What is e4 in Englund Gambit?

In the defense against Englund, I can fairly understand all the best moves from move 1 until move 11. But move 12. e4 still bewilders me. I'm not sure why it's the best move in this variation.

Pretty much every single one of Black's pieces is bad, so even though Nd6+ looks good, getting a bishop for the knight and an advanced pawn near the king, you're really letting Black trade off one of their bad pieces and also removing control of f6 so they can develop their knight. Also notice that after 12. e4, Black still can't develop their knight to e7 because of Nd6#.

By the way, you might consider 10. Nd5 as well. Qxb5 is met by Nc7+, and obviously Nxd5 is met by Bxa5, so Kd8 is the only way not to immediately lose material. 10. a3 is good too, of course.

Yeah, I used to play 10. Nd5 a lot. It was fun tactic to play, but I've switched to 10. a3 as it seems to be better based on Stockfish's suggestion, and I understand the purpose. But the 12. e4 move is just too quiet compared to all the previous moves, so I have a hard time remembering this little move.

When I try it, 11 e4 seems to be viewed as better than 11 Nd5, although White still seems to be winning after both 11 Nd5 Qd8 12 e4 and 11 Nd5 Qd8 12 Nd6+. After 11 Nd5 Qd8 12 Nd6+ Bxd6 13 exd6, the machine thinks that chesslearner51 could have put up more resistance with 13...Qh4. If nothing else, the 11 Nd5 Qd8 12 e4 line (and the 11 e4 possibility) lets out the f1-bishop. It is sort of a standard thing to bring more pieces into the attack. Do you see any improvement for Black in the line 11 Nd5 Qd8 12 e4 h5 13 Bc4 d6 14 exd6 Bxd6 15 Nxd6+ Qxd6 16 Bf4 Qd8 17 Bxa6 bxa6 18 Nc7+ Ke7 19 Qxd8+ Kxd8 20 Nxa8 ?

12 e4 keeps Black tied up, why help them develop a piece with 12 Nd6+? And if you can assess the position after 12 e4, you will stop playing the Englund 'gambit' - although he has recovered the pawn, the position is bad for Black.

@kindaspongey
You got me there. It seems I messed up the opening a bit. Alright, so it seems e4 can be seen as a normal development move to bring out the bishop.

What is e4 in Englund Gambit?

After the euphoric high of the swindle, an opening you will have to abandon... only to reflect in remembrance " Ah... those where the days"

@PaulC123 said in #7:
> What is e4 in Englund Gambit? ...
Lazzaknight was referring to 1 d4 e5 2 dxe5 Nc6 3 Nf3 Qe7 4 Bf4 Qb4+ 5 Bd2 Qxb2 6 Nc3 Nb4 7 Nd4 c5 8 Rb1 Qa3 9 Ndb5 Qa5 10 a3 Na6 11 Nd5 Qd8 12 e4, while considering how to react to the Englund Gambit.

Just looking at the position I would be hard pressed to come up with a different move than e4. Looks like the most natural by far to me.

I just found an interesting variation in a game I played several days ago, where Nd6+ is actually the best move. This happens when Black plays c6 and then White plays e4. I've only played 6 games where Black plays c6, and I lost 5 of them!