Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. f4/2...exf4

King's Gambit Accepted

	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

Common moves:
3. Nf3 - King's Knight Gambit
3. Bc4 - King's Bishop Gambit
3. Be2 - Lesser Bishop's (April Fool's) Gambit
3. d4 - Villemson Gambit
3. Qf3 - Breyer Gambit
3. Nc3 - Keres Gambit

King's Gambit Accepted

If Black could make a free move in this position, it would undoubtedly be ...Qh4+. White can't block with the g-pawn thanks to the Black pawn on f4, so the awkward 3. Ke2 would be forced.

How should White deal with that threat?

The most obvious approach is to control the h4 square, with the natural developing move 3. Nf3.

The only reasonable alternative to that is to create an empty square for the king to run to after the check on h4. 3. Bc4 accomplishes this while also developing a piece to a square where it will threaten Black's weak f7 point. This is statistically White's best approach against the King's Gambit Accepted, in that White wins only slightly fewer games than Black does. Since in most openings White wins rather more games than Black by virtue of going first, this is a considerable fall from grace for the King's Gambit since the "romantic" era of chess in the 19th century.

Theory table

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

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4

	3	4	5	6	7
King's Knight Gambit	Nf3 g5	h4 g4	Ne5 Nf6	d4 d6	Nd3 Nxe4	∞
King's Bishop Gambit	Bc4 ...	=
Lesser Bishop's Gambit	Be2 ...
Villemson Gambit	d4?! Qh4+
Mason Gambit	Nc3?! -
Breyer Gambit	Qf3?! -	=/+
King's Own Gambit	Kf2?! Qh4+	g3 fxg3	Kg2 Qxe4+	-/+

References

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

External links

• 365Chess. 1. e4 e5 2. f4
• chessgames. 1. e4 e5 2. f4
• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.