Considering the Budapest

I've seen games where both white and black have great wins in the Modern Benoni.  Karpov's handling against it and Topalov's handling of it though are truly legendary.  

I've come to the conclusion a while ago that the Budapest is an inferior alternative to other openings that generate a somewhat similar style of play without giving white static and even dynamic advantages he gets to keep.  I don't mind if white has some positional advantage as long as I have enough active play to neutralize it.  

I was motivated by the question largely because I seem to be drawing more with the Nimzo-Indian while with the Dutch I risk dangerous sidelines:

Then again I have improvised nicely with decent results:

But not all white replies for the Dutch are for everyone though.  

Hm I'd never heard of Chessbase giving "hot bars" to opening variations. That's really funny. That sort of seems like a fashion magazine telling teenage girls what clothes are in this season. Is this all because Jobava played it in a few games?

At some point another charismatic SuperGM will get some more nice wins with the Budapest and the whole opening will become popular. I think it deserves that popularity. It's actually been one of my most successful openings and I've about a 60% win rate with it against roughly equal or slightly better opposition. The Budapest is like a fanny pack. People say it's lame, but it works very well.

I have come to like 11...h6 in the game position. Very useful preparation for a later Nh5 and possibly f5. It's probably not the best line you can play against the Bf4-setup, but it's playable and poses white practical problems - especially weaker players often struggle to find a good plan. And 9...Nbd7 10.Nd2 is just so nice for black that I don't want to play 9...Re8.

Exactly my view, except for the loss of faith.  The abovementioned move worked quite well for me so far, although I have to admit that I only tried it in rapid games on ICC yet.

I have some Berlin games I'm not too proud of.  While I won the first one I did needless and unsound tactics in a singleminded attempt to simplify while a piece up:

And here I totally mangled the Berlin Wall as black, but still managed to draw despite an unexpected blow I should have seen after 20...c5?? throwing away the advantage:

In my opinion, even in the mainline Bf4 variations in the Budapest, Black ends up with a slight disadvantage. White is always the one with any pawn breaks, and Black has to just sit around and wait with his "piece activity" while White tries to break Black's position with a c5 push, etc. Black doesn't even have a kingside attack in these lines. Objectively, the position is probably drawn but the positions are just practically depressing.

The Adler lines are sharper for both sides because Black does get some kind of kingside play. With best play, White can rebuff this attack and end up with a positional advantage but Black is usually comfortable in these lines because this is what Black plays the Budapest for. 

I've played the Budapest a few times and eventually gave it up because the Nimzo Indian, Bogo Indian, King's Indian etc. provides the same chances for piece activity from a positionally sounder basis.

 Then maybe you should try 9...Na6. The Mikenas maneuver works pretty fine in this line combined with the later b6.

I think the Budapest Gambit is a fine opening for Black, provided that Black is prepared.  In this position, White has a small advantage the he/she must struggle to hold onto.  The smallest mistake leads to disaster for both sides, but accurate play also grants winning chances for both sides unless you are a computer.  

Analysis by Stockfish 6 64:

+/=  (0.41)    Depth: 40/51   00:28:06  12617MN

GOB, your move order, deleting the first four moves, makes this a challenge to comment on. From the starting position, 7.e3! is recommended by Avrukh. Black probably castled too early and is already in some trouble there. But, it probably just transposes to other ...d6 lines (which I don't like for Black). 11...b6?! is indeed questionable, as Karpov-Short showed. If white just takes the B on c5 instead of 13.Nc1 (10.Nc1 in your move list), White should have a really nice edge. Here's the game:

It looks like Bishop is finally beginning to realise that the Modern Benoni is more playable than the Budapest. He's even referencing games that I mentioned earlier in the thread!

How is this a Budapest Gambit position?

Missjessica, look at the last post on the last page where I show the first moves.

@ SmyslovFan

Actually I find both openings very playable. You see...my level of competition it's to low where I can play every crap you can imagine. So, as Garry said...no big deal.

P.S : The game I posted is different from yours and with total other meaning! I am referring to a specific line not to the defense general dynamic. Please focus!