d4 Nf6
c4 e5
de Ng4
Bf4 Bb4
Nc3 Bxc3
bc Nc6
Nf3 Qe7
Qd5 f6
fxe Nf6
Qd3 d6
Bg5

ECO: A52

Is there a better try for white? I know playing e3 allows black some tricks and traps, but are the 11. g3 lines the ones where White is best or is this Bishop deployment the route for maintaining a telling white advantage?

Here's an example in which I got a significant lead in development, gave all my advantage back by messing about with my bishops, and then won when my opponent made some mistakes.

I have to say that I have only ever played against this in blitz, and there I just tend to play 3...Ng4 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.e3 Nc6 6.Nc3, with a slight positional advantage in my opinion, although Black is certainly solid. But I think this is a nice position to play in blitz as White. You can play a lot of 'automatic' moves which don't require too much thought, whereas it seems to me Black needs to work a bit harder to get some active play.

I'm not too fond of Fritz's 5.Nh3 because of 5...Bc5 6.Be2 Nxe5, where I'm not quite sure what to do, but Black looks a bit too active for my liking. Black has ideas like ...d6, ...Qh4, ...h5-h4-h3, and possibly an eventual 0-0-0.

5.Be2 initially seemed good, but the lines can get a bit crazy. For example 5.Be2 Bc5 6.Bxg4(6.Nh3 just transposes to the line above) 6...hxg4(6...Qh4!? 7.Be2 Qxf2+ might also be a bit dangerous, at least in practice.) 7.Qxg4 d5(other moves are worse i think, but aren't completely harmless) leads to extremely sharp play, even if White may objectively be better. For example, 8.Qxg7 Qh4 9.Nf3 Qxf2+ 10.Kd1 Bf8! 11.Qxh8 Qxg2 12.Re1 Qxf3+ 13.Kc2 Qf2+ 14.Bd2

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And now 14...d4 or 14...dxe4 both lead to very complicated positions. In any case, this isn't really the sort of game I want to give someone who plays the Budapest Gambit.

Obviously I haven't really done any deep analysis here, but at first sight, this line looks quite dangerous for White, especially if he isn't well prepared.

If chess were this simple, 1. e4 would lead to a forced win. Black is at least equal in the position you give as 'clearly better for white'. A simple plan is to play Na6 and Bc5 taking control over the weakened dark squares (this is assuming white has played Be3). Ofcourse white has attacking chances with his pawn duo e4-f4, but black has good play.>

This is an interesting system that you propose; I haven't seen it before. But Black cannot be "at least equal". White has built a centre while Black's has lost tempi recapturing the gambited pawn.

Following your suggestion 6.Be3 Na6 7.Nf3 (I also looked at 7.Qd5!? directly preventing ...Bc5, but the problem is 7...Bb4+! after which Black plays 8...d6, and again ...Bc5 is playable) 7...Bc5 8.Qd2

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and now a likely line is 8...Bxe3 (8...0-0 9.Nc3 Bxe3 transposes) 9.Qxe3 0-0 10.Nc3 d6 11.Bd3 (11.0-0-0 is an alternative plan) 11...Nc5 12.0-0 Re8

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After 4...h5 5.Nh3 Bc5 I looked at 6.Bg5!?

when Black has:

(a) 6...Be7 7.f4 Bxg5 [7...d6 8.Nc3 Bxg5 (8...dxe5 9.Qxd8+ Bxd8 10.Bxd8 Kxd8 11.Ng5 Rf8 12.f5 ) 9.Nxg5 Nxe5 ]

(b) 6...Bxf2+! 7.Kd2!

<7.Ke2!? leads to unclear positions after 7...f6 8.exf6 [8.Nxf2 Nxf2 (8...fxg5 9.Nxg4 hxg4∞) 9.exf6!? gxf6! and now both 10.Qd4!? and 10.Kxf2 lead to unclear approximately equal positions] 8...gxf6 and now both 9.Nxf2 Nxf2 10.Kxf2 (10.Qd4!?) 10...fxg5 11.Nc3 and 9.Bf4!? lead to approximately equal positions>

7...f6 8.exf6! gxf6 9.Bf4 with a wild position -

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The position is hard to assess. White of course has problems with his king, but on the other hand, Black's deeply buried bishop faces Nxf2 in the near future. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this. It of course fails to satisfy your request for <a relatively risk free path to an advantage, or at least a game that gives Black less excitement>. :)

Turning to 5.Be2 Bxg4 6.hxg4, I think 6...Qh4? 7.Be2 Qxf2+ 8.Kd2 is the kind of line one has to learn to be happy to face as White against the Budapest - Black is totally busted, and it's just a matter of sidestepping a trap or two. After 8...Nc6 9.Kc3! Black's attack is simply going nowhere.

Similarly, after 6...hxg4 7.Qxg4 d5 8.Qxg7, the line you give is certainly only for the brave, but White must be objectively better. I can understand the urge to avoid such lines though, especially since the kind of player who is adopting the Budapest is typically looking for a messy position - dubious or not - in order to outplay the opponent in complications.

I think perhaps the best answer in terms of simplicity might be to respond to 7...d5 with 8.Qg3. Now Black has:

(a) 8...dxc4 9.Nc3 Qh4 10.Qxh4 Rxh4 11.Nf3 Rh5 12.Nd5 Na6 13.Be3 Bxe3 14.Nxe3

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and White is a clear pawn up in the ending.

(b) 8...dxe4! 9.Nc3 Qh4 10.Nge2 Be6 11.Bg5 Qxg3 12.Nxg3 e3! 13.Bxe3 (13.0-0-0!?) 13...Bxe3 14.fxe3 Bxc4

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As for the lines you suggest after 5.Be2, I agree with your assessments. I also couldn't find any real way for Black to stir up complications, so I think I would be perfectly happy to play this line in a game.

As an improvement for Black what about 5...Nc6 ?

Only one such game exists in the cg.com database, Anand vs J Garcia Sanchez, 2007, in which Anand plays the <ADLER DEFENSE>.

Anand's simul play against the Budapest Gambit was addressed in <New In Chess Yearbook 88>; could someone please tell me what that Yearbook says Anand plays against the Budapest in simuls?

I see a comment by acirce (in Oct '04) that 10.Ne4! is good, but in that case what about 10...Nxc4? I don't have my laptop w DR4 with me, but it looks tactically sound. If white exchanges on d6 many times, seems like the ending may be holdable for black. Note that 10.Be2 is a blunder due to 10...Nd3+! 11.Bxd3 Bxf4 which only helps black, so I've always preferred 10.Bg3 as a good way to maintain the tension. Let's face it, Bd6 is misplaced.

Enjoy.

[html]
[title]Vladimir Potkin - Boris Savchenko, European Championship, Aix-les-Bains, 26 March 2011[/title] [body topmargin=50 bottommargin=50 leftmargin=50 rightmargin=50 marginheight=50 marginwidth=50] [center]
[img src="http://i.imgur.com/leMx6.jpg"/]

[br][b]Vladimir Potkin[/b]
[/center][font size="1"][br][b]Photo by [a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/U..."/]Stefan64[/a] from [a href="http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladim..."/]Wikipedia[/a] ([a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses..."/]Creative Commons License[/a], Attribution/Share Alike) [/b][/font][i][b][br][br]
[a href="Potkin vs B Savchenko, 2011"/]Vladimir Potkin - Boris Savchenko[/a][br] 12th European Championship, Round 5[br]
Aix-les-Bains, 26 March 2011[br][br]

East India Game: Indian Gambit[/b] (Budapest Defense)[/i][br]

[br][b]1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5[/b][br][br]

[ul][li]This opening, traditionally called the Budapest Defense (or Gambit or Countergambit) was hot stuff in the 1920s when it was actually feared and given the kind of respect the King's Indian is nowadays. Black gives up a center pawn and seeks quick development. The shortest tournament game in history was a the Indian Gambit in which White withheld an early [i]c2c4[/i] that ran: [font color="red"][i]1.d4 Nf6 2.Nd2 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.h3??? Ne3!![/i][/font] White resigns as he must either lose his Queen or play [i]5.fxe3 Qh4#[/i] and have a nice rest of the day [i](Gibaud-Lazard, Paris, 1924).[/i][/li][/ul] [br][b]3.dxe5 Ng4[/b][br][br]

[ul][li]White already has a slight advantage in space.[/li][li]If [font color="red"][i]6.Nc3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 Qe7 8.Qd5[/i][/font] then:[/li][ul][li]If [font color="red"][i]8...f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.Qd3 d6[/i][/font] then:[/li][ul][li]If [font color="red"][i]11.g3 0-0 12.Bg2[/i][/font] then:[/li][ul][li]If [font color="red"][i]12...Bg4 13.0-0 Rae8 14.Rfe1[/i][/font] then:[/li][ul][li][font color="red"][i]14...Nd7 15.Nd4 Nce5 16.Qe3 Qf6 17.Qc1 c6 18.f3 Bh5 19.Rb1[/i][/font] draw [i](Reinderman-L'Ami, IT B, Wijk aan Zee, 2010).[/i][/li][li]If [font color="burgundy"][i]14...Kh8 15.Rab1 Ne4 16.Nd4[/i][/font] givesm White a small advantage in space [i](Rosenburg-Fister, Corres, 2002).[/i][/li][/ul][li]If [font color="darkred"][i]12...Ne4 13.0-0 Nc5 14.Qe3[/i][/font] then:[/li][ul][li][font color="darkred"][i]14...Be6 15.Nd4 Bxc4 16.Nxc6 Qxe3 17.Bxe3 bxc6 18.Bxc6[/i][/font] gives White an extra pawn and the initiative [i](Seirawan-C. Schulien, Op, Columbus, 1987).[/i][/li][li][font color="magenta"][i]14...Bg4 15.Qxe7 Nxe7 16.Nd4 Rae8 17.Rfb1 Ng6 18.Be3[/i][/font] gives White an extra pawn [i](Korchnoi-Faure, Op, Zürich, 1988).[/i][/li][/ul][/ul][li][font color="burgundy"][i]11.e3 0-0 12.Be2 Ne4 13.0-0 Bf5 14.Qd5+ Kh8 15.Rac1 Nc5 16.Nd4 Be4 17.Nxc6 bxc6 18.Qd2[/i][/font] gives White an extra pawn [i](Pogorlov-A. González, Op, Mondariz, 2000).[/i][/li][/ul][li][font color="darkred"][i]8...Qa3 9.Rc1 f6 10.exf6 Nxf6 11.Qd2 d6 12.Nd4 0-0 13.f3 Ne5 14.e4[/i][/font] gives White a small advantage in space [i](O'Kelly-Heidenfeld, IT, Dublin, 1956).[/i][/li][/ul][/ul] [br][b]6...Qe7 7.e3[/b][br][br]