King Gambit Statistics and Opening Study

For the last 2 years, I was under the impression that the King Gambit was a poor opening for white. This was in the face of reason since I often lost to it as black. In reading some of the Retis book Masters of the Chessboard I became very interested in the Anderssen's and Morphy's KG games and decided I should try it. I eventually started to play it exclusively as white when I recieve a e5 response to my e4. This replaced by beloved guico piano.

One of the great things about the King Gambit is it's rich history and the changes in the chess community opinions on it. There is always alot of trash talking about it. The Gambit is unsound and you should accept it or you would be foolish to accept it declining gives one a much stronger game.

Some lines as the Falkbeer offer a countergambit just to confuse things. The KGA and KGD theory has evolved throught the years and style has changed. There appear to be about 15 ways to decline and accept all which lead to some interesting play. I currently am agnostic as to whether it is better to accept or decline. In fact my play against the KG is poor because I am constantly switching my lines to further my education. I have lost about 25 of my last 31 as black. ahem.............

I thought it would be interesting to gather some statistics on my KG games. Since I play on playchess the interface automatically saves my games in my database. I have played as white about 108 games of which I have won 56 of them. The trend line is good in my first 18 trys as white I lost 14 of them. My last 17, I won 11 of them. As for the accepted vs declined,59 accepted and 43 declined. I counted the typical Falkbeer as a decline and a Falkbeer that transformed into a Abazia as an acceptance.

There were a wide range of defenses and acceptance strategy. Since I was to spend some time effectively studying I investigated which lines than I played most. In my games as white there were only a few which followed the Kiesiretsky Line . KGA then black plays a quick g5. This is the more classical line and is fun to play and learn about. I was surprised to see only two Cunningham KGA. 5 Fischer defences KGA. the big winners in the KGA was 20 games with acceptance than Nc6,10 KGA with acceptance than Nf6,15 games which I call the modern line which is acceptance than a center counter d6, The rest of the KGA were one offs.

As for the KGD, I had 8 Falkbeers, 10 KGD with NC6( a number of these with pawns on e5 and d6 philidorish), 6 KGD classical with 2... Bc5. with 3 KGD with a philidor type defense and a bishop pin on the N at f3, the rest are one offs.

I am surprised the Kieseritsky is not played more. There are alot of GM games in this line and it is considered in some camps to be the most sound line but tricky. Perhaps people shy away from it for that reason. Interesting enough, I have a book on the King Gambit by Korchnoi and I can't find the lines where Black accepts and plays an early Nc6. This is a line I have seen the most.

I will update my blog as I learn more about these lines.