Kings Gambit, Muzio Gambit

It is damn fun, but in your muzio, black king was lured of bait, if he preferred in 3rd rank rather gobbling rook, game could go longer for black rather ending at your craziest 0-0#

@KumarG15 re #61:

Apologies if 'm being thicker than an ostrich omelette here, but I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean when you write, "the move e4 to e5 is a waste in the game and it slowed white progress".

it's this position in which I had White play e4-e5:

Now if White doesn't play e4-e5:

1) White can't get the Double Muzio with Bxf7+ because of ..., Qxf7, and playing c3 or Nc3 instead look grim

2) At the start of the twentieth century, some theoreticians experimented with 7. d3 holding Pe4-e5 in reserve, but they didn't seem to get anything better than transpositions into the standard 'single' Muzio.

3) In the nineteenth century McDonnell (or was it MacDonnell? I never can remember which was which off-the-cuff) experimented once or twice with 7. Pe4-e5 then 8. Pb2-b3 (Idea: protect the Bc4, sac the Ra1 to get Black's Queen right out of play after 8..., Qxa1; 9. Nc3)

but that didn't hold up against analysis (see Staunton's Handbook even).

I couldn't find a way to make this work by omitting Pe4-e5 either: this

didn't get me anywhere.

What are you proposing instead of Pe4-e5?

This is an opening and gambit for men. Strong men who consume potatoes each day.

@MaxiTheIntroverter I completely agree. The Salvio seems to be OK and one's opponents are usually ill-prepared for it. I used to fear 5..., Qh4+ and 6..., Nc6 until 1994, when Garbacz-Jaworski showed us the way. Now I agree the Salvio can work.

But I remain sceptical about the whole complex because Black can always play 4..., Bg7.

My own personnel the The King's Gambit is awesome...

I used to play it in over-the-board rated tournaments occasionally.

VERY occasionally. Like... twice, as far as I recall.

Here's a tournament game from nearly 50 years ago:

the Muzio gambit is quite unsound, but its fun to play. maybe play it online and it works even if your rating is 2000 online. however, it's too risky for tournaments

topalov starts typing...

but ironically like this is wrong and a lot of GMs use it occassionally. unless you are GM yourself you shouldn't speak that so confidently.

not a fan

it might look like white has attack but black can just pull out queen and its back to square one except the pawn is still there staring menacingly at you.

Sadly, the trouble with the Mason (or Keres) Gambit is that White doesn't get much fun if Black plays things other than 4..., g5?

4..., c6 is interesting and whilst not a refutation as-such it seems to give White no fun at all. Macieja-Karpov 2003 is the exemplar game should anyone want to look it up. I suspect that 4..., c6 might have been a left-over from Karpov's preparation for his 1974 Candidates Semi-Final match: Spassky occasionally played the King's gambit with 3. Nc3.

4..., d5 is definitely the move for White to worry about here, though.

4..., Qd8 (the move played in Kasparov-Karjakin 2017) looks very much like an attempt to avoid Kasparov's home preparation in a blitz game.