Your opponent STRIKES early in the game with the King's Gambit, a sharp, double edged sword, which can lead to amazing sacrifices for a win, usually for the side playing the Gambit.
But however, you find you haven't studied the King's Gambit at all, throwing it off as a crazy, eccentric opening, which no one would EVER play... but they did.
Now, it's time to make a response. Your clock is running down.
Introduction:
This opening is a sharp, sound response to the King's Gambit, but doesn't get into very intense games, either giving you a small advantage or TOTALLY DESTROYING your opponent after a ill-fated blunder, where they did not calculate the moves in advance, just thinking that it was the opening, and they could do no wrong.
This is the King's Gambit, and most players would respond somewhat like this; leading to a positional advantage for White, similar to the Queen's Gambit.
However, a less theory intensive opening is the Falkbeer Countergambit, seemingly blundering a pawn and allowing White to gain the center of the board. However, one fatal mistake can end White's game.
Lines:
Falkbeer Countergambit Accepted
Falkbeer Countergambit, Blackburne Attack
Falkbeer Countergambit, Blunder Line(Not an actual name)
Let's start with the most common line at lower ratings, the Blunder Line. Essentially, this can end the game in 3 moves (+Queen in a few more moves) and is common when people didn't study the theory of the King's Gambit, or just thought of a free pawn.
Ok, your opponent played this blunder of a move. I have good news and bad news.
Good News: Your opponent loses their Queen or their King.
Bad News: This unfortunately takes a bit of memorization.
Anyways, this leads to a pure mate as follows.
Essentially, in this variation, all you need to know is remember the first few moves, then find mate.
That was a short one, so let's get to the more complex(but unplayed) variations.
Falkbeer Accepted:
This is the most common line at my rating, so I figured I'll get into this one next.
Again, in this position, you still have potential for the trap to be played(if they take the e5 pawn anytime in the next few moves)
Now, there are two lines to be played,
Exf4 is the computer choice, but I prefer c6 more, so I'll dive deeper into c6 than I do with exf4.
Anyways, this is the subline Exf4(Only one diagram, as I said, study it if you prefer it)
So, now that THAT's out of the way(good riddance), let's get into the other two variations, the Staunton Line(Risky!) and the Nimzowitsch-Marshall Gambit.
The Nimzowitsch-Marshall Gambit goes as follows, gambiting a pawn and eventually regaining it, taming the King's Gambit.
Now, White can respond by either bringing one of their knights out, or taking the c6 pawn. As discussed, the e5 pawn is OFF-LIMITS.
Alright, let's go through the lines one by one.
1 out of three!
2 out of three!
And, 3 out of three. Finally, done with this time-consuming variation.
Falkbeer Accepted: Staunton Line:
The most played variation by grandmasters(In the Falkbeer), this opening is very sound and leads to less assailable and strong positions.
The Staunton line quickly turns the tables on White, getting the bishop-knight combo very quickly.
However, the Staunton is so large that I will be talking about it in a separate blog, probably around the size of this.
Feel free to research the Staunton on your own.
However, I will put down just the regular few lines played in this variation, essentially a trailer for my next blog.
Anyways, let's go into the last dense opening, the Blackburne Attack.
Falkbeer Countergambit, Staunton Line:
This is the last opening in the Falkbeer that will commonly be played, and goes as follows.
There are two sublines in here, but for sake of brevity, I will shorten it down and talk about the most played variation, the Modern Variation. If your opponent does not play into this, just find a way to sneak in D4 into the position, which will guarantee you an advantage later on.
This is a relatively calm variation, and should not lead to intense games in the next few moves.
Ending:
There are some lines I did not cover, like the Staunton Line and the Modern Transfer Line. However, this should give you the basis for all you need to know in the Falkbeer. Feel free to study more if you think this was not sufficient.
(P.S. I would really appreciate it if you followed me, since I post lots of games, puzzles, and cool blogs, but you don't have to if you don't want to.)
Thank you for reading to the end! I hope you enjoyed this blog!
