Queen's Gambit
Last updated on Sun, 06/12/2011 at 7:10am.
The Queen's Gambit is the starting position of many respectable chess opening such as the Queen's Gambit Accepted, the Queen's Gambit Declined and the Slav Defence. Black in most cases prefers not to capture the pawn as he cannot keep it without allowing White to build a strong attack. It is considered an opening of positional nature and it became mainstream after Steinitz's ideas about positional play changed the chess world around the end of the 19th century. Play is relatively slow and without many tactics, in contrast to most openings that start with 1.e4 e5. This opening was very successful in the early 20th centrury with the 1927 World Chess Championship between Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine featuring this opening in 32 out of 34 games. It is still used today by many strong Grandmasters and in most cases it continues as a Slav Defence.
