I want to play the Kings gambit. Any tips?

Hi, I've come to the chess.com forums for conflicting and generally bad advice. Does anybody have some?

Hi have played this game against 2000 player on lichess (i am 1700) Can anybody see what I could have done differently? Is there anything instead of nxg5? (had time pressure at the end)

Thnx 

I lost

Also thnx to NikkiLikeChikki and Jenium who take time to construct the long fact filled paragraphs.

@defenceking27 that is the main line. Theory says play h4 on move 4 and if he pushes the g pawn, you play Ne5. This is the Kieseritsky. Hanging Pawns has a video on this line.

If you want, you can not push the h pawn, just castle and let him take the knight. You have now entered the Muzio gambit, which is one of the most exciting lines in all of chess. Believe it or not, it wins for white over 50% of the time. I have literally won every time I've entered the Muzio but it's not for the faint of heart.

This is the kind of trouble black can get into if they accept the Muzio Gambit. The first 17 moves are theory that I actually memorized just in case I ever got to play this line.

@Ubik42 - told you it was fun

Wow. I haven't seen something that crazy since the Traxler. 

@Defenceking27- Black was dead as soon as he took the bishop on e3... he just didn't know it yet.

Now that another wave of bad advice has washed over, I'll give some advice more appropriate the the person who asked the question. The question was posed by a high school kid who said he has been studying the King's Gambit and wanted advice for a HS tournament. A million years ago, I used to be on a high school chess team. Dialing my mind back to that time, here's what I think you'll find helpful:

1. You're playing a gambit. You're going to give up material in order to get open lines, development and an attack going. If you are not really comfortable doing this, then play something else. If you are committed to this, then make sure every move furthers this general plan.

2. Your opponent may not be interested in giving you an attack for a crummy pawn. You'll need to be ready for 2...Bc5 and 2...d5 declined versions.

3. The most important thing going into a tournament is to have calm nerves and a modicum of confidence in what you plan to play. Without these, your nerves will beat you before your opponent will.

4. The rest is just not dropping a piece.

I hear somewhere that Vienna gambit is a slightly better version of KG, maybe give it a try here online?

Cool!

@Arnuat10 - the ideas behind the Vienna are very similar to those of the King's Gambit, but I wouldn't say it was better; rather, it's safer and less sharp. In the KG you sacrifice the pawn to immediately gain central dominance and to open the f file for the attack. In the Vienna, it's much harder to gain central control but you still try to use the f file. Your king is definitely safer, though. You're much less likely to get checkmated or checkmate your opponent in 23 moves, but the overall win% is about the same. There's also a lot less theory in the Vienna.

This is literally the worst advice I have heard on this site in a long time.

#37 definitely less theory and its definitely less known which makes it easier to play. Its my main opening and I have had many games where I get winning positions as of move 3-4. Opponents even at this level don't know how to play against it because its so rare. I would say in my experience main line gets played less than 10%