Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. f4

King's Gambit
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/4PP2/8/PPPP2PP/RNBQKBNR b
Moves: 1.e4 e5 2.f4
ECO code: C30-C39
Parent: Open Game

King's Gambit

White offers a pawn (and temporarily weakens his king side) in order to get the opportunity to play d4.

Black can accept the pawn and play 2...exf4 or refuse it. In the second case, many opportunities are offered to him. The most played are 2...Bc5 and 2...d5. Black could also reasonably play 2...Nc6 a variation that is rarely explored. White is considered to surrender an advantage when black accepts the gambit, and as such the lines of the King's Gambit Declined have become unpopular at the master level.

Theory table

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1.e4 e5 2.f4

	2	3	4	5	6	7
King's Gambit Accepted	f4 exf4	Nf3 g5	h4 g4	Ne5 Nf6	d4 d6	Nd3 Nxe4	∞
King's Gambit Declined	... Bc5	Nf3 d6	Nc3 Nf6	Bc4 Nc6	d3 Bg4	Na4 O-O	+=
Falkbeer Countergambit	... d5	exd5 c6	Nc3 exf4	Nf3 Bd6	d4 Ne7	Bc4 O-O	+=
King's Gambit Declined	... d6	Nf3	+=
	... Nc6	Nf3 f5	exf5 e4	Ne5 Nf6	d3 Qe7	dxe4 Nxe5	∞
Panteldakis Countergambit	... f5	exf5	+=

References

• Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.