TJOABS | P1B1 | King's Gambit

The King's Gambit is one of the oldest openings around. Popular during the romantic period, it was a way for white to try to grab the center by diverting the undefended e5 pawn. Originally, it was considered to be one of the best openings around, with white coming out with brilliancies against their opponent several times. Most thought it was a sound, bold way for white to attack the center.

Later on, people discovered more about chess. Grandmasters questioned the soundness of this opening. Gambits were now thought to be unsound, and with the creation of positional play, King's Gambit lost almost all of it's popularity. Only a few famous chess players still venture with it from time to time, and the way it isn't dead yet remains a mystery.

Black has four main ways to respond:

Accept the pawn, and hold on to it,

Accept and give it back,

Decline, and

Offer a countergambit

No matter what black does, we will always play 3. Nf3.

A) Accept and hold

This would usually mean 3. ... g5, and is the most common response to the King's Gambit Accepted. We will now respond with Bc4, moving the bishop by the center and attacking the weak f7 pawn. The next plans include d4, which can be set up with c3, followed by 0-0. Some people do a queen attack next, but I would rather focus on development than an early, unsound attack.

B) Accept and return

This follows the basic same system, except after the bishop and d-pawn movement, we can capture back the pawn with our bishop. Again, focus on castling and development.

C) Decline

This usually means a Bc5. This doesn't change much, but we will play Nf3 again and then Bc4 and d3, but not taking the e-pawn. 

D) Falkbeer Countergambit

We will take the e-pawn, and if they take ours, then we can just play d4 and have a happy center. If they play e5 (most common) we can play c4 and develop our kingside and queenside knight.

That's it for today! I hope you keep on studying and following The Jorney of a Beginner's Studies. Can't wait for next time!