The Queen's Gambit Accepted was mentioned as early as the 15th century in chess literature, however it wasn't until the World Chess Championship in 1886 between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort that Steinitz introduced the first modern principles to this opening. Black up to that point focused on holding on to their material advantage after accepting White's gambit. Whereas Steinitz's plan was to exchange the material advantage for a positional one, giving up their extra pawn and forcing White to play with an isolated Queen's pawn, and exploiting that weakness for the remainder of the game. Even though Alexander Alekhine introduced further modern theory for Black in the early 1900s, the accepted lines of the Queen's Gambit had a dubious reputation well into the 20th century. It wasn't until the end of the 1990s that a significant number of elite players included the Queen's Gambit Accepted in their repertoires. Today, as modern theory has been introduced and refined with the help of modern engines, the Queen's Gambit is no longer considered a true gambit.
Queen's gambit accepted - Introduction
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Queen's gambit accepted - Central variation
In the Queen's Gambit Accepted, if white immediately push's their king's pawn to the centre, this is known as the Central Variation, or sometimes referred to as the Saduleto Variation, after the 16th century Italian chess master Giovanni Saduleto. Giovanni was one of the earliest recorded players to analyse the Queen's gambit accepted, though his early analysis would be considered rudimentary by today's standards, during his era it would have been consider cutting edge chess theory.
Queen's gambit accepted - Central variation
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Queen's gambit accepted - Main line
Despite its reputation, accepting the 'Queen's gambit' is a perfectly safe response to white's C4 pawn push, so long as black does not attempt to hold onto their material advantage and instead focuses on developing and countering the centre. White gains a positional advantage if black attempts to hold onto the early material gain. Black should not try to hold on to the extra pawn, instead should focus on developing their pieces while white expends tempo recapturing the pawn.
Queen's gambit accepted - Main line
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Queen's gambit accepted - Alekhine system
The Alekhine system is named after Alexander Alekhine, a Russian-French chess player who was considered one of the strongest players by age 22, which may seem trivial by todays standards of 13 year olds becoming grandmasters, however in the early 20th century, chess knowledge was far more esoteric in nature. It was a game that had to be mastered through one's own journey, opening theory did not have the benefit of certainty, there were no engines that could tell you definitively that an opening or a move was good vs bad. Chess players had to form a hypothesis, validate it through a combination of analysis and practice, then put it to the test in tournament play. The Alekhine system is an aggressive response to the central variation of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. The system takes an aggressive approach to white's centre, attacking it early and mounting pressure quickly.
Queen's gambit accepted - Alekhine system
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Queen's gambit accepted - Old variation
In the old variation of the Queen's gambit accepted, white immediately aims to recapture black's pawn on C4, rather than look for early development, this is a much more straight forward approach to the queen's gambit accepted. It was once common because it was believed that black's material advantage was more significant than modern theory tells us. For this reason prior to the 1960's white players would look to recapture the pawn as soon as possible, in order to rebalance the game materially. However with modern theory and engines it is now common knowledge that accepting the 'Queen's gambit' is a perfectly safe response to white's C4 pawn push, so long as black does not attempt to hold onto their material advantage, and instead focuses on developing and countering the centre. For this reason the Old variation has fallen out of favour, for black no longer attempts to solidify their early material gain, and thus their is no immediate urgency for white to recapture black's extra pawn.
Queen's gambit accepted - Old variation
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Queen's gambit accepted - Showalter variation
The Showalter variation of the 'Queen's gambit' accepted is named after Jackson Whipps Showalter, an American five time US Chess champion in the late 19th through to the early 20th century. Jackson was known as “the Kentucky Lion”, The Oxford Companion to Chess wrote that Showalter was “known as the Kentucky Lion after his birthplace and his mane of hair, but also perhaps on account of his playing strength.”
