Budapest Gambit - Opening Against 1.d4

Hello Students,

In today's video I am covering the fundamentals of the Budapest Gambit for black. Among the elite players Mamedyarov often plays this in rapid/blitz tournaments. Even though it's not considered to be the most reliable defense against d4, it has it's room in practical chess, since black's main weapon in this opening is tactics. Black will aim for easy development and various tricks. 

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/n7qxCOQajNs

Nice video, thanks for posting. 

@BlueHen86 Thank you for watching!

The main practical problem of the Budapest is,
that it does not happen if white plays 2 Nf3 and 3 c4.

@tygxc There is such a move order and it does prevent Budapest Gambit. However it's not a valid argument, because it can be used for any opening. For example: the main practical problem of Najdorf is that white can play Alapin. Or the main practical problem of Nimzo is that white can play Catalan with d4 Nf6 c4 e6 g3.

You are not getting the point at all.

Yes, the Najdorf is avoided by the alapin, but that is a completely different opening where the entire open Sicilian is avoided.

Same thing with the Catalan compared to the Nimzo-Indian.

This is a move order that keeps the integrity of the opening by White but avoids specifically the Budapest and the Albin-Countergambit.

Let's say your repertoire was the following for Whiite:

Classical KID

Russian Var of the Grunfeld

3.Nf3 vs 2...e6, allowing QID but not NID

3.Nf3 vs Slav

Main QGD lines

White can maintain all of these and avoid the Albin or Budapest by simply swapping moves 2 and 3.

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4 is still the KID.

4...d5 is still the Grunfeld

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 still offers the QID or QGD, but no NID.

Yet they specifically avoid the Budapest without completely altering the Repertoire, unlike the Alapin or Catalan.

Another common move order trick to avoid the Staunton, 2.Nc3, and 2.Bg5 lines is for Blaxk to play 1...e6 and then 2...f5 in the Dutch.

So yes, move order tricks without completely changing the opening is a problem with the Budapest!

I understand this. What you don't take into consideration is that 2.Nf3 is changing the repertoire completely for a lot of 1.d4 players and therefore avoiding Budapest with 2.Nf3 is not what they want. For example:

Against QGD I may want to play carlsbad where I don't want my knight on f3.

Against Slav I may have prepared exchanged variation with cd cd bg5. Or I am trying to get d4 d5 c4 c6 nc3 nf6 e3 where bf5 (although playable) is met by cd cd Qb3 where position is not everyones Cup of tea with black.

The list goes on and on. Players who have such repertoires simply don't want to play 2.Nf3 because that will require a change in their repertoire in countless other openings.

I understand that if their repertoire consists of Knight coming to f3 in other openings, they can play 2.nf3 to avoid Budapest 

@7
White players who play variations without Nf3 will play 2 c4 and face Budapest.
White players who play variations with Nf3 can play 2 Nf3 and avoid Budapest.
The Budapest player must be prepared to handle 2 Nf3.
So the Budapest player can just as well play the same against 2 c4.

Similar is Smith-Morra Gambit.
Black players may accept it.
Black players may also decline it with ...d5 or ...Nf6, transposing to the Alapin.
So the Smith-Morra Gambit player can just as well play the Alapin right away.

I completely agree with this, but I don't come to exact same conclusion that having to learn more openings (because opponents can avoid them in some cases depending on their repertoires) is less practical. In the same logic, you could very well play something like Modern Defense against literally everything and call it the most practical as you learn one opening against everything, whereas learning something like French Defense is less practical because you will have to play a different opening if white plays 1.d4/1.c4/1.Nf3 etc.

If one is serious about their chess, I highly doubt you could play Budapest Defense as your only Defense against 2.c4 as well, because if white sees you play it in the database and prepares very well, they will get a good position. The aformentioned Mamyedyarov plays Budapest "often" only when compared to other elite players. If you want to learn only one defense like MVL (he plays almost only Grunfeld against d4 and Najdorf against e4), you would of course go for way more solid openings.