Opening Bomb Diary #30: The Critical Line in the Albin Then and Now

I find 5.Nbd2 to be the critical line against the Albin Countergambit. Every once in a while, I like to re-check this line, quietly hoping for some new miracle attempt for Black. I wanted to make this post because finally, I'm more optimistic about Black's chances than ever - Black isn't losing! In fact, I think Black has realistic drawing chances.

Let's first take a look at an experimental new try for Black against 5.Nbd2 that I came up with years ago, maybe around 2016. I've tried this move in countless blitz games, and it has served me well. So it has certain practical value, but as we will see, with best play I'm not sure how rosy it is for Black.

5.a5!?

So, it's pretty bad with best play by White, but still interesting I think. I'm quite proud to have come up with it with the available resources around 2016. This leaves us with the mainline 5.Nge7. Let's first take a look at 6.a3, perhaps White's second most critical attempt. I've again included some of my old notes, as well as a cool next-gen approach that the new neural net engines have discovered.

5.Nge7 6.a3

Now let's finally take a look at the critical 6.Nb3. Again, I've included an experimental try from my ancient notes several years ago (9.Bg4!?). But the main question is the main line 9.Bc5 - how bad is it for Black really?

9.Bg4!?

9.Bc5

Let's call the position after 15.Nf4+ the tabiya, because White's alternatives to Kf3 are also quite critical. Back then, the engines easily gave a 1+ evaluation in White's favor. These days, it has fallen drastically to around += 0.3 on high depth, and continues to fall when you play through the lines. Certainly White is better, but I guess the question is how defensible it is for Black. If Black is well-prepared and knows how to neutralize White's obvious tries, is it really so bad? 

The Albin has and always will be a surprise weapon at best, but that is also its strength. It has a certain fear factor going for it if the opponent isn't familiar with the critical lines, where Black is more than fighting in many instances. As we've seen, there is only one relatively siloed critical line that we can call an attempted refutation, but even that seems holdable. I can tell you right now that other popular lines like 5.g3 are more than survivable. So, with a lot of preparation, is the Albin viable? I can't believe I even can ask the question!

Hope you enjoyed the ideas. Some of the lines are probably at least six years old now, when I was clearly in over my head with this opening. But they still are just as fun to play through.