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the King's gambit lies in the fact that in the former acceptance is compulsory, whilst in the second it may be declined.
For: 2. P-Q4 threatens to take the King's Pawn. To defend it by means of 2. ... P-Q3 is unwise, since White exchanges pawns and then Queens, by which Black loses his chance of castling and impedes the development of his Rooks. 2. ... Kt-QB3 is also bad, since after 3. PxP, KtxP; 4 P-KB4, White drives the Knight away, gaining a strong hold on the centre, and Black has no compensation for giving up his centre pawn. It may be mentioned here that after 2. ... Kt-QB3, 3. P-Q5 would be a useless move, as to begin with it would be inconsequent, since P-Q4 was played in order to clear the centre, and moreover it would block up a diagonal which could be most useful to the King's Bishop.
We conclude now that Black cannot hold his pawn at K4. He must relinquish the centre by 2. ... PxP. He will now either attempt to bring away White's King's Pawn by advancing his own QP to Q4, or try to utilise the King's file, which was opened by his second move, and operate against White's KP. The Rooks are indicated for this task. We shall refer to the execution of these plans later on.
In the King's gambit, White's attempt to bring away Black's King's Pawn may be safely ignored.
The move 2. P-KB4 does not threaten to take the King's Pawn, as Black would win White's KP by Q-R5ch. Black can therefore develop in security with 2. ... B-B4, and if then White prevents the Q check by Kt-KB3, there is no objection to Black protecting his King's Pawn with P-Q3, as the King's Bishop is already developed. After 4. B-B4, Black has still no need to protect his KP with Kt- QB3, but can play Kt-KB3 first, because after 5. PxP, PxP; 6. KtxP would be answered by 6. ... Q-Q5 winning a piece. Black keeps the upper hand in these early encounters because he has made a developing move with a piece, whilst White has played a pawn move which is useless for the purpose of development.
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