yes it is great opening!!
not sure what happened with my last few moves on the diagram above but if you click the moves it will show how i got mate.
what a thread killer
When people give you the pawn back and two center pawns you may as well play the KG against these guys. Geez, people really don't know how to handle these positions with black, because in so many amateur games I just see white having two center pawns, bishop on f4 (no longer down in material), knight on f3, and open f file. That is certainly what the KG tries to achieve but against correct play these ideals would be hard to achieve, and sometimes white's own king comes under fire because of the weakened kingside.
the kings gambit was good enough for one of my personal heros, Boris Spassky. from 1952 to 1992 he played it 37 times according to chessgames.com with an astounding record of 23 wins, 13 draws and only 1 loss. he beat two of the strongest players in history with it, Fischer and Karpov and many top level Gms like Averbakh, Portisch (twice), Seirawan and Zusuzsa Polgar. he even beat Bronstein with it once. Keres also used it to punish patzers his record from 35 games was 23W-7L-5D. overall KG scored 3,490 wins, 2,842 losses and 1,275 draws according to chessgames.com. so it IS playable
"there are no weak openings, only weak players" (i forget who said it).
use it if you know what you are doing, of course.
the recently published novel King's Gambit py Paul Hoffman is awesome!!
White doesn't have sufficient advantage in this opening. I don't play it. As black I often play 1. e4 e5 and if 2. f4 then 2... d5 3. ed c6 - Nimzovich variation.
If you want play such positions (like KG) you also should look at Vienna Opening. It's like a KG but more "technical".
If you want to try something a little different, try 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Qe2!? The first point is that it discourages two main Black defenses, 3...h6 and 3...g5 because of 4.h4. GM Lev Alburt and I studied the gambit for months; the chief practitioner is Kari Heinola and there are a lot of his games in various data bases. If 3...d5!?, then 4.exd5ch Be7. Now White must be careful of just Nf6/O-O/Re8. Best for White is 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.Qb5ch with a complicated game.
GM Alburt showed our analysis to World Champion Garry Kasparov and GM Max Dlugy and they suggested 3...Be7 4.Nf3 Bh4ch 5.Kd1 Be7 with an unclear to equal position according to them.
The toughest defense for White is 3...Nc6! This just about cooks this variation e.g. if White tries 4.Nf3?, then Black plays 4...g5 and the Knight on c6 is worth more than the Queen on e2 in this variation. Fritz 11 claims the only hope for White is 4.Kd1! & Nd4 is met with 5.Qc4 =.
In a postal game, I tried 4.c3? & quickly stood worse after 4...Qh4ch! which is much stronger here than on the previous move. If 3...Qh4ch then, 4.Kd1/Nf3
This move order was the subject of a contest I sponsored in Chess Life about 20 years ago.
The way, in another game, I played 1.e4 Nf6 2.Qe2 e5 3.f4 exf4 4.e5 +/=.
In an email game, I tried 1.e4 Nf6 2.Qe2 e5 3.f4 d5 transposing to a Falkbeer Counter Gambit. Not knowing book, I just played 4.d3 going after the e5 pawn. My opponent played inaccurately here with 4...c6?! which I met with 5.f5 stifling his Queenside. After 5...Bc5 6.Nc3! d4 7.Nd1 with the idea of Nf1 at a later date. Due to the inability of Black to make normal developing moves of his queenside pieces, White is slightly better.
As of right now, it's the only opening I play. I enjoy it very much. I normally win games with it, but I'm still working on making it a bit more tactical. Sometimes I play someone who knows how to defend against it when it's played regularly. I'd like a way to put some twists into it. Sometimes I try too hard and get too aggressive too quickly against a strong opponent and end up screwing myself. I go over my games I lost afterwards and find some pretty tricky ideas that could have kept me ahead. I'll figure it all out if I keep it up.
I recommend it for an exciting game. I really don't like boring slow games. I get impatient and end up doing something stupid.
It's a good way for white to burn out fast.
Supernova style.
But playing both sides of it is more fun than those stuck in the mud games.
It's better to burn out, than faaaaade away.
Neil Young.
Yes
NO
lol and this is coming from a NM?
oooooh!
I say playable, but not really good.
I like to play the king's gambit
About King's gambit. Got to practice it at the eiro youth championship this year. If your oponennt hasent played the gambit he's in deep truble but when i played the contergambit it was a bit rough becose i played i think the first time and i got destroyed in it but i think if u practice it and your oponent dosent now your playing it is definitly an advantige for withe.
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