Budapest Gambit

If you don't like playing against the Queen's Gambit then the Budapest Gambit is an opening that you might like to consider. The Budapest Gambit is an Indian Defence that I would particularly recommend to players who have a strong endgame as I find that it tends to lead to quite equal middle and endgames.

You will find that some intermediate standards of players and beginners tend not to have a clue what to play against it and come out with some bizarre variations. I have found that more experienced players usually tend to know the opening but probably not as well as anyone would who has read this site.

Another good thing about this opening is when playing in rapidplay games, if your opponent doesn't know the opening, you'll often find that your opponent hasn't got a clue what to play as they don't know the opening and then they takes ages to decide what to do.

The recommended response to the moves shown above is 3. dxe5 Ng4; although a  player who doesn't know the opening may play something like 3. e3, d5 or Nf3.

Now white needs to try and defend the pawn on e5. There are 2 main replies that can be played which are 4. Bf4 or Nf3. White can also just allow black to recapture the e5 pawn by playing 4. e4 or 4. e6 is another alternative.

4. Bf4 - Rubenstein Variation

A typical continuation would be 4....Nc6;  5. Nf3. At this point I find it a good idea to play 5....Bb4+; The reason for this is black can either give white doubled pawns after 6. Nc3 Bxc3+;  7. bxc3 or after either 6. Bd2 or Nfd2 then black exchanges off the bishop and can recapture the pawn on e5 next move. There is a clever checkmate that black can do if white doesn't realise what is coming which might catch out the occasional player. After 6. Nbd2 then black should play 6....Qe7; which either wins the pawn on e5 or can help to set up the checkmate which can come after 7. a3 Ngxe5;  8. axb4 Nd3++ Mate; or if white realises what is coming then 8. Nxe5 Nxe5;  9. Bxe5 Bxd2+;  10. Qxd2 Qxe5; leads to an equal position which might favour a good endgame player.  

If white plays 6. Nc3 and black exchanges off the bishop by playing 6....Bxc3;  7. bxc3 then black should play 7....Qe7; to put another threat on the e5 pawn. White's only way to keep the pawn is to play 8. Qd5.

This may look good for white but after black plays 8....Qa3; things don't look quite so good as the black Queen threatens to destroy the very weak white's Queen side. White now needs to stop the Qxc3 threat and has a number of options which are 9. Rc1 which allows black to take the a2 pawn and get a passed pawn on the a-file, 9. Bd2 which allows black to play 9....Qb2; which wins the a2 pawn and again gives black a passed pawn on the a-file, 9. Qd2/Qd3 is probably white's best option.

Now black should play 9....Qc5. This threatens Qxf2+, Nxf2, Qxc4 and Ngxe5 which will guarantee that black wins back the pawn. White should play 10. e3 to avoid Qxf2+ or Nxf2 which allows black to then win back the pawn by playing 10....Ngxe5. After this some players will then play 11. Nxe5 Nxe5;  12. Bxe5 Qxe5; which probably favours black going into the middle and endgame. White doesn't really want to let black play 11....Nxf3+ so 11. Nd4 is probably white's best move here.

The main line is 9. Rc1 Ne7;  10. Qd2 Ng6;  11. Bg3 h5;  12. h3 h4;  13. Bf4 Nxf4;  14. Qxf4 Nh6;  15. Rc2.  I think that playing 9....Qxa2 is probably black's best option although after this white can now play 10. h3 to force 10....Nh6, this allows 11. Bxh6 gxh6; which weakens blacks kingside and makes castling kingside very risky. If this happens, I would recommend either not castling at all or castling queenside if its safe. Black should now take advantage of the open g-file by playing 12....Rg8 which is a bit dangerous for white if white was to castle kingside.

4. Nf3 - Adler Variation

In this variation black can quite easily win the pawn back. Black should play 4....Bc5; to threaten 5....Bxf2+ or Nxf2. This forces white to play 5. e3 which blocks off the threat, but this also blocks off the bishop which can no longer come to f4 to defend the pawn on e5. Black easily gets the pawn back after 5....Nc6; where 6. Qd5 is no good after 6....Qe7; as black has three threats on the pawn compared to white's two defending pieces and can no longer hold onto the pawn.

The other alternative for black is to play 4....Nc6; leading back to a transposed Rubenstein Variation after 5. Bf4.

4. e4 - Alekhine Variation

In this variation white simply allows black to take back the e5 pawn and instead continues to develop. This variation tends to lead to a equal position after the opening with no obvious advantage to either player. After white plays 4. e4, black should play 4....Nxe5. Now white should just continue to develop as normal, after Nf3, black is probably better off playing Nxf3+ than Ng6. Black may decide to play Bb4+ to try and give white isolated pawns on the c-file but this time white can play Bd2.

4. e6 - Normal Variation

I have only ever come across this variation once so I won't spend too long analysing it. There are two main variations that I think are worth considering for black. These are 4....fxe6; and 4....Bb4+;  

4....fxe6; - I don't think that the easy option of just taking the pawn back straight away by playing 4....fxe6; is as good for black as playing 4....Bb4+; If white plays the following way then they will definitely come out with the advantage:- 

5. e4, this threatens the knight on g4 with the queen so it has to retreat (black can try and hang on to it by playing h5 or Qh4 but I wouldn't recommend this as white can simply play g3 or h3 to force black into retreating anyway). If black plays 5....Nf6; then after 6. e5 Ne4;  7. Bd3 Bb4+;  8. Nbd2 Nc5;  9. Qh5+ Kf8; white is in a much better position. The better alternative is 5....Ne5; which can be followed by 6. f4 Ng6; and white is ahead in development.

4....Bb4+ - I personally think that this is better for black. There are a few ways in which the game can continue from here which are:-

5. Nc3 Bxc3+;  6. bxc3 (leaves white with doubled isolated pawns) fxe6;  7. Nf3 or 7. e4 Qf6;  8. f3 O-O;

5. Bd2 Bxd2+;  6. Qxd2 (it is probably better to take with the queen than with the knight) fxe6;  7. Nf3 O-O; 

See the link below for some games in which the Budapest Gambit was played. At the moment there are 41 example games.

Click here to go to some games in which the Budapest Gambit was played

Links

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