawn and plays the queen's knight to the C file (3. Nxe5 Nc6), especially when followed by (4. Nxc6 dxc6).

Forms of Stafford gambit

pluralStafford gambits

Origin of Stafford gambit

Named after Joseph C. Stafford who famously won a correspondence game with this opening in 1950.

Questions about Stafford gambit

What does Stafford gambit mean?
Stafford gambit means a chess opening deriving from the Petrov Defence (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6) after which black gives up its king's pawn and plays the queen's knight to the C file (3. Nxe5 Nc6), especially when followed by (4. Nxc6 dxc6).
What part of speech is Stafford gambit?
Stafford gambit is a noun.
What is the plural of Stafford gambit?
The plural of Stafford gambit is Stafford gambits.

Words near Stafford gambit in the dictionary

  1. staffless
  2. staffman
  3. staffmen
  4. Stafford
  5. Stafford County
  6. Stafford gambit
  7. Stafford gambits
  8. Stafford knot
  9. Stafford knots
  10. Stafford Springs
  11. Staffordian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Stafford gambit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Stafford gambit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stafford_gambit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.