King's Gambit: the most common mistakes at each level
Which moves do club players really get wrong in the King's Gambit? We counted every move in up to 1,000,000 rated Lichess games per rating band (May 2024) and let Stockfish judge the frequent ones.
The most common King's Gambit mistakes, by level
Sorted by how many games they happened in. Click a card, then play the punishment on the board yourself.
1200–1400: the most common mistake is 3.fxe5? in the King's Gambit, played in 10% of the 1,753 games that reached the position.
1500–1700: the most common mistake is 3.fxe5? in the King's Gambit, played in 5% of the 2,785 games that reached the position.
How these numbers are made
We took rated Lichess games from May 2024 with a time control of at least three minutes, in which both players were rated inside the same band (1200–1400, 1500–1700 or 1900–2100) and no more than 200 points apart. For every position in the first ten moves we counted which moves were played. Stockfish then checked every move that at least a few percent of the players chose, and a move appears here when it costs at least one and a half pawns and leaves the player clearly worse. The percentages are for that exact move order.
3.fxe5? in the King's Gambit
10% of the 1,753 players rated 1200–1400 who reached this position played it. Stockfish: +0.1 before, -3.7 after (plus is good for White).