I've got my first OTB tournament this Friday. Little Quick affair; G/15. No idea what the ratings spread will be.

I'm planning to establish the King's Gambit in my opening repertoire. I went through a bit of a process with that; as a complete amateur, I played it because I liked the chaos. A year after that, I grew out of it, deeming it far too base for the likes of me. Now, I don't give a donkey-fart, and have decided to play what I love (as long as what I love isn't just terrible and losing).

So, let's chat about it! What are your thoughts on the King's Gambit? What have your experiences been with it in rated tournament play (be it employing it, or defending against it)?

The Kings Gambit is a fairly rare bird in tournament play, but it's a reasonably good opening, with a firm positional basis. There's an awful lot of theory, but you don't really need to learn it all before you start playing it. Just give it a rip!

Of course, the problem is finding opponents who answer 1.e4 with ...e5

or if you are playing against the kings gambit it's hard to find opponents to play e4 and f4.

I think it is fine opening, if a bit tame if your opponents are 1900+. Most of them won't take the pawn and instead play some line with ...d5 and head for a equalish/fine position. Ruy I find has more sting and poses more problems even in the slow d3 systems.

Every game where i had to blow out an opponent higher than me, i used the KG and everytime they accepted. I've only lost once out of 5. all were 300+ pts higher USCF, here is one

Play it with me and let's see.