White plays KG looking for trouble. If you want to try to quiet things down from the Black side... 2...Nf6 is probably the best way:
King's Gambit as Black (again)
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You might want to try the modern faulkbeer countergambit, 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 exf4, which is totally different in spirit from the classical 3...d4 variation. You reach a balanced game without the usual bizarre KG structures, and presumably requires less theory than the usual accepted lines.
JG - great line. I will explore it. Bresando, Grazie tanto!
The other proposed line is interesting and unusual, but hoping that the opponent is only capable of attacking play is usually not a good bet. For example i like playing quiet +/= endgames, but i also play the KG sometimes.
More lineessssss
Nov 10, 2011
0
#7
So if you encounter the King's Gambit and expect your opponent knows it well, perhaps declining it is best to avoid so many traps. Your opponent may be booked up on 1e4 e5 2.f4 d5, but not so much on 2...Nf6. I sometimes play the 2...Nf6 line. Here is one from a tournament game.
billwall wrote:
So if you encounter the King's Gambit and expect your opponent knows it well, perhaps declining it is best to avoid so many traps. Your opponent may be booked up on 1e4 e5 2.f4 d5, but not so much on 2...Nf6. I sometimes play the 2...Nf6 line. Here is one from a tournament game.
I'm not an expert, but why didn't White just do 3.Nc3 or 3.Bd3?
Another line that is sometimes played in the attempt to lure white in unusual positions is 2...Qh5+!? 3.g3 Qe7 (Keene defense if i remember correctly). With best play is probably perfectly playable, but white gets exactly what a gambit player should like (a good advantage in development and attacking chances) and black can easily experiece a quick knockout if he tryes to take the initiative. It's not a variation i would recommend.
I need safe, equalizing lines, such as the one JG posted.
Nov 10, 2011
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#11
The move-order 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 exf4 is also recommended in Kaufman's "CIhess Advantage in Black and White". It reaches the same position as 2.f4 pxp 3Nf3 d5 usually but avoids some options for white.
Objectively the best line might be 2...pxp 3Nf3 g5 but if not facing Kings Gambit much would prefer first line because it is straightforward.
KefkaKGA wrote:
billwall wrote:
So if you encounter the King's Gambit and expect your opponent knows it well, perhaps declining it is best to avoid so many traps. Your opponent may be booked up on 1e4 e5 2.f4 d5, but not so much on 2...Nf6. I sometimes play the 2...Nf6 line. Here is one from a tournament game.
I'm not an expert, but why didn't White just do 3.Nc3 or 3.Bd3?
Well, I defer to Bill Wall in King's Gambit matters as he is something of an expert so I hope he doesn't mind me answering here...
3.Nc3 is perfectly reasonable, in fact it's probably White's best move -- with it, White has taken a King's Gambit move order to transpose into the Vienna Game, a perfectly playable opening and a favorite of 1st World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz if I'm not mistaken.
3.Bd3 on the other hand looks to me like a dreadful move. I'd be surprised if it's been played even once in a master level database.. It locks down the white d pawn trapping in his DSB, just to put the LSB on a passive defensive post. I wouldn't spend any time on 3.Bd3 as a candidate move... what is there to like about it?
OP: "I need safe, equalizing lines, such as the one JG posted."
Well, chess is a collaborative endeavor, and the fellow on the other side of a King's Gambit is typically trying to prevent exactly those safe equalizing lines! If the King's Gambit offered lots of safe equalizing lines, it wouldn't have been _the_ opening of choice for the better part of the 19th century. The King's Gambit has fallen out of favor at the highest level's of chess, but not because Black has found lots of good quiet KG declined lines, but rather because Black can accept the gambit, take the bull by the horns, and fight a tactical dogfight with White on even terms.
A million chess players before you (including me!) have wished for a good safe non-insane non-booked-up-to-move-15-in-seven-different-Kieseritzsky-variations way to tackle the KG with black. There isn't one I know of...(although I'm often wrong... so who knows perhaps someone will step up and educate you and me with some surefire KG kryptonite) ... but personally, I refute the King's Gambit like this: 1.e4 c6!
Good posts everyone. I see your point JG. Let's keep moving on the theory.
I'm a King's Gambit player myself. The line JG27Pyth proposed looks pretty interesting. I like the endgame too, so I don't know if that's something that would bother me.
A lot of players seem to like the Modern Defense to the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Nf6 etc.). While it does neutralize the swashbuckling gambit nature of the King's Gambit, I personally don't worry about it, as it is not uncommon for White to re-establish the material balance and have a straightforward "normal" game. But that "normalness" is exactly why many a Black player likes it.
Interestingly, it is the mainline that worries me. The double-edged 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 is quite theory-intensive and risky for Black, but if White fails to get an attack going AND fails to recapture the pawn, he is in big trouble.
Nov 10, 2011
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#15
The line 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Nf6 3.fxe5 Nxe4 4.Nf3 Ng5 5.d4 Nxf3 6.Qxf3 looks pretty solid for both players. Lots of drawn games I can find here. The top players who play this as White are GMs Judit Polgar, Alex Sherzer and Stocak (2515). The top players who play this as Black include GMs Alex Yermolinsky and Gennady Timoshenko. The shortest game I could find is if White played 6.gxf3 instead of 6.Qxf3.
My best success against the KG has been the Cunningham, 1 e4 e5 2 f4 ef 3 Nf3 Be7.
A very funny game from 1980:
2...Bc5 is a very solid line, which gives black equality. It's very welll analysed in Marin's excellent book "Beating the Open Games".
Personally I like the currently fashionable 2...ef4, 3...Ne7 lines quite a lot.
mapleblitz wrote:
King's Gambit is great against a 400-rated player or a brainless player
No offense, but that is the single most ignorant post I've ever seen.
Just ignore him.
2...Bc5 is a good defense but not something that should paricularly worry white. Some books claim equality for black and others a slight edge for white; what is certain is that white can play on without fearing an immediate drawish simplification, so as white i would be far from annoyed by 2...Bc5. However it's indeed a solid defense, where the player with a better understanding wins.
I know this has been discussed, but I want to bring the discussion back, because the past thread wasn't that enlightening. I am looking for a safe way to play as black, but, of course, feel free to post things as dynamic as you want, especially counter gambits.