King's Gambit

The King's Gambit is both an opening and a strategy. This is a high-risk high-reward strategy that sacrifices castle-ing in order for the King to be more active on the field.

This playstyle has some pros and cons:

pros:

- Bait out your opponent by having them make reckless checks

- Enforces your lines with extra protection

- Moving base of fire - wherever the King goes, the base of fire around him follows

- Position advantage over Piece Advantage

cons

- Highly susceptible to Knights

- Expect to be pinned/discover checked multiple times in this game

- Easy check mates against you in the opening (there are several nasty 3-7 move checkmates with this opening). Study these mates to avoid the same fate.

Strategy:

- Priority is eliminating Knights, then Queen, then Bishop, and lastly Rook

- For trades/sacrifices, knight/bishop has more value than Rook in this playstyle. Rook is too static and doesn't move as well as the other pieces.

- Aggressive but smart advancement is key

- Ignore the material advantage/disadvantage. This is about breaking through the enemies lines and getting a decisive blow on the opposing King.

I've play-tested this opening a dozen times and had some amazing games. The most fun was against Julius Caesar, whose initial queen rush was pushed off by a King on the 3-Rank. 

Another very good match (also very long - 81 moves!) was against Cleopatra.