Here's me beating an 1866 in 19 moves in the smith morra GAMBIT DELINED (generally a nightmare for me)
an 1838 in 11
i beat an 1895 in the falkbeer counter gambit (I do better than the stats in this line)
and here's me beating an 1850 in 21 in the icelandic gambit, which I really never even played preferring the old fashioned scandinavian gambit which is NOT that tactical these days.
EVERYONE makes mistakes, and I actually find it EASIER to play higher rated opponents! it's the lower rated ones with their weird little "never seen that before" crap that trips me all up. that's why I'm having such a hard time clawing back to the 1700s, but the charlick and mieses are helping!
here's a "flawless grandmaster" getting spanked by a 1700 in the smith morra GAMBIT
bottom line as more than one GM has said,
"It's harder to defend than attack"
I think too at the higher levels, players get lazy and ignore their gambit theory because no one else plays it anymore. the longer I play and study, the better I'll know MY theory.
even at the GM level, king's gambit STILL kicks more butt!
at 30:50:20 in 237,359 games! by YOUR THEORY... black should be winning, but ISN'T!
other gambits don't fare as well, but you're talking about a level where centipawns actually matter when in real amateur games, it's COMMON for both players to make 5 point mistakes as the eval has a heart attack.
if you want to refute my charlick, please do BRING IT! I'll play it all day long, and by the end of the day, I'll be even better at it. I'm having SO MUCH stress relieved dropping that much of the stone wall
but here in the REAL WORLD, gambiteers OWN the opposition.
^^ this
I hear the same narrative all the time from gambit naysayers.
The 1600s say "those gambits work against 1400s, but once you start to play 1800s you'll need to learn a real opening"
The 2000s say "those gambits work against 1800s, but once you start to play masters you'll need to learn a real opening"
blah blah blah
The reality is, at least in online chess, dubious gambits work unbelievably well at every single level.