Answers.Body: <p>In general it is not good to open up the kingside wide open without developing pieces, especially since f2 and that diagonal is weak (think Fool's mate). Queen pawn moves are inherently safer since the queen is ready to back up the pawn if needed, making an aggressive Black queen pawn capture like Qxd4 impossible compared to Qxe4+.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T23:34:33.177Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2022-08-21T23:34:33.177Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: qwr
Answers.Body: <p>Taking the e5 pawn allows black a devastating check on h4 with the queen, which (after blocking with pawn to g3) inevitably allows black to capture the e4 pawn with check again, winning your h1 rook.</p>
  <p>Keeping your pawn at f4 prevents all that, given that now Qh4+ can be successfully blocked with g3. The f pawn blocks the queen's path to e4.</p>
  <p>Furthermore, if you immediately play the knight to f3 instead of capturing e5, you eliminate the queen check threat altogether - provided you keep your knight on f3 for a while of course.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T10:32:10.073Z
Answers.Text: Wow, yes, you're right, this is what I get when I try to reason about chess without looking at the board. Thanks for clarifying!
Answers.UserDisplayName: Violet Giraffe
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T21:20:19.047Z
Answers.Text: Note too that after 1 e4 e5 2 f4 Bc5 3 f4?? Qxh4+ if White tries to prevent the loss of the Rh1 by playing 4 Ke2(?) instead (to keep the e4-h1 diagonal blocked) then 4 . . . Qxe4 is checkmate!
Answers.UserDisplayName: Noam D. Elkies
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T23:06:13.417Z
Answers.Text: (oops -- I meant 3 fxe5??, not the illegal 3 f4.)
Answers.UserDisplayName: Noam D. Elkies
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-22T13:12:36.973Z
Answers.Text: Tip for the Purple Pachyderm: *Always* check all checks and capture all captures. Qh4+ then is the first move that comes to your mind, and you then only must see that Ke2 is mate and g3 hangs the Rh1 after Qxe4+.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hauke Reddmann
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T09:37:39.067Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2022-08-21T19:58:09.013Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2022-08-21T19:58:09.013Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Will
Body: <p>chess.com says this move is a blunder, so it must be <em>really</em> bad, not simply bad. I don't understand why, and I'm out of my one free daily analysis. Could you please explain why?</p>
  <p>I chose this move because, a) winning a pawn on a square that isn't attacked by anything seems better than losing my pawn on f4, and b) because doubled pawns on the king's file looks like good protection until I castle (if at all).</p>
  <pre><code>[FEN &quot;&quot;]
  [Startply &quot;5&quot;]
  
  1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. fxe5?? {[%draw full,f4,yellow][%draw arrow,f4,e5,red]}
  </code></pre>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T09:52:50.517Z
Comments.Text: Shouldn’t it be black to move?
Comments.UserDisplayName: insipidintegrator
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T09:54:07.093Z
Comments.Text: @insipidintegrator: it's white to move and I intend to capture on e5, which I'm told is a blunder, hence my question why is this bad.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Violet Giraffe
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T09:57:58.300Z
Comments.Text: Please tell me how this configuration can ever be achieved with white to move? I can only see 1. e4 e5 2. f4…
Comments.UserDisplayName: insipidintegrator
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T10:08:52.440Z
Comments.Text: @insipidintegrator: of course you're right, I took the screenshot at the wrong move, updated the question
Comments.UserDisplayName: Violet Giraffe
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T10:29:56.170Z
Comments.Text: @Will: I believe it's indicating attack directions - threats.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Violet Giraffe
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T11:31:22.450Z
Comments.Text: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Gambit#Classical_Defense:_2...Bc5
Comments.UserDisplayName: insipidintegrator
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-21T23:38:08.797Z
Comments.Text: protip: lichess has unlimited analysis with stockfish.
Comments.UserDisplayName: qwr
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-22T08:49:39.747Z
Comments.Text: @qwr: many thanks, I have not heard about it!
Comments.UserDisplayName: Violet Giraffe
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-22T11:58:06.587Z
Comments.Text: @Will has already pointed out why this immediately fails tactically to Qh4+, so this is just regarding the sentence "winning a pawn on a square that isn't attacked by anything seems better than losing my pawn on f4" from your question: If you're playing the King's Gambit, then you're philosophically already quite happy about black playing exf4, as inducing this and then exploiting the newly vacated centre space is exactly what you were hoping for.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Marc Vaisband
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-22T15:28:40.777Z
Comments.Text: @MarcVaisband: good point, thank you.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Violet Giraffe
Tags: <opening><analysis><kings-gambit>
Title: Why is pawn captures on e5 is a blunder in the King's Gambit?
ThreadText: # Why is pawn captures on e5 is a blunder in the King's Gambit?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-21)
  
  chess.com says this move is a blunder, so it must be *really* bad, not simply bad. I don't understand why, and I'm out of my one free daily analysis. Could you please explain why?
  
  I chose this move because, a) winning a pawn on a square that isn't attacked by anything seems better than losing my pawn on f4, and b) because doubled pawns on the king's file looks like good protection until I castle (if at all).
  
  ```
  [FEN ""]
  [Startply "5"]
  
  1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. fxe5?? {[%draw full,f4,yellow][%draw arrow,f4,e5,red]}
  
  ```
  
  **Tags:** opening, analysis, kings-gambit
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Shouldn’t it be black to move?  
  > **username_0**: @username_1: it's white to move and I intend to capture on e5, which I'm told is a blunder, hence my question why is this bad.  
  > **username_1**: Please tell me how this configuration can ever be achieved with white to move? I can only see 1. e4 e5 2. f4…  
  > **username_0**: @username_1: of course you're right, I took the screenshot at the wrong move, updated the question  
  > **username_0**: @username_4: I believe it's indicating attack directions - threats.  
  > **username_1**: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Gambit#Classical_Defense:_2...Bc5  
  > **username_2**: protip: lichess has unlimited analysis with stockfish.  
  > **username_0**: @username_2: many thanks, I have not heard about it!  
  > **username_3**: @username_4 has already pointed out why this immediately fails tactically to Qh4+, so this is just regarding the sentence "winning a pawn on a square that isn't attacked by anything seems better than losing my pawn on f4" from your question: If you're playing the King's Gambit, then you're philosophically already quite happy about black playing exf4, as inducing this and then exploiting the newly vacated centre space is exactly what you were hoping for.  
  > **username_0**: @username_3: good point, thank you.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2022-08-21. Score: 16 | Accepted answer
  
  Taking the e5 pawn allows black a devastating check on h4 with the queen, which (after blocking with pawn to g3) inevitably allows black to capture the e4 pawn with check again, winning your h1 rook.
  
  Keeping your pawn at f4 prevents all that, given that now Qh4+ can be successfully blocked with g3. The f pawn blocks the queen's path to e4.
  
  Furthermore, if you immediately play the knight to f3 instead of capturing e5, you eliminate the queen check threat altogether - provided you keep your knight on f3 for a while of course.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Wow, yes, you're right, this is what I get when I try to reason about chess without looking at the board. Thanks for clarifying!  
  > **username_5**: Note too that after 1 e4 e5 2 f4 Bc5 3 f4?? Qxh4+ if White tries to prevent the loss of the Rh1 by playing 4 Ke2(?) instead (to keep the e4-h1 diagonal blocked) then 4 . . . Qxe4 is checkmate!  
  > **username_5**: (oops -- I meant 3 fxe5??, not the illegal 3 f4.)  
  > **username_6**: Tip for the Purple Pachyderm: *Always* check all checks and capture all captures. Qh4+ then is the first move that comes to your mind, and you then only must see that Ke2 is mate and g3 hangs the Rh1 after Qxe4+.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2022-08-21. Score: 1
  
  In general it is not good to open up the kingside wide open without developing pieces, especially since f2 and that diagonal is weak (think Fool's mate). Queen pawn moves are inherently safer since the queen is ready to back up the pawn if needed, making an aggressive Black queen pawn capture like Qxd4 impossible compared to Qxe4+.
  
  
  ---
  
  