This position comes from the King's Gambit, after 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d6. It was reached in 4,029 rated blitz, rapid and classical games on Lichess from June 2024 to September 2026, with White to move, and 248 times White played 3.fxe5. Stockfish 18, checking it again at depth 18, calls fxe5 a mistake.
What would you play? Open the position to analyse it before you read on.
How often players fall for it
By the players' average rating, the share of games where White played each move, and the score it got (a draw counts as half):
- 800 to 1,199, 468 games: 3.fxe5 in 15%, scoring 55%; 3.d3 in 3%, scoring 59%
- 1,200 to 1,599, 1,495 games: 3.fxe5 in 7%, scoring 45%; 3.d3 in 2%, scoring 63%
- 1,600 to 1,999, 1,760 games: 3.fxe5 in 4%, scoring 53%; 3.d3 in 1%, scoring 52%
- 2,000 to 2,199, 224 games: 3.fxe5 in 3%, scoring 21%; 3.d3 in 3%, scoring 50%
The mistake is most common among players rated 800 to 1,199, and it gets rarer at every step up in rating. Yet among players rated 1,600 to 1,999, it scored better than 3.d3 in these games: an engine's refutation helps only a player who finds it.
Why 3.fxe5 is a mistake
Stockfish's answer is 3...Qh4+ 4.Ke2 Qxe4+ 5.Kf2. The first move: the queen goes to h4, with check. Along that line, White has taken a pawn, and Black has taken a pawn, so the material is level. After fxe5, the engine gives White a disadvantage of 2.7 pawns.
The better move
3.d3: the pawn goes to d3. Stockfish's line goes on 3.d3 f5 4.Be2 Nc6 5.Nf3 Nf6, and gives White a position about level. Other moves come close to it, so it is the move to remember rather than the only one.
Learn more
The lesson The King's Gambit covers this opening's ideas. Traps to know shows famous tricks of the opening and how to meet them. To find the mistakes in your own games, game review checks them with Stockfish on your device and turns your mistakes into practice.