For this first edition of the King's Gambit Powerbook an Elo average of at least 2300 has been set as a threshold. The latter has been crossed by 3500 games from Mega and from correspondence chess, to which have been added 30 000 games from the engine room of playchess.com. The King’s Gambit is not just something for chessboard Romantics. It is also eminently suitable as a surprise weapon. Knowing more than your opponent – that is what is essentially important here.
It is also possible to make some nice discoveries in the King's Gambit Powerbook 2020, though to be sure most of these will be for Black. It starts right away on move two: statistically 2...exf4 comes out clearly better than the popular alternatives 2...d5 and 2...Bc5, which probably owe their popularity above all to the fact that there is less theory. Things continue on the third move, after 2...exf4 3.Nf3 the best reply is 3...g5. The Powerbook also shows the way to go after the popular 4.Nc3
Now in human chess 4...Bg7 is very much indicated whereas 4...g4?! is like running on to White’s knife.. But in the Powerbook 4...d6! shows an outstanding performance, because after 5.d4 g4 6.Bxf4 gxf3 7.Qxf3 the extra piece will frequently win through in computer chess. But when two human beings are sitting opposite each other at the board, things may look completely different. Moreover, with this Powerbook you need to look particularly carefully because almost always the players with Black have clearly higher ratings and so, e.g., a bag of 50% of the points for White can nevertheless represent an excellent score.