Aggressive Chess Gambits – The King’s Gambit
Of course, we should start with the King’s Gambit, the main romantic opening of chess. According to my database, the first time it was played in 1560! It starts after 1.e4 e5 2.f4:
The idea is the same as in the Queen’s Gambit, deflecting the central pawn by a flank pawn. The difference is that now it happens on the kingside which weakens White’s king a lot. But it doesn’t mean that White will become a defensive side; the f-file is going to be opened very soon, and so White is going to target Black’s king as well. Sounds like an introduction for a blockbuster story!
In the viewer below you can see one of the most famous chess games called “The Immortal Game”, where Adolf Anderssen sacrificed a bishop, two rooks, and the queen to deliver a picturesque checkmate on move 23.
The King’s Gambit was one of the main weapons of the World Champion Boris Spassky and many other strong grandmasters. But nowadays, we rarely see this chess gambit at the top level. One of the reasons is that with modern engines Black managed to find many convincing ways of meeting it. The other reason is that it is a perilous approach in general, and overall chess professionals prefer to play safe and solid.
Although, some brave attacking players use it from time to time as a surprising weapon, for example, Vassily Ivanchuk managed to beat Peter Leko in the Legends of Chess rapid event this year. Although at lower levels, the King’s Gambit is absolutely playable and remains a very unpleasant opening to meet.