King's Gambit | Lesson 23


navigation icon For navigation

[: Chess Openings - See All Lessons]

[• Learn: Open Game Openings e4 e5 - One by One]

This lesson is designed for beginners to learn the King's Gambit chess opening. It includes 3 chess videos (King's Gambit Main Variations, King's Gambit How to Play Part I, King's Gambit How to Play Part II), the text to read, and the PGN file to download and learn real games of chess masters on the King's Gambit.

Latest Chess Opening Information and New Links

King's Gambit: Data and Variations


Chess Opening Name: King's Gambit
Type: An Open Game opening (starts with 1.e4 e5)
Moves: 1.e4 e5 2.f4
ECO Codes: C30-C39

Kings Gambit chess opening

About King's Gambit

King's Gambit is one of the oldest chess openings. King's Gambit belongs to the Open Game openings. It was the most popular one for long time long ago. Today, King's Gambit is being played at the chess master level but not so often. It is usually recommended for Black to accept King's Gambit. Black may get good equal position...

The opening's idea is to divert the Black pawn e5 from the center, open the f-file, and seize the center by moving d2-d4. King's Gambit has at least 125 subvariations, of these the most common 10-15. Today's tendency is to play King's Gambit "more positionally." It is recommended for beginners to learn King's Gambit at first turn...

King's Gambit Main Variations

Top-level Variations:
• King's Gambit Declined: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 (other than ef)
• King's Gambit Accepted: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef

Some Other Variations:
Note: KGD - King's Gambit Declined.
Note: KGA - King's Gambit Accepted.
Note: KKG - King's Knight's Gambit.

• KGD, Classical Variation: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5
• KGD, Falkbeer Counter-Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5
• KGA, King's Bishop's Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Bc4
• KGA, King's Knight's Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Nf3

To learn King's Gambit and its main variations, see Video 1: King's Gambit Main Variations by clicking the Play button below:




• If the opening video has not shown up, please wait a little.
• If the video stops, drag a little right the player's handle.

King's Gambit: How to Play the Main Lines


The main lines of King's Gambit. Video 2 will show how to play the next variations: 1. KGD: Classical Variation (C30: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 (Bc5)); 2. KGD: Falkbeer Counter-Gambit, 5.de (C32: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.ed e4 4.d3 Nf6 5.de); and 3. KGA: King's Bishop's Gambit (C33: 1.e4 e5 2. f4 ef (3.Bc4)). To see Video 2: King's Gambit - How to Play - Part I click the Play button below:




• If the opening video has not shown up, please wait a little.
• If the video stops, drag a little right the player's handle.


See in writing the King's Gambit variations, which were shown in Video 2:

• KGD: Classical Variation
1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5 3.Nf3 d6 4.c3 Nf6 5.fe de 6.Nxe5 Qe7 7.d4 Bd6 8.Nf3 Nxe4 9.Be2 0-0 10.0-0 c5 11.Bc3

• KGD: Falkbeer Counter-Gambit, 5.de
1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.ed e4 4.d3 Nf6 5.de Nxe4 6.Nf3 Bc5 7.Qe2 Bf5 8.Nc3 Qe7 9.Be3 Bxe3 10.Qxe3

• KGA: King's Bishop's Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bb3 d5 6.ed cd 7.d4 Bd6 8.Nge2 0-0 9.0-0 g5

Video 3: King's Gambit How to Play Part II is located on a separate page:

See Video 3: King's Gambit - How to Play Part 2

King's Gambit: Download PGN File to Learn Real Games


Below you can find and download the Kings-gambit.pgn file to see how King's Gambit works in real games at the chess master level. To read the file, you will need a PGN Viewer Program. See Lesson 16, which will explain you how to download a decent freeware PGN Viewer Program - You need this chess program to open and replay all chess games within a PGN file. Before downloading the Kings-Gambit.pgn file, please read how the file was compiled and what you will see within it.

The Kings-Gambit.pgn file was specially created in the following way:

• The file includes main variations and displays how to correctly play some of them.
• In addition, the file includes 32 real games played in 2009 on King's Gambit.
• The real games were selected randomly, all players are FIDE rated 2015-2635.

• All the names of the chess players and their ratings were removed.
• The game results and tournament names were removed as well.
• The real games are shown from the beginning to the end of opening phase only.

• At this point, the opening positions were analyzed by a computer program.
• You will see the result of the program's analysis, like this...
• "If White finds a best line ..., White will be better at 1.02 pawns."

• The computer program's analysis will help you:
• To analyze each chess opening position.
• To understand how to correctly enter the middle game...

To learn how Kin'g Gambit works in real games, click the following link:

Download the Kings-Gambit.pgn File, 17 KB

Note 1. The above file is to be downloaded from Google Drive. First click the above link to open, then click the download icon to download.
Note 2. To read the above PGN File and see the chess games inside it, you will need a PGN Viewer software. See Lesson 16, which explains how to download a decent freeware PGN Viewer.

All Lessons for Beginners to Learn Chess Openings

This completes the lesson on the King's Gambit chess opening. The next opening to learn is Latvian Gambit (see Lesson 24 in the list of all lessons. Find the link to all lessons at the top of this page - and thanks for learning chess openings).