1.e4 e5 2.f4
The King's Gambit
The romantic gambit, checked by a modern engine: one clear answer to every reply club players make, from the Kieseritzky and Fischer's 3…d6 to the Falkbeer, with the attacking plans that make 2.f4 score as well as 2.Nf3 at club level.
With 2.f4 White offers a pawn to tear open the f-file and build a big centre with d4. It is the opening of the Romantic era, and it still leads to the kind of games club players remember: open lines, kings under fire, and early decisions that win or lose the game.
Here is the honest part. Modern engines don't like 2.f4: Stockfish rates it almost a pawn worse than 2.Nf3. At club level it doesn't matter much. White scores 53% with the King's Gambit in Lichess games between 1600 and 2000, exactly as much as with 2.Nf3, because Black has to find accurate moves in unfamiliar, sharp positions. This book gives you those positions with the best moves for White in each, so that the difficult problems are Black's.
The chapters follow Black's answers. Most club players accept the pawn, and the first chapter covers the two ways of trying to keep it: 3…g5 and Fischer's 3…d6. Then come Black's other third moves, the declined lines, the Falkbeer Counter-Gambit, and the rest.
Chapters
- 13…g5 and 3…d6: Black holds the pawnBlack's most ambitious answers try to keep the extra pawn with …g5. Against 3…g5, the Kieseritzky: 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5. Against Fischer's 3…d6, 4.Bc4 and d4, with the centre and the open f-file.
- 2Accepted: Black's other third movesBlack takes the pawn but doesn't try to keep it. Against the Cunningham 3…Be7, 4.Bc4 and 5.Kf1; against 3…Nc6, 4.d4; against 3…d5 and 3…Nf6, White develops and wins back the pawn on f4.
- 3Declined: 2…Nc6 and 2…d6Black declines the pawn and keeps e5 protected. Against 2…Nc6, 3.Nf3 and Bc4; against 2…d6, the quiet but strong 3.d3.
- 4The Falkbeer Counter-Gambit: 2…d5Black answers a gambit with a counter-gambit. Take on d5, and against 3…e4 undermine the pawn with 4.d3.
- 5The Classical 2…Bc5, 2…Nf6 and 2…Qh4+Against the Classical 2…Bc5, 3.Nf3 d6 4.c3 and d4. Against 2…Nf6, take on e5. Against 2…Qh4+, 3.g3 with gain of time.
How this book was checked
Every move recommended for White is within 0.3 pawns of Stockfish 18's first choice at depth 20, with one deliberate exception: 2.f4 itself, which the engine rates about 0.9 pawns below 2.Nf3. After the gambit, the book always plays the engine's best moves or moves within 0.3 pawns of them. Every Black reply played in at least 5% of club games is covered, checked against millions of Lichess blitz and rapid games between 1600 and 2000 rated players, and so are the rarer 2…Bc5, 2…Nf6 and 2…Qh4+. Where several moves are equally sound, the book takes the one that scores best at club level. Every mistake and trap shown is confirmed by the engine, and every number in a note comes from the engine, not from memory.