Damiano Defense

So there is this cool opening that I wanted to learn more about. It is called the Damiano Defence. White's knight does something a little bit counter intuitive and takes the pawn, but with good reasoning, because later he will probably get the rook or screw up the king really bad. I couldn't find the variation names for these on the web so I made up my own. Of the Damiano Defence there are 2 major variations that black can play. I call them the "Cowardly King":

And the "Paramounting Pawn":

As far as I'm aware, these are the only two moves for black. Now for the big question. Given the following game what is the correct play for white?

9.h4 in the third diagram with forced mate in at most ten moves

Black's best move is not 3...fxe5?? which loses at least the Exchange in all variations, but 3...Qe7, after which he is still practically losing. There is a trap here: 4.Qh5+?? g6 wins a piece for Black because after 5.Nxg6 Qxe4+ the King and Knight are forked by the Queen. I have won a couple of blitz games this way, but the Damiano should not be taken seriously.

In the third diagram, 6...Kg6? loses faster than 6...d5 7.Bxd5 Kg6 8.h4 h5 9.Bxb7! (the important point of 6...d5 was that the Bishop defends f5 from c8) 9...Bd6 10.Qa5 and White wins the Rook on a8, but does not have an immediate mate.

Thank you both for your input. 9.h4 seems like a swell move. I like it more than the bishop taking the pawn thats for sure.

Expertise87, Yeah blacks best move is not fxe5, but that is what most people who play this end up playing. At least in my experience. Also 4.Qh5+ in response to that is IMO a bad play, but nevertheless is an interesting twist black can play on white. Instead of 4.Qh5+ for white, I prefer moving my Knight back to it's original space. Just like in the game of Fischer vs. Mcgregor. I don't like playing Damiano for black. Only for white.

Also, in your last paragraph do you think black can get away from checkmate by playing h6 instead of h5, because then the king can escape in the little nook that the pawn opened up for him. The downside to that though would be that his king is trapped in there?

One more thing, do you think d4 or d3 is better in the third diagram on #8? Or does it not really even matter?

shush

Read the history of this defense and you will learn that Mr. Damiano wrote about why 2...f6 is a poor move. Anyway, through some bizarre twist, it got that name instead of calling it "Damiano's Refutation of 1 e4, e5; 2 Nf3, f6??"

The d5 line could be the "superbrave pawn"variation.