10 Openings Every Chess Player Must Memorise

Chess gambits see the player, generally white, sacrifice position and/or material in order to trap the opponent. The King’s Gambit is one such trap, baiting black with the second move of pawn to F4. It is a variation of the Open Game, after the opening moves of pawn to E4 by white and pawn to E5 by black.

The idea of this gambit is to weaken black on the king’s side, either through piece placement or through lack of pieces. There are two major lines that black can take after the F4 move. These are the King's Gambit Accepted, which sees black take on F4 with the pawn, and the King's Gambit Declined, which either sees black play the move king’s side bishop to C5, the Classical Defence, or playing pawn to D5, the Falkbeer Countergambit.

The King’s Gambit Accepted is the most common response, giving white a myriad of options to favourably progress the game state. White's most common moves would be to play king’s side knight to F3, preventing black from developing their queen to h4, or to play king’s side bishop to C4, creating more rapid development but leaving themselves open for queen to H4 check. These are known as the King’s Knight Gambit and Bishop’s Gambit respectively.