King's Gambit

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King's Gambit
  a b c d e f G H  
8th Chess rdt45.svg Chess ndt45.svg Chess bdt45.svg Chess qdt45.svg Chess kdt45.svg Chess bdt45.svg Chess ndt45.svg Chess rdt45.svg 8th
7th Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess pdt45.svg 7th
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5 Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess pdt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 5
4th Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 4th
3 Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 3
2 Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess plt45.svg Chess plt45.svg 2
1 Chess rlt45.svg Chess nlt45.svg Chess blt45.svg Chess qlt45.svg Chess klt45.svg Chess blt45.svg Chess nlt45.svg Chess rlt45.svg 1
  a b c d e f G H  
Trains 1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5
2. f2 – f4
ECO key C30-C39
Named after The pawn's sacrifice on f4

Template: Infobox chess opening / maintenance / new

The king's gambit is a gambit , i.e. an opening of the game of chess in which material is sacrificed in order to gain positional advantages. The King's Gambit is an open game and is divided into several variants.

It starts with the trains:

1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5
2. f2-f4

strategy

The idea of ​​the king's gambit is to use the pawn sacrifice on f4 to occupy the center with the two middle pawns e4 and d4. The excess weight in the center can be used for more free character development and for a later attack on the king. Another idea is to recapture the weak f4 pawn or to deflect it (e.g. with g2 – g3) , whereby the opened f-file can be used to attack.

The move 2. f2 – f4 has - besides the fact that a pawn is lost - also disadvantages: Above all, the king's security, especially the diagonals h4 – e1 and a7 – g1, is weakened. Furthermore, the black pawn f4, adequately protected, can impair White’s development.

history

The King's Gambit was mentioned in the oldest chess book by Lucena (1497) and given his name in the work of the Spaniard Ruy López de Segura in 1561. The expression gambit comes from Italian , as Ruy Lopez indicates, and was borrowed from the wrestling language - in the sense of dare il gambetto (to stand on a leg).

The King's Gambit was a very popular and feared opening, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the brilliant games with the King's Gambit, in which a victim attack was crowned with success, date from this time. The best known is the so-called Immortal Game played on June 21, 1851 in London between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky . Towards the end of the 19th century , defensive methods and positional play in chess in general improved more and more. This led to the fact that in the King's Gambit variants were worked out in which Black - partly with the return of the Gambit pawn - strives for a solid, less tactical position. Some of these variants were considered less demanding, which meant that Black should quickly equalize, and some were even viewed as the grave digger of the King's Gambit. The result was that the King's Gambit was played less and less in the period around 1900. In the first years of the 20th century there were still a few themed tournaments for the King's Gambit, some of which were top-class, but the almost complete disappearance of this opening in tournament practice could not be stopped.

Only Rudolf Spielmann - who at that time was also known as The Last Knight of the King's Gambit - used the King's Gambit regularly in the 1920s and 1930s, and Savielly Tartakower sporadically as well . After the Second World War, it was mainly David Bronstein and Boris Spassky who did not shy away from opening important tournament games with the King's Gambit.

Current meaning

Since the 1990s, the King's Gambit has been increasingly found in the master's practice again. Nigel Short even prepared it as a weapon for his 1993 World Cup fight against Garry Kasparov . The sisters Zsófia and Judit Polgár as well as some other top players sometimes open with the King's Gambit. In the meantime the methods for the leader of the white stones have been strengthened or refined and new discoveries have been made. There can be no talk of a “slight balance” in some variants that was seen around 100 years ago (see above).

Opening theory assessment

According to the opening doctrine, the leader of the white pieces can probably only hope for an equalization, provided that the black player finds the optimal moves. This requires profound theoretical knowledge. Many variants of the King's Gambit are still difficult to assess.

Probably the move 2. f2 – f4 is no better than the much more common move 2. Ng1 – f3, it is probably even theoretically a little worse.

In practice, the King's Gambit offers good chances, as Black's defense is difficult and this opening often has a surprise effect.

Main variants

The main variants of the King's Gambit include:

literature