Cunningham Gambit

One of the simpler variations of the King's Gambit is the less common Cunningham Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Nf6. After 4.Bc4 or 4.Nc3, Black could choose to play ...Bh4 giving a check and preventing White from castling. Either way, the results can become hard and complex to evaluate for beginning and advanced players. The problem with playing 4...Bh4+ is that it leaves the bishop hanging for a possible pawn counterattack from White. This tactic of breaking through White's defenses with a barrage of bishops and pawns was unsuccessfully tried in a game by Henry Bird, playing the Black pieces, against Paul Morphy:

Morphy - Bird [C35]
London 1859
King's Gambit: Accepted. Cunningham Defense Bertin Gambit 1-0

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Bh4+ 5.g3 fxg3 6.O-O gxh2 7.Kh1 d5 8.Bxd5 Nf6 9.Bxf7+ Kxf7 10.Nxh4 Re8 11.d3 Bh3 12.Qh5+ Kg8 13.Rxf6 gxf6 14.Nc3 Re5 15.Qf3 Qd7 16.Bf4 Nc6 17.Kxh2 Bg4 18.Rg1 h5 19.Bxe5 fxe5 20.Nd5 Nd4 21.Nf6+ Kh8 22.Qe3 Qg7 23.Nxh5 Qh7 24.Rxg4 Qxh5 25.Qh3 Kh7 26.c3 Ne6 27.Rg6 Re8 28.Rxe6 Rxe6 29.Qxe6 Qxh4+ 30.Qh3 Qxh3+ 31.Kxh3 c5 32.Kg4 Kg6 33.Kf3 Kf6 34.Ke3 Ke6 35.d4 exd4 36.cxd4 cxd4 37.Kxd4 Kd6 38.e5+ Ke6 39.Ke4 Ke7 40.Kd5 Kd7 41.e6+ Ke7 42.Ke5 a6 43.a3 Ke8 44.Kd6 Kd8 45.e7+ Ke8 46.Kc7 1-0

Chess masters in the early twentieth century painstakingly examined numerous positions that arise from this unique gambit with unfinished results. In his 1932 chess manual, Emanuel Lasker wrote:

"The Cunningham Gambit has gone wholly out of fashion." (page 65)

And it sure has. Popularity graphs for this gambit have shown a dramatic decrease starting at the end of the eighteenth century, when the Cunningham Gambit was first introduced, just up to the 1970s when the last peak of this gambit was shown. Fashion changes and so it does in chess. New generations of players means new ideas and styles. Perhaps maybe one day the chess world will see this fancy gambit once again in action.

Sources

Chess openings: King's Gambit Accepted, Cunningham (C35). 2004.
20/20 Technologies. 08 April 2009. .

Lasker, Emanuel. Lasker's Manuel of Chess. New York: Courier Dover
Publications, 1960.

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