Walter, do you mean 1.f2-f4 f7-f5 2.Nh1-g3 g7-g5 3.f4xg5? This would be a queen pawn opening in Embassy Chess. One nice thing about having a Gothic Chess board it is gridded and makes it easier to adapt to the larger board. Otherwise I find myself wanting to use the 8x8 chess coordinates as well! I would think that white probably should develop instead of taking the Gambit, with 3.Bg1-d4 and an interesting variation might be 3...,Nh8-g6 (removing the attacked Knight with tempo) 4.Ji1-j3 (pinning the knight and placing pressure on black's center)4...,g5xf4? (Greed) 5.Ng3-h5 e7-e5 6.Bd4xe5 Ng6xe5 7.Nh5-g7++ although this is hardly forced.

Nice to get an analytical discussion going. I wonder if this would be a good spot to try to annotate games or the blog that Fencer suggested when I wrote to him when I first became a "Rook".

Sorry, Walter my brain really misfired on this one. I read embassy chess, but was still thinking in Janus! :-) This dawned on my as I was working out on my exercise bike after posting the message below. The Gambit looks like a good way to disrupt white's game in Embassy.

panzerschiff: Yes, not Janus! In Embassy Chess the files A through E are the set up just like regular Chess. When I tried a Queen's Gambit with White a few weeks back it did not work as the Bishops on the courtside are shifted over. The one I'm talking about in this instance does seem to work and the courtside Bishop for Black will come in handy the moment he can move the G file Pawn forward and guard the advanced D file Pawn. Plus if White moves his Knight to E4 Black can move P F7-F5. This make White spend another move. As good as this looks, I still am not sure it's a good thing. I've noticed that pushing the Pawns out in these larger board games can come back to haunt you. Targets for your opponent. It could go like Alekhine's defense sort of, just with the colors reversed.
This opening might work in Grand Chess too. I doubt if it comes up in regular Chess as not too many people would move the Knight there on their second move with White and block the C file Pawn. I don't think it would work in Gothic Chess as the Kings are shifted one square and the check threats need to be there for Black.

Walter Montego:

Returning to that gambit and this time thinking Embassy Chess. :-) After 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 c5 3.dc5 d4 maybe 4.Md2 putting a little pressure on the advance pawn. If 4...Nc6 5.g3 g6 6.Nb5 Qa5 black may hold things together as perhaps would the more natural/risky(?) 6...Md7 7.Bxc6 bc6 8.Cf3 cb5 9.Cxa8 Bb7.

Entertaining, but maybe only for speed chess might be 3.Bf4 cd4 4.Qxd4 Me6 5.Cf3 Mxd4 6.Cxd4 with the threat of Cb5+, or in the real realm of jokes 3.dc5 d4 4.Bf4 dc3 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8 6.0-0

Also on the material discussion below, we chess players tend to be a little too materialistic. Those values are only guidelines and not absolutes and a piece's ultimate value is how well it is placed for the developing battle and how quickly it can be used. That was always the tricky part in computer programming, coming up with the proper algorithms for valuing space and time and many other intangibles. Anybody out there as old as I am remember how dumb and greedy those first chess playing computer were that you could buy? Fritz 9.0 has come a long way from that!

panzerschiff: Interesting ways for it to go. I'll try the gambit in future games. If you'd like to play a game of both colors starting both games this way, let me know and we'll give it a go.