Joanne has improved quite a bit since I first played her. I struggled with the idea whether to play King's Gambit with her, because I knew she would do well in the opening. She usually does. I wasn't very worried about losing the game, but I wanted to prevent a possible draw.

lead balloon myth: busted. mythbusters created one that floated. oh back to the chess game!...

How about a lead baloon filled with lead on a lead string. On the planet Plumbum. All Jo lacked was consistency and a certain tactical 'feel'. She is not easy to beat: quite a few of my wins against Jo have been due to a single tactical oversight. Self-destruction, in other words.

King's gambit is one of the oldest openings and a favourite of David Bronstein and Boris Spassky. The other practitioners are Nigel Short, Joseph Gallagher and Alexei Fedorov. This opening was disliked by Emmanuel Lasker and Mikhail Botvinnik. It is a popular opening at club level. White's attack can be dangerous if not countered properly.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the King's Gambit, especially when I'm Black - it isn't played against me often, but I don't have a good record against it!

Lasker sure played a lot of games of king gambit to hate it.

I won't play any alternative against a player above a 1600 rating. It would be too risky. However, I do like to toy with idea of Bc4 (in my head). It is playable, but I would give a way my plan for the game too early. It's simply not a good idea to try against somebody who might be familiar with the King's Gambit.

And recently it was used by Magnus Carlsen: www.chessbase.com Personally me, I respond with Falkbeer Counter Gambit to it (1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5)

I understand the Breyer Gambit 3.Qf3 is better than it looks. I've seen a Capablanca game with that line... Yep: Capa was White.

I prefer 2...Bc5.

IMHO, both sides have played the best possible moves for the King's Gambit -- up to this point. Allgaier might be playable, but it is generally considered inferior.

The Allgaier is certainly wild and woolly, but even 50 years ago it was considered rather less than sound. The Kieseritzky, a little less violent, is apparently more durable from White's point of view.

5... Nc6 is better as it challenges the white knight on e5.

Although 5. ...Nc6 is playable, I see nothing wrong with 5. ... Nf6. I thought it was a strong move. A viable alternative was 5. ... d6. It also challenges the Knight on e5 and opens up Black's white squared bishop. **** Checking the computer 5. ... Nc6 seems to be slightly better at first glance. But I don't trust computer evaluations at face value. I only use them as a tool to ferret out potential mistakes. Just because a computer says a move is better or worse does not make it the truth.

My old MCO10 gives 5...Nf6 as its main line, suggesting 5...h5 and 5...Bg7 as its main alternatives. It regards as 'no better' moves like 5...Nc6, 5...Be7 and 5...Qe7. Howe much has theory progressed since 1965?

BCO2 (1989) gives 5... d6 as the main line, with 5... Nf6 and 5... Bg7 as alternatives, and no mention of 5... Nc6. After 5... Nf6, it awards 6. Bc4 an "!"

A little ironic given that White looks to be so much more exposed kingside!

That's why it's called the King's Gambit.

Maybe Black's castling could have waited - unless Black had reason to apprehend a quick sac at f7... For instance, can Black get away with 8...Nxd5 here?

I doubt it; 8... Nxd5 would lead to similar problems to the game continuation, as soon as White gets round to playing d4. The knight should be on h5.

I saw the theory was 7. ... Bd6

An interesting sacrifice would have been 10...Qxh4 - puts immediate pressure on White but then again, given his rating level he'd find the refutation I'm sure  

I wasn't too happy about trading down in this position. Alas, I really didn't have much choice. Black's Knight was too strong.

Unfortunately, 10...Qxh4 isn't good enough after 11.Rxf4.

So far, it's pretty even.

Black's position is ok inspite of the pawns structure.

Black has relative equality so far.

True. Black's position is OK, but Joanne needed to play very carefully from here on out. Joanne's assessment is still valid. The doubled pawns are something she needs to deal with properly.

There didn't seem to be much wrong with 12...Qxh4 - was there? Meanwhile Black's game is on a knife-edge: only active play will keep the balance, given the better prospects White has for the endgame. By the 1960s, or even earlier with some Masters, the King's Gambit was played less with a view to a quick attack against the King as looking ahead to the endgame. Events in this game indicate that such a plan is well on the way to realisation for White. In Black's position, I would have looked long and hard at 12...Qxh4, and if it is 'getawaywithitable', then I would have played it.

14...Bxe5 was unnecessary. 14...Qxh4 or 14...f6 were better..

I agree 100% with dongoodman here. Another alternative was Rb8. It takes advantage of what is normally considered a weakness and creating counter play.

Joanne does find it hard to resist an 'even' exchange. But the exchange wasn't quite even: Black's DSB was one of a pair (true, I regard the bishop pair as over-rated, but it don't do the under-rate them neither); and it was tying together Black's game on the King side. White's bishop was an expendable. 14...f6, counter-intuitive as it looks, seems to have been the way to go, seeking shortly to resume its advance to f5. If then Be5, Black can duck away with ...Bh6 safely enough.

White's attack is aimed at f7, so Black's bishop should have been developed at e6 not on b7.

I didn't expect this mistake. It's a terrible post for the Bishop. It's blocked in and cannot help out the King in any way for defense. But it does have attacking potential if the c pawn is deliberately sacrificed. I have serious doubts on the viability of such an attempt.

(?) Not one of Jo's happiest moments. There were a number of better alternatives. She might have tried 16...c5?! in the hope that White would play rashly 17.Qxc5? But 17.Qf4 seems to be a good answer. The 'natural' square for the bishop was e6, but maybe she could have waited to see where the bishop might best be placed and tried 16...Rb8, creating a threat of her own.

Joanne made the follow up moves I thought she would. This maneuver gave me an extra whole turn while tightening the net around the Black King.

The extra turn means that the Black King is in real trouble. When attacking it is usually best to bring all your forces into the battle whenever possible. This was the principle I used when playing 20.Raf1. The computer says it was a mistake on my part. But look at the results. The move was useful, especially when my Knight went to f5. In fact, Knight to f5 was my plan all along. Apparently, the computer couldn't evaluate that far ahead. Move 20 was actually ! a good move in my opinion.

It all went turnip-shaped really quickly after the loss of two tempi (...Bc8-b7-c8). That's all you need with a King's Gambit!

Very good game and annotation.