Some months ago I only played against king's gambit about 1 in 50 games or more.
Now it seems like every other game is a king's gambit.
Does anyone know why so many people play it all of a sudden?
Wasn't it a "bad" opening?
Did AlphaZero or someone win a match with this that changed the meta?
Thanks.
King gambit was always sound, if a bit unambitious (black has many easy ways to equalize). I am not aware of any sudden change, maybe people just got tired of playing against phillidors and petroffs.
i think several GMs played this recently, some with decent coverage. There was always players choosing this opening tho, you just didn't met them often before
Well, Fischer's 'refutation' while not being a complete refutation it still gives black easy play and an advantage.
I play it a lot. Because of the modern defences, it can be difficult, so white needs to move fast and take risks. But it can lead to some great, knock-about games, occasionally even 19th century style if black doesn't go modern.
Indeed, here is a game I've just finished. A good old-fashioned KG knock-about:
@Chillkroete77 I would say that black gets equality at best in fisher's. For analysis check out John Shaw's book.
Not sure why there would be an increase in King's Gambit games other than Shaw's book starting to become more popular. Personally I play it for fun/romantic reasons but it's not considered a good opening to play often at high levels mainly because it is too easy to prepare against you (Black gets to choose which variation is played and has at least a dozen reasonable choices) while White has to be prepared for all of them.
I always play King's gambit, mostly to get into lines the opponent doesn't know, and occasionnally to have a fun old-school game like the one shown by Cole Davis above. It is for sure not gaining popularity either with computers or strong GMs playing it, just a fun opening surely not suitable at high level. I think the best defense rather than Fisher's is 1. e4 e5 2. exf4 Nf3 3 d5, this leads to balanced positions I think. But people with black pieces at my levels usually don't know the good answers and there are opportunities to benefit from a blunder, permitting early attacks on f7 for example.
yes early attack in unknown terrority
avoids ruylopez n pertrof
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