kings gambit accepted

The the gm level the king's gambit is busted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azweHtREla4

Looking at the games of Adams, even when playing other GMs like Nakamura its clear the KG gives white zero advantage or even any special central control. Other lines are good for white. The immediate 2 d5 is good for black in all variation Adams has played. Let white get the center and its all over, black pieces will never coordinate. The 2 D5 and the subsequent lines from it defang this gambit.

White should be better in your first line there. It's a transposition to the Cunningham Defense normally played 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Bh4+ 5.Kf1 which is considered slightly better for White so the variation is more commonly played 4...Nf6 these days. Your line goes for the old variation after having played d5 and giving back the pawn, so White isn't even down a pawn anymore. So what if White can't castle? The King is perfectly safe on f1 and often ends up there in the KG anyway. White is ahead in development and has much better control of the center; in fact the first player is the only one who has any kind of control of the center as your Bishop maneuver has taken quite a long time to accomplish. You might argue about the old main line in the Cunningham Defense but certainly in the version where you have the same position and White isn't down a pawn to get it White must have opening advantage there.

I agree with Weasley, there are a lot of good, safe, easy routes to equality for Black after 2. d5 in the King's Gambit, but I don't think this is one.

You might want to take a look at this this Chessbase News link:

http://en.chessbase.com/home/TabId/211/PostId/4008047

Nice ... I'm a King's Gambit fan. If you don't mind I'd like to play a King's Gambit game with you. The line you play is a varation of the Abazzia defense. I'd like to try to play one of the variations you described. Still, King's Gambit is legit if played in OTB tournaments against lower ranked players who haven't done their opening preparations. But it's very risky and very explosive. Pretty much why I love the King's Gambit!

thnx for the KG analyses..

Thank you very much people for your attention..!!

@tmkroll and @Ron-Weasley, I am grateful to you for your insightful comments and that will help me to revise some moves. I realize that the moves shown above are far from perfect,  and just wanted to share with people so that I can learn more about kings gambit.

The King's Gambit with Nf3 might be busted, but if white plays Bc4 first, then your variation doesn't necessarily work.

i was able to play a quite decent game of KGA after i studied ur analyses chattur..thnx agen..

pretty good exept in your later diagrams white is a bit dumb

Here's a sample game with 2 D5 I played. White's opening was neutralized and I got an easy playable game as black. The game Nakamura v Adams is one to watch. Adams neutralized Nakamura's King's gambit and Nakamura fought back for a playable middle game but with an advantage to black and the opening gave white no advantage.

It was 2 D5 that caused me to stop playing the KG with white, even though I'm a full 100 elo weaker playing ruy lopez or scotch. I had memorized some sharp lines in the KG and loved playing it, but I decided I want to play openings that can grow with me as I become stronger. And of course on the black side of this, I do not fear the KG at all, in fact it's now a pleasant surprise when an opponent springs it on me because I know how to neutralize it. I don't demolish it like Adams, but I don't want to spend a couple dozen hours preparing lines when I can just remember 2 D5 and have a playable game without fear of falling victime to wild and crazy shenanigans by white.

This is the sort of thing Boris Spassky played as Black against the KG if I remember right, too. I will say that while it seems to equalize it's not as if White's position in these lines is unplayable either, and in some respects this might even be letting White off easy as otherwise there are some old lines in the accepted Nf3 g5 variations which should do more than equalize for Black if you take the time and learn them (which is a lot of work for an opening you won't see very often... I don't mean the whole KG; I mean each individual varariation.) But, yeah, again, this is a good practical choice.

Chatur_chitta,

Position 1 is the Steinitz variation of the Bird’s Defense in the Cunningham gambit. Page 59 of the ‘Cunningham Gambit’ by W John Lutes suggests that it provides approximately good changes for White.

Position 2 is the Santo Vito Gambit found on page 219 of Lutes book and can be considered a lemon for the reason you gave. There is a gentleman at my chess club who doggedly sticks 4.h4 in reply to 3…Be7 and given the weakness of the King side black squares it is of no surprise he has not won with it yet.

Position 3 needs no comment a part from ‘bollicks’.

Position 4 is junk. 8.g3 is beyond faulty, just simply play 8.Kf1 after which if you consider that (a) Black has a poor Queenside structure (b) Black has used tempos to play Bf8, e7, h4+ and now will have to move it again to bring it back into the game and (c) the poor old pawn on f4 is going to need defending against (1) White has a queenside majority (2) Has wasted one less tempo in ripping the Black queenside pawns open and (3) better potential development prospects in Nc3, d4 (or d3), Bd2 (Bxf4 given the right circumstances) and rook a1 to e1. It is not hard to reason out that Whites position is far better after 8.Kf1

Position 5. See above. Why would one play 8.Ke2 in lieu of the much safer 8.Kf1. I would even go further and ask why 9.Kd3 and not 9.Kf1. With the Queen now on e7, the issue of rook a1 potentially to e1 must provide some chances.

And finally, anyone who claims that the King’s Gambit is busted is just plain fooling themselves. There is an age old adage that our American friends will be familiar with and that is “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. The same rational applies “The King’s Gambit does not win games alone, people do”.  Chess openings are like so called ‘refutations’, they are only as good as the next person you play, if your good enough to play what you do and how and in what situation (time control)

Hadron.

You check him with your Queen.

Yup becomes a whole different game.

After 3. Bc4 3... d5 can be played there as well and it will probably transpose to the text above. If you want to avoid that option you can play the counter gambit move order 2... d5 3. exd5 and then 3... exf4 instead of the Falkbeer. One good feature of the d5, Modern/Abbazia defense is it can be played against Nf3 or Bc4, again less book, safe, and easy.

Of course you can play the Queen check instead but again I think White has an advantage in that line. (You can argue that if you want but White players who play 3. Bc4 are really hoping you'll check them with your queen. That's playing their game.)

I believe the most challenging lines after 3. Bc4 involve Nf6, c6, and d5, probably after Bb4 pinning a knight on c3 to pressure the e4 pawn.

(Hi, Hadron; I haven't gotten much time to look at that other KG stuff yet but I haven't forgotten. Thanks again.)

I haven't played an easier game than when I'm black and I accept the KG. I have yet to lose, regardless of opponent, with this opening.  

That's not true.  I lost to a ~1850 OTB player in a blitz game once when he ran the KG and I accepted but I had mate in one twice.  He actually commented on how well I played even though I told him I loathe playing blitz chess at this point because it's so sloppy.  

I honestly have to say it's the last opening I would spend time learning now or in the future.

It appears you're right. Johansson indeed recommends the other capture the Facinating King's Gambit citing some analysis by Shirov which seems to put the pawn capture to bed. It'd been so long since I read it and I've played around with the engine Arasan too much which prefers the pawn capture. I even had Johansson's recommendation wrong in my head... thinking he said to take with the pawn so the Bishop won't be a target, when what he said was to take with the Bishop so the Bishop won't be blocked. Apologies. Anyway you can still play 2... d5 against either variation to get the OP's lines.

well at least I'm in good company then.

Whatever floats your boat. There are many unorthodox and unsound openings that people still love to play. I love the King's Gambit because it forces a particular type of game where it cannot transition into another familiar opening. So for someone who loves to play Ruy Lopez, Petroff or an Italian Game by responding e4 with e5 .. this throws them off their game if they don't know how to handle it.