The King's Gambit, where to start ?

Some time ago I decided to start playing the King's Gambit. I don't know why exactly I'm so attracted by this opening. Probably it's tactical nature, the wild attacks, the rich history, or some great Andersson &Morphy games I looked at recently... .

Since I'm trying to improve my tactical skills it seems like a good idea to adopt the king's gambit. BUT since I'm also trying to improve my rating, I certainly don't think it's a good idea to start playing the king's gambit unprepared... .

So learning the king's gambit, where do I start ? What do I have to know/learn before I can use the opening in serious rated games ?

Last week I bought "The King's Gambit For The Creative Aggressor" from Thomas Johansson. I started playing through the first chapter yesterday,but I must admit, I am overwhelmed by the massive amount of variations.

So for the moment I think the best approach is :

• Understanding the key concepts (fast piece development & nice pawn center in exchange for the sacrificed pawn on f4, (half)open f-line, attack on f7, ...)
• Getting familiar with the main KG-lines without losing myself in the endless list of variations.
• Play the KG in blitz & analyse the opening afterwards

My first serious rated OTB game is in september (new start of club championship),so I have some time to get familiar with this new opening.

By the way, I'm working on my first circle through level 4. I'm advancing very very very slow. The problems are a lot harder compared to level 3. Yesterday I spent 75 minutes on 5 problems. Compared to Tempo's 5 days per problem this is still lighting fast, but still, I'm not used to this slow problem solving thing... ;-)

What's next ?

I finally finished my last loop through levels 2 and 3. I'm quite happy with my score (98,0% for level 2, 97,8% for level 3), so now it's time to start with level 4 ! I think I will do my first loop very slow (10 problems each day), so there will be some time left for other chess related things :

• Opening repertoire (Kings Gambit, GPA, Nf6 Scandinavian, Dutch Defense).
• Study master games
• Endgames (Silman's Complete Endgame Course + Polgars Endgame Brick)
• Positional play (reassess your chess)
• play chess (FICS + FICGS) and analyze my games
• Last but not least, reading the blogs of the other knights. Especially Tempo's research on the thinking / learning process is very interesting.

Mate

The position below is from a game I played on FICS last week (I played the black pieces, black to move and win). I eventually won the game but I missed a nice mate:


Solution : 22 ... Qf2! 23 Rg1 Rd1 24 Rxd1 Qxg2#

Tactics Update

I finished my third circle on level 3 (296 problems) today :

Level 3, circle 1 : 84,5%
Level 3, circle 2 : 90,9%
Level 3, circle 3 : 96,0%

So what's next ?
I'm gonna do one more loop through level 2 & level 3, when that's finished I'm finally gonna start with level 4...

Tactics Rule

I won my OTB game (club championship) yesterday. I won a piece with a tactic (which I'm a bit proud of ;-) ) :

Black to move (I play the black pieces).

I wanted to bring my rook to e2, so I first looked at the Bh5 - Bg6 manoeuvre to exchange the white bishop on d3. I realised this plan was too slow and suddenly noticed that I could bring my rook to e2 directly ! I spent a lot of time calculation all the variations, the final conclusion : white will lose a piece.

So I played Re2. My opponent gave me a strange look, had a long think, and finally played Qf1. I played Rxd2, my opponent immediately answered with Bc1 (he looked at me like "you made a big mistake, I'm winning your rook"). My heart stopped beating for a few seconds (his bishop pins my rook on my queen, I missed this move in my calculations). After a few seconds I realised his move was not as dangerous as it looked, I just had to exchange the rooks and move my queen away. So I did, I played Rxd1, he played Qxd1, I moved my queen to f6, and I was a piece up... .

Tactics Update

I finished my first circle on level 3 today. Compared to level 2, the problems become trickier (I scored 84,5%). An example (white to move) :


I immediately saw the discovered check which allows me to exchange my bishop for the black queen. My two options were Rd5+ and Rb7+. I couldn't find a difference between the two moves, so I thought both of them would be correct (Rd5+/Rb7+, Qxd7, Rxd7).

As you probably guessed by now, Rd5+ / Rb7+ is not correct. I totally missed Rf5+, Kd4, Rf4+ (winning the black queen, keeping the bishop).

I'll keep repeating it : When you see a good move, look for a better one... .

Chess Efficiency

This position is taken from a game I played in an OTB tournament yesterday (I play the black pieces, white played 27 Qxf3) :

I played 27 ... Be4, winning his queen. My opponent didn't resign and it took me 30 more minutes to win the game. After the game a guy from my club showed me a missed mate in 4 on move 27 :

27 ... h3+ whatever white tries, he will be mated.

So I won the game, but I didn't finish him off in the most efficient way. I had to play 14 more moves (exchanging rooks & missing a few more matting possibilities) until he resigned.

So it's true after all : when you see a good move, look for a better one !