Muzio Gambit

The Muzio Gambit is an extremely sharp variation of the King's Gambit Accepted (ECO C37). White gambits a knight for three pieces bearing down on Black's weakest square, f7.

Supposedly theory favors Black, but practice favors White.

The main line continues with 6. … Qf6 7. e5 Qxe5 8. Bxf7+ Kxf7

Black can avoid the Muzio by meeting 4. Bc4 with 4. … Bg7.

Illustrative Game

Alexei Shirov 2500—J Lapinski 2200 1-0
Daugavpils 1990
King's Gambit Accepted (C37)

King's Gambit Accepted, Muzio Gambit

Until move 10, Fritz 9 has been hard on White. As of move 2, White is down 0.57; move 7, down 1.33; move 8, down 3.17. 10. … Qf6 is the first blunder Fritz catches for Black, where it sees the following continuation: 10. … Qg7 11. Qxf4+ Nf6 12. Nc3 Be7 13. Qc4+ d5 14. Nxd5 Be6 15. Qe4 Bd8 16. Nb4 Rf8

Fritz 9: 14. … Nge7 15. Nxc7+ Kd8 16. Nxa8 d6 17. Qa3 Rg8

Sources

• Avler Chess Forum. http://www.avlerchess.com/chess-analysis/The_Muzio_Gambit_where_does_it_stand_76427.html. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
• chessgames.com. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1074916. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
• Fritz 9
• Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzio_Gambit. Retrieved 2007-10-22.