Bone Crushing Openings
The King's GambitOver twenty years ago my coach Mark Morss recommended I play the King’s Gambit. He realized the strength in particular of the Bishop’s Gambit with 3.Bc4!
The King's Gambit is rarely seen at top level (or any level), but I have played it my whole life. My best ever game was in the King's Gambit. I used it twice at the Denker and multiple times at the World Minds Sports Games in Beijing to win. I have also had many crushing losses, but blame me for that, not the opening.
In the King's Gambit, White gives up a pawn and weakens the king. In return, you have more center control, the open f-file, and chances to create a strong initiative. Black typically wants to go ...g5 and defend the f-pawn, but this is a weak plan after 3.Bc4 because 1) there is no knight on f3 to attack and 2) it is too slow and gives White time to target the king, since the bishop is already aggressively placed hitting the f7-pawn.
Of course, every move comes with a trade-off. White allows 3...Qh4+ when the only good move is 4.Kf1. I recall many times sitting with my king on f1 only minutes into the game and the people playing next to me looking at me like I was crazy.
Another advantage of the King's Gambit is that the computer hates it and says Black is better in almost every line. For your opponent, this makes prep with the computer hard to do because most positions are tricky to play as a human player, no matter what the computer says.
In this post I will show my best game, as well as a recent top-level encounter in rapid between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja at Norway Chess, 2021. Then I will show the variations you need to know to get started playing the King's Gambit, before concluding with some remarks on playing open positions in general.
My Best Game
It was the second round of the Virginia State Championships. I was facing a strong player rated over 2300. I went on to win this game and the next against another 2300+ player. Then I won again, and in the fifth round I was paired on the top board with another girl, the first time that had ever happened in state championship history. We drew the game.
Below is the third round game:
In the position above, Black has just played 14...Nf6. What should White play?
Below is the full game.
Abby Marshall-Daniel Miller, Virginia State Championships, 2006.
Ian Nepomniachtchi (2792)-Alireza Firouzja (2754), Norway Chess, 2021
Quick Start to the King's Gambit
I think you only need four lines to really get started: 3...Nf6 and 3...Qh4+ and then on move 2 there is 2...Bc5 and 2...d5. I included these because they were the only lines I really had memorized. I included the Falkbeer 2...d5 because it is rather forcing, though it is rare nowadays since it just leads to a bad position for Black.
One note: 2...d6 is also popular, when I think 3.Nc3! is most accurate.
And that's it. Do not overthink it. Just play. Further reading is The Fischer King's Gambit by Tim Taylor or The Fascinating King's Gambit by Thomas Johansson.
Open Positions
Even if you do not take up the King's Gambit, you should have at least one gambit in your repertoire because they lead to open positions.
It is essential to learn to play open positions. This teaches you to develop your pieces, look for tactics, and respond to your opponent's threats. Even for experienced players familiar with these basic principles, understanding open positions is important because often the critical moment in a game is deciding when to open the position. As Mark said in his column Hard Chess:
The often-heard claim that one's choice of opening system is largely a matter of taste is only half true. For however subjective the choice of system may be, it's an objective truth that the theory of play of open positions (as distinct from that of the nominally "open" systems characterized by 1. e4 e5) is the fundamental basis of the theory of the chess opening and middle game. Open positions are fundamental because an open position can never become closed, but many closed positions can be forced open. Indeed, the decision as to whether to open a closed position, and when to do so, is often the critical decision in a game of chess. The theory of a host of semi-open and closed defensive systems, from the Caro-Kann to the Meran, is mainly a theory of preparing pawn breaks to open the position.
Gambits are great to learn because they lead to open positions and teach you to fight for the initiative. If you play a more closed system, your strategy is clear-cut on the board but you are not learning much about chess. There is the strategy on the board, and the strategy in the game.
