Vienna Game
Opening course for White · ECO C27
A King's Gambit that never has to be a gambit, and one line that is pure chaos.
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3, the opening Carl Hamppe played so often in Vienna that it carried his name first. The knight comes out before the bishop, and the setup that follows is Bc4 against f7, d3 to hold the centre and f2-f4 when the moment arrives, which is a King's Gambit that never has to be a gambit. White dictates from move two and there is far less to remember than in the Ruy Lopez. Its showpiece is the Frankenstein-Dracula: Black takes on e4, White answers with the queen on move four, a rook goes missing on a8 by move ten, and from there both sides play for the king rather than for the material.
- Chapters
- 4
- Lines
- 15
- Traps
- 4
- Sources
- 9
Nothing to review. Learn the next line.
Next: The Hybrid main line, against 3...Nc6 with ...Bc5 and ...d6.
Part of your daily work.
- Learn
- Walk the line with the coach, a note on the moves that need one.
- Recall
- Play it from memory. Learned lines come back on a schedule.
- Tempo
- The same line against the clock, for a score to beat.
- Off book
- The opponent leaves the book with a real move; Stockfish prices your answers.
Before the moves: the big ideas
The bishop goes to c4, the pawn follows to f4
Bc4 puts the bishop on the one square where it looks at f7, which only the king defends in the opening. Behind it comes d3 to hold e4, and then f2-f4 at the moment Black cannot exploit the open king. If Black answers f4 with ...exf4, recapture with the bishop: the f-file opens for a rook and the bishop lands on a diagonal pointing at c7 and d6.
Bringing the queen out is the point, not a slip
4.Qh5 breaks the first rule every beginner learns, and it works because the reply is nearly forced: the knight on e4 has to move, and d6 is the retreat that covers f7 on the way. That knight then blocks Black's own d-pawn, so the c8 bishop and the a8 rook stay at home for another five moves. Everything White does afterwards is aimed at that undeveloped queenside.
Give the material back at the right moment
In the sharp lines White ends up an exchange or a rook ahead with a queen wandering and a king still on e1. Holding on to all of it loses. The pattern that works is to complete development, castle queenside, and hand back a piece or the exchange the moment it buys the initiative or a safe king.
Two completely different games after 3...Nxe4
5...Nc6 keeps the extra pawn and leads to a position where a rook is buried on a8 and neither king is safe. 5...Be7 gives the pawn back at once and heads for a slower game where White's chances come from castling long and running the h-pawn rather than from any advantage. White has to be ready for both, and they need opposite temperaments.
The lines, chapter by chapter
In learning order. The coach serves review one line a day; open any line yourself when you want it now.
The Shape: Bc4, d3 and f4
3 lines
Bishop to c4 against f7, pawn to d3 to hold e4, and f2-f4 when Black cannot punish it. It is a King's Gambit played three moves later, with the e4 pawn already defended and the bishop already out, and it is the position most of your games will actually reach.
The ...Ng4 Raid
2 lines
The moment White plays f4 with the bishop already on c5, Black gets the idea of ...Ng4 hitting f2 with a queen check on h4 behind it. It looks like it wins material. The answer is not to defend.
The Frankenstein-Dracula
6 lines
Black takes on e4, White answers with the queen on move four, and by move ten there is a white knight buried on a8 and a black king on d8. The name came from a chess author who wrote that a game between Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster would not look out of place here.
When Black Declines the Chaos
4 lines
Not everyone wants a rook sacrifice. Against 5...Be7 Black hands the pawn straight back and the game becomes slow, and there is a version of that where White takes the pawn on move five instead. Neither promises an advantage, which is worth saying before you learn them: they are the lines you play when the complications are not on offer.
Puzzles from this opening
The Vienna Game in brief
The Vienna Game is the chess opening that begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nc6, and it is filed under ECO C27. This course teaches it from White's side in 15 drills across 4 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
- The Hybrid main line against 3...Nc6 with ...Bc5 and ...d6
- Black chases the bishop against 3...Nc6 4.d3 Na5
- The other way, with f4 against 3...Nc6 4.d3 Na5 5.f4
- 6.f5 and the bishop lands on e6 against 5...Ng4 6.f5 Nf2 7.Qh5 Qd7
- The improvement against 7...Qe7 against 5...Ng4 6.f5 Nf2 7.Qh5 Qe7
- The main line to 16.O-O-O against 3...Nxe4 4.Qh5 Nd6 5.Bb3 Nc6
- 13...Bh6 and the Nunn improvement against 13...Bh6 instead of ...Nd4
- Trading the dark squares against 12...Bg7
- 7...f6 and the immediate break against 7...f6 instead of ...f5
- 4...Ng5 and the central break against 4...Ng5
- The 6...g6 blunder against 4...Ng5 5.d4 Ne6 6.d5 g6
- 6.Qxe5 and the Weaver Adams plan against 5...Be7 6.Qxe5 O-O with ...b6
- The ...b5 version against 8...b5
- 7...Ne8 and the d5 push against 7...Ne8
- The quiet door on move five against 3...Nxe4 with 5.Qxe5+
Theory credited to
- The Kibitzer 1: Frankenstein and Dracula at the ChessboardTim Harding
- The Kibitzer 21: Dracula Has Risen from the GraveTim Harding
- The Kibitzer 22: Putting Dracula Back in His CoffinTim Harding
- The Openings Explained: The Frankenstein-Dracula VariationAbby Marshall
- Opening Lanes: Crisis in ViennaIM Gary Lane
- Opening Lanes: Goodnight ViennaIM Gary Lane
- Opening Lanes: The Rough Guide to ViennaIM Gary Lane
- The Modern Vienna GameGM Roman Ovetchkin and Sergei Soloviov
- A Chess Opening Repertoire for Blitz and RapidGM Evgeny Sveshnikov and Vladimir Sveshnikov
8 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
- What is the Vienna Game?
- The Vienna Game is the chess opening that begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nc6, filed under ECO C27. A King's Gambit that never has to be a gambit, and one line that is pure chaos. 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3, the opening Carl Hamppe played so often in Vienna that it carried his name first.
- How do you learn the Vienna Game?
- This course splits it into 15 drills across 4 chapters. You play each line from White's side against a coach note that explains the move, then the same lines come back on a spaced-repetition schedule until you can play them without prompting. Every position is verified with Stockfish at depth 20 before it ships.
- Where does the theory in this Vienna Game course come from?
- From published work by Tim Harding, Tim Harding, Tim Harding, Abby Marshall and the reference sources credited on this page. The engine verifies the moves; the plans and assessments belong to the authors, and every drill records the page or section it came from.