I Let Him Take My d-Pawn
Milner-Barry Gambit · sung from White's side
No. 6 in the Radio ChessBase charts
Verse 1
Pawn to e4, he blocks with e6 1.e4 e6
Pawn to d4, then pawn to e5 2.d4 d5 3.e5
He swings at my chain with c5 3...c5
Pawn to c3, knight to f3 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3
His queen to b6, bishop to d3 5...Qb6 6.Bd3
Chorus
Pawn to e4, he answers e6 1.e4 e6
Pawn to d4, then pawn to e5 2.d4 d5 3.e5
Pawn to c3 and knight to f3 3...c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3
Bishop to d3, the d-pawn is free 5...Qb6 6.Bd3
Take it, boy, my bishop eyes h7
Verse 2
He takes on d4, I castle short 6...cxd4 7.O-O
Rook to e1, my wall stays on e5 7...Bd7 8.Re1
Pawn to h4, then pawn to h5 8...Nge7 9.h4 h6 10.h5
His rook to c8, my pawn to a3 10...Rc8 11.a3
My b-pawn takes, the b-file is mine 11...dxc3 12.bxc3
Don't win that pawn back too soon
Chorus
Pawn to e4, he answers e6 1.e4 e6
Pawn to d4, then pawn to e5 2.d4 d5 3.e5
Pawn to c3 and knight to f3 3...c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3
Bishop to d3, the d-pawn is free 5...Qb6 6.Bd3
Take it, boy, my bishop eyes h7
The hook is the honest one: 6.Bd3 hands over d4 and White plays on for the attack, and the modern treatment — castling first, rook to e1, h4-h5 — is what pays, with the hundred strongest master games there going 43 wins, 30 draws, 27 losses, against the old grab-it-back handling which lost more than it won in the 1980s and 90s. The line is measurably a fighting one: in a sample of a hundred master games about two in three ended decisively and the queens almost never came off early, so sing the last line of the chorus and remember that the pawn is rent paid for the attack.