The Chess Mind

I used to play the main line Budapest Gambit from time to time (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 is the Budapest, and the main line continues 3.dxe5 Ng4), but never felt tempted by the Fajarowicz - 3.dxe5 Ne4. At least two books have advocated this variation in the last decade or so, but I'd like to know why. If White plays 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Nbd2 Nc6 6.a3, he enjoys a useful advantage without even a smidgin of risk. Here are a couple of possible variations:

Line 1a: 6...Nxd2 7.Bxd2 Bxd2+ 8.Qxd2 Qe7 9.Qf4 or 9.Qc3 with a slight-to-clear advantage.


Line 1b: 6...Nxd2 7.Nxd2 gives White a slight edge thanks to the bishop pair.

Line 2: 6...Bxd2+ 7.Nxd2 Bxd2+ 8.Bxd2 Nxe5 (8...Qh4 9.Bc3! Qxc4 (Not forced, but then what's the point of 8...Qh4?) 10.e3 Qe6 11.Qh5 with a clear advantage) 9.Bc3 with an edge. One possible continuation: 9...Qe7 10.Qd4 f6 11.e3 b6 12.Be2 Bb7 13.O-O followed by b4, with an edge.

I freely grant that the above isn't a refutation in the strong sense: the concluding positions in these lines are all playable for Black. But the real question is why Black would want to play such positions - there are basically no complications, and the positions are primarily technical. And if one can win such positions with Black against a peer or near-peer, one shouldn't play the Budapest, but technical lines instead!

A ridiculous title, I know. What's next, a post explaining how to breathe? If the topic concerned the position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6? 3.Nxe5! fxe5 4.Qh5+, you'd be right to think this post is unnecessary, as it has long been known that White wins here: 4...Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5 7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.h4! (but absolutely, positively NOT 8.Bxb7? Bd6! 9.Qa5 Bxb7 10.Qf5+ Kh6 11.d3+ g5 12.h4 Kg7 and the Black king survives) 8...h5 9.Bxb7! (now!) 9...Bd6 10.Qa5 Bxb7 11.Qf5+ Kh6 12.d4+ g5 and now both 13.Bxg5+ (many sources) and 13.Qf7 (McGrew) win and then some.

However, as McGrew notes in his July 2003 Gambit Cartel article, 3...Qe7 is far more resilient. Black will die a painful and deserved death after 4.Nf3 Qxe4+ 5.Be2 followed by quick and natural developing moves, but 4...d5! 5.d3 dxe4 6.dxe4 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Bf5 (as played against Bobby Fischer in a simul - drawn!) or even 7...Nc6 8.O-O Bd7 9.Nc3 Qf5 looks remarkably survivable for Black. (You can find more details in McGrew's article.)

This offended my sense of propriety - how can Black play such garbage and live to tell the tale? - but the few minutes I spent trying to improve McGrew's analysis back in 2003 was altogether inconclusive. Flash forward to yesterday afternoon, when Dan Dugovic offered a comment on my last post. That comment and its follow-up got my wheels spinning, and during a little session of daydreaming the solution came to me. The answer: meet 3...Qe7 with 4.Nc4! I think this is better than 4.Nf3 for two reasons.

First, in the 4...Qxe4+ line, White's kingside pieces are more aggressively placed on e3 and d3 than on f3 and e2, and he should therefore be more quickly able to stir up trouble on the e-file. Second, by keeping the d1-h5 diagonal open, White can meet 4...d5 with 5.Qh5+ and 6.Qxd5. Black does gain some counterplay for the pawns, but it looks like accurate play allows White to consolidate with an extra pawn in the bank.

Order has been restored in the universe: moves like 2...f6 followed by 3...Qe7 leave Black in a lousy position. Perhaps you'll never have the chance to use this analysis, but hopefully it will inspire you to trust the power of the traditional rules of open games. And if this encourages you to seek refutations of your opponent's liberties in open games - and to succeed in finding them - then this post will have been a success.

More details here.