King's Gambit
Opening course for White · ECO C33
A pawn, an open file, and a game your opponent has never studied.
1.e4 e5 2.f4 is the oldest attacking opening there is, and modern theory has an unflattering verdict on it: with accurate defence Black equalises, and in one line Fischer showed Black gets more than that. This course takes that seriously instead of pretending otherwise. It plays 3.Nf3, it sidesteps the Fischer Defence line the engines confirm is bad for White, and every line here was held to the same engine standard as the rest of the shelf. What you get for the pawn is real and practical: an open f-file aimed at f7, a free hand in the centre with d4, and an opponent who has to find a long series of only-moves in a position they last saw in a video. That is why it still scores at club level, and it is the only honest reason to play it.
- Chapters
- 5
- Lines
- 16
- Traps
- 2
- Sources
- 7
Nothing to review. Learn the next line.
Next: The pawn and the file, against Black taking and holding with ...g5.
Part of your daily work.
- Learn
- Walk the line with the coach, a note on the moves that need one.
- Recall
- Play it from memory. Learned lines come back on a schedule.
- Tempo
- The same line against the clock, for a score to beat.
- Off book
- The opponent leaves the book with a real move; Stockfish prices your answers.
Before the moves: the big ideas
The f-file is the payment
Taking on f4 opens the file your rook already stands on, pointing at f7, the square Black defends with his king and nothing else. Castling short in this opening is not a safety move, it is an attacking one: it connects the rook to the file the gambit opened.
Build the centre before you attack
The pawn on e4 plus d4 is the difference between a gambit and a swindle. Nearly every good version of this opening has White playing d4 in the first six moves, taking squares away from Black's pieces while his kingside pawns are still wandering. If you find yourself attacking without d4 in, you are probably losing.
Black's g-pawns cut both ways
After 3...g5 Black holds the extra pawn with a pawn chain that also blows a hole in his own kingside. He has a real attack down the g-file if you let him castle and consolidate; you have targets on g5, g4 and h5 for the rest of the game if you do not. Speed decides which of those two games gets played.
Know where the theory ends badly
This is the one opening in the repertoire where the engine's verdict on the main lines is a small minus for White. Between -0.4 and -1.0 is not a lost position and it is not a lie either. Play it because your opponent has to solve problems, keep an eye on your own king, and take the draw or the equal endgame when it is what the position offers.
The lines, chapter by chapter
In learning order. The coach serves review one line a day; open any line yourself when you want it now.
Start Here: The Offer
1 line
Nine moves, no memorisation. This is the pawn, the file it opens, and the knight jump the whole opening is built around.
3...g5: Black Keeps the Pawn
4 lines
The critical chapter. Black is trying to hold the material and White is trying to make the kingside pawns cost more than they are worth.
The Modern Defences
4 lines
Black's better-behaved answers: give the pawn back for development, or refuse to grab in the first place. These are the lines you will meet against players who have read something.
When Black Declines
4 lines
Roughly half your opponents will not take the pawn. These four lines cover almost everything they do instead.
Sidelines and Accidents
3 lines
The rest: one historical gambit worth knowing, one knight move that walks into the centre, and one countergambit that gives the pawn straight back.
After the book: model games
The lines teach the moves; these games show the middlegame that follows, with notes on the key moves.
Puzzles from this opening
The King's Gambit in brief
The King's Gambit is the chess opening that begins 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5, and it is filed under ECO C33. This course teaches it from White's side in 16 drills across 5 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
- The pawn and the file against Black taking and holding with ...g5
- The Kieseritzky main line against 5...Nf6, hitting the centre
- The Kolisch: 5...d6 against Black kicking the knight immediately
- 5...Qe7, the greedy check against Black hitting e4 and daring White to defend it
- Defending with 4...f6 against the natural way to hold g5, which loses on the spot
- The Fischer Defence against 3...d6, and the line Fischer published as a bust
- The Modern Defence: 3...d5 against Black giving the pawn back for the centre
- The Cunningham: 3...Be7 against the developing move with a check behind it
- The knight grab that loses a piece against 3...d6 with an early ...Nxe4
- The classical decline: 2...Bc5 against the bishop that stops White castling
- 2...Bc5 with the Na4 plan against the same bishop, hunted rather than pushed
- The Falkbeer Counter-Gambit against 2...d5, meeting a gambit with a gambit
- 2...d5 3...Qxd5 against recapturing with the queen, which costs time
- The Bertin: three pawns for the attack against the Cunningham check, 4...Bh4+
- 3...Nc6 and the d-pawn against the MacLeod, where the knight becomes a target
- 3...f5, the second countergambit against Black offering a pawn back to blunt the attack
Questions
- What is the King's Gambit?
- The King's Gambit is the chess opening that begins 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5, filed under ECO C33. A pawn, an open file, and a game your opponent has never studied. 1.e4 e5 2.f4 is the oldest attacking opening there is, and modern theory has an unflattering verdict on it: with accurate defence Black equalises, and in one line Fischer showed Black gets more than that.
- How do you learn the King's Gambit?
- This course splits it into 16 drills across 5 chapters. You play each line from White's side against a coach note that explains the move, then the same lines come back on a spaced-repetition schedule until you can play them without prompting. Every position is verified with Stockfish at depth 20 before it ships.