Subject: I need your answers

King Leopold wrote:

Why is it called The 'Romantic' King's Gambit?
What makes it 'Romantic'?

Don't forget to ask 'when', as well.

Wasn't it Spielmann who was described as the last knight
of the king's gambit? That should give you the perspective:
1920's or so, when the hyper-modern chess began to become accepted.

Playing King's Gambit then probably seemed like hankering
for the good old days when an Evans still would be a suprise.
And so, of course, romantic -- though 'nostalgic' probably
is the better word to use here.

Of course, it was said much later than that, some other notion
of romanticism may have been used instead.

--
Anders Thulin http://www.algonet.se/~ath



The "Romantic Era" of chess is well described in the German reference book
Grosses Schach Lexikon (compiled by Klaus Lindoerfer), which states:

"romantische Schachepoche - eine Stilrichtung vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur
ersten Haelfte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis etwa 1860. Lief parallel mit der
kulturgeschichtlichen Epoche der Romantik, die zu dieser Zeit in Deutschland,
Frankreich und England aufkam. Das Spiel der damaligen Meister betonte die
schoepferische, spontane Linie. Aus dieser Zeit stammen viele geniale
Kombinationen: die Partien der Meister Legal, Deschappeles, La Bourdonnais,
Kieseritzky, Anderssen und Morphy sind voller geistpruehender Ideen."

George Mirijanian