King's Gambit Accepted: Mason-Keres Gambit
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nc3
The King's Gambit Accepted: Mason-Keres Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C33, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nc3. It is a line of the King's Gambit Accepted. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 284 times by this move order. White won 50%, 3% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 3… Qh4+ (18% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.67 (Stockfish, depth 36; best line 3… Qh4+ 4. Ke2 d5 5. Nxd5 Bg4+ 6. Nf3)
- ECO
- C33
- Moves
- 5 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/8/4Pp2/2N5/PPPP2PP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - 1 3- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nc3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 116 | |
| 1500-1999 | 92 | |
| 2000+ | 76 | |
| All | 284 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3… Qh4+ | 52 (18%) | |
| 3… Nc6 | 44 (15%) | |
| 3… Nf6 | 34 (12%) | |
| 3… d6 | 33 (12%) | |
| 3… g5 | 29 (10%) | |
| 3… Be7 | 18 (6%) | |
| 3… Bb4 | 14 (5%) | |
| 3… Ne7 | 10 (4%) |
Master games
82 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 41%, draw 24%, Black 35%). The strongest:
- Stoofvlees II d9 (3541) – Reckless 0.10.0-dev-9057bc13 (3749) 0-1 · TCEC 29 Gambit Bonus 2026 · 2026-05-31
- Reckless 0.10.0-dev-9057bc13 (3749) – Stoofvlees II d9 (3541) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Gambit Bonus 2026 · 2026-05-31
- LCZero 0.30-dag-a9b25c2b-BT2-3 (3598) – Stockfish dev-20230409-b36d39d (3639) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 24 Superfinal 2023 · 2023-04-23
- Stockfish dev-20230409-b36d39d (3639) – LCZero 0.30-dag-a9b25c2b-BT2-3 (3598) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 24 Superfinal 2023 · 2023-04-23
- GM Garry Kasparov (2812) – GM Sergey Karjakin (2773) 1/2-1/2 · Saint Louis Blitz 2017 · 2017-08-17
Search all games of the King's Gambit Accepted: Mason-Keres Gambit and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- trompsk (2431) – swynwr (2454) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- HIMARS_M142 (2345) – CM Imlearningchess3434 (2500) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
- HIMARS_M142 (2406) – Strauss5 (2399) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
King's Gambit Accepted 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4
More King's Gambit Accepted lines (all)
- King's Gambit Accepted: Basman Gambit C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Anderssen Defense C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Anderssen Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bledow Countergambit C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bledow Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Boden Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bogoljubow Defense C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bogoljubow Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Boren-Svenonius Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bryan Countergambit C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Chigorin's Attack C33
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.