Kings Gambit. Accept or Decline?

What do you prefer when the opening is a Kings Gambit? Accepting or Declining? I like to Decline with a Classical Defense when I play black.

What do you guys prefer and why? I am curious.

Jared

Never play it. But if I did, no thank-you, decline . . .

I was always taught to accept a gambit.

I've never not accepted it.

How about compromise?

As I said . . And, btw. I offered the gambit.

Both are fine for Black.

Falkbeer Counter-Gambit 

Chess is about the playing (for most of us amateurs, at least).  I don't really care what my opponent plays; I'll pick up the gauntlet. 

I play it as White whenever my opponent plays e5 and hate it when they decline.  I've never seen anyone play the variation shown above though with d5 followed by ef.  Almost every player I play who plays d5 follows it by e4.

I find it pretty boring when black declines though.  I lose plenty when they accept but I win plenty too and they're usually exciting games, albeit often with unsound sacrifices and play that a strong player could refute like swatting a fly away.  Occasionally it still gets wild when they decline though.

For example, the computer analysis rated me at 49% accuracy in this one, but it was fun since my opponent just crumbled in the face of an unsound attack!

Apparently I have 220 King's Gambit games in my game history.  Fewer than I might have thought, but then if my opponent doesn't play e5 I can't play it!

I prefer to decline. When you accept, you surrender your share of the center for a pawn you cannot hold on to. 

GM Larry Kaufman suggested the variation in his 2012 book. I do not think that he is the only one.

Accept

For some reason, I didnt receive a notification of all these responses. I just saw all the posts.

So many responses and so many opinions! I like reading what people have to say.

A lot of great input so far! Thanks!

Years ago, people thought chess engines busted the King's Gambit Accepted. I wonder if that's still true. This was around 2007 or 2008.

I like to decline, because usually when I accept my position falters. 

I think black alluded to what he thought of it by resigning.