DDG stands for the Diemer-Duhm Gambit (sometimes also called the Duhm-Diemer Gambit). I used to call it the Finnish-French Gambit because it usually starts as the French Defence, and I am from Finland. To be precise, the name should be the DDG, French Defence because 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. c4 is called the DDG, Caro-Kann. For other acronyms, see symbols and abbreviations.
What I have heard, Diemer believed that it was Duhm who first played the gambit. I have a very short note on this at the DDG history page. Being one of the few players of the gambit, Diemer also added his own name to the name of the gambit. However, it is not clear what was his main contribution to the DDG: at least f3 had already been played frequently.
Diemer was a German, and I think that Duhm is also a German name, even though he was a Swiss, so their names should be pronounced in German. Some Englishmen pronounce it "Dy-emmer Dumb", but it should be "Deemer Doom". I do not speak German, but native German speakers have verified my pronunciation.
I guess that a variation becomes an independent opening when it is original enough. To me, the position after c4-d4-e4 and d5-e6 is definitely the DDG, a gambit of its own. The only exception is that dxc4 transposes to a common QGA variation, which is not interesting as a DDG. Moreover, there are several important transpositions to the DDG.
On the other hand, White plays f3 in all other Diemer gambits (Blackmar-Diemer, Alapin-Diemer, Dutch-Diemer). Therefore, one could say that f3 required in the DDG, but I do not want to be that restrictive.
I do not think so; If there was one, I sure would have it. My book references probably contain most books that have even briefly mentioned the DDG. Maybe I should write one myself, as I already have a list of title candidates.
I do not know a single game between two human masters. Brause (rating over 2200) has met several IMs. Master Povilas Laucius from Lithuania has played against Genius 2 and 5.
Among the masters who have played the DDG is author Bill Wall. 4 masters participated in the DDGA'96, but 3 of them withdrew, and we did not get any finished games between human masters. Per Söderberg participated in the DDGA'97. Rating over 2400, he holds the IM title in ICCF.
I have played blitz against many Finnish masters, and have a good result, well over 60 %. My strongest opponent has been GM Bogdan Lalic. My rating was 1900 in the early 1990s, and I finally got 2000 in year 2000.
I have also asked this many times. According to most comments, the DDG is interesting but strange. BDGers like to play the Alapin-Diemer Gambit against the French Defence: c4 looks odd because it is not played in the BDG either. Perhaps the lack of theory scares most people. And after all, only a handful of players have even heard of the DDG.
See the DDG Reversed.
Sure. See the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit World pages Tom Purser.
The address of the DDG site (home/front page) is <http://www.funet.fi/pub/doc/games/chess/ddg/>.
All the games can be downloaded easily from the PGN games section of the Contents.
The Web server of the DDG pages is configured to identify PGN files, so that it can return the correct file type to the Web browser.
You could configure your favourite PGN viewer as a helper application for your Web browser as follows. Go to the helper application preferences in your browser (Somewhere in Options / General Preferences / Helpers) and create new type:
Mime Type: application
Mime SubType: x-chess-pgn
File Extensions: pgn
PGN readers can be downloaded from the Pitt Chess Archives.
If you prefer text, you should be able to choose that option in your browser. For example, in Netscape, choose Options - General Preferences - Helpers, and set Action View in Browser for the PGN type.
Most Web servers do not identify PGN files, so they, by default, handle them as plain text. If you have PGN files on your Web server, and you want them to be handled correctly, ask your webmaster to add the following MIME type and filename suffix in the Web server configuration:
application/x-chess-pgn pgn