Aggressive Chess Opening Discussion #16: King's Gambit Series: King's Gambit Accepted

Today I will be going over the ideas behind the "King's Gambit Accepted: Schallopp Defense". Let's get started.

The move 3...Nf6 is a move that gives black a solid game. In fact, this move is to be considered by a lot of players to be the refuted king's gambit accepted. Anyone who wants to refute the King's Gambit Accepted as black should play this opening against them. Players such as Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren played this opening, with Magnus Carlsen as white and Ding Liren as black. The match had concluded with Ding being the winner. So yeah, this opening might not be as popular as the others, but it is pretty much almost always the way to refute this opening. 

With 3...Nf6, this move is developing a piece and attacking the e4 pawn. The mainline continues with 4.e5, but other players could also do 4.Nc3. Although, this move would usually lead to another opening which I've already discussed about. The opening is called the Abbazia Defense of the Modern King's Gambit. So I won't discuss about this line. So we'll just continue with 4.e5.

After 4.e5, this move gains central space and a tempo on the knight. e5 could lead to some king side attack later on in the game as well. 4...Nh5 is the perfect square for the knight at the moment. It almost can never be dislodged for a while and also protects the f4 pawn. Now in this position, white has 3 options: 5.Qe2, 5.Be2, or 5.d4. Let's look at 5.Qe2 since it's the least popular move.

After 5.Qe2, white's idea is to try to castle queen side. Following up with d4 on the next move. Black should continue developing and try to put the king to safety with 5...Be7. Be7 is a developing move and puts the dark squared bishop on the most active square. White should continue their plans with 6.d4. Gaining more central control and putting some pressure on f4. Black continues their plan as well with 6...O-O. 7.Nc3 continuing development as planned to get the king castled on the queen side. 7...d6. It strikes at white's center and opens up possibilities for the light squared bishop and the knight on b8. 8.Bd2, continuing development and preparing for queenside castle. 8...Bg4 developing the light squared bishop and pinning the knight on f3. 9.O-O-O finishing the plan of castling queenside. 9...Nd7, developing a knight and putting pressure on white's center. It's a nice idea since the knight on f3 is pinned and can't really help with the defense of the pawn. White has to capture, so 10.exd6 10...Bxd6 putting the dark squared bishop on an active square and overprotecting the f4 pawn. I'll stop right here since there isn't much going on in this position. Here is what the position looks like:

This position isn't too hard to play, but black is slightly better hear considering that white is tied down here and the f4 pawn is really cramping white's position plus black is up a pawn. So this position is better for black. Let's look at the move Be2

After 5.Be2, white looks to continue developing the king side pieces and castle king side. 5...d6 Striking at white's e5 pawn also opening up possibilities for the light squared bishop. 6.O-O (castles). 6...dxe5, you want to open up the position for your pieces. 7.Nxe5. 7...Bc5+, developing a piece and checking the enemy king. 8.Kh1 the only move for the king. 8...Nf6 since the knight was attacked twice. 9.c3 is looking to push d4 and gain a tempo on the bishop. 9...Bd6 avoiding the tempo lost. 10.d4 regardless, controlling the center and now comes a series of exchanges. 10...Bxe5. 11.dxe5. 11...Qxd1 12.Bxd1. 12...Nd5. If you look at this position, black is up a pawn, but white will eventually gain some equality. Here is what the position looks like:

Black is slightly better, but eventually both players will gain equality. Now let's look at the best move 5.d4.

After 5.d4, white gains some central control and puts pressure on f4. 5...d6 attacks at white's center and opens up a possibility for the bishop. 6.Qe2. Now white's idea is to develop the queen side pieces and castle queen side. Qe2 also prevented a queen trade from black. 6...d5, since there isn't going to be a queen trade to favor black, black might as well have their own central control and open up possibilities for the dark squared bishop. 7.Nc3 continuing development. 7...Nc6 black does the same. 8.Bd2 8...g5. Black doesn't want to deal with f4 being a long term target so they decide to solidify the pawn there. 9.Qf2, now white wants to attack this pawn chain with g3. Black has to counterattack with the move 9...g4, trying to slow white's plan and push the knight back to it's original squares. 10.Ng1 is the only square for the knight. 10...Be7 trying to continue development and setting up the move f6 to attack at white's center. 11.O-O-O white finishes their plan of putting the king to safety. 11...f6 attacks white's center. 12.exf6 is forced if white doesn't want to lose a pawn. 12...Bxf6. Now 13.Re1+ taking advantage of the fact that black's king is still in the center. 13...Kf7. I'll stop right here and let you guys see what happens in the analysis. In this position, black's king is now unable to castle, their king side structure is extremely weak, and has to deal with long term problems with the pawn duo on the f and g file. Here is what the position looks like on the board:

In the long run white will eventually be better here. Here is my proof:

https://www.chess.com/a/hLnqzqX4AQ7Q

Alright, so I covered everything on the schallopp defense of the King's Gambit accepted. Next, I will go over the becker defense. Which isn't played as often. I hope you guys found this pretty useful.