sorry but I think Black has the advantage..
Major alternative to the Berliner Gambit in the Two Knights' Defense
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8.cxd4! is so much better for white to play. 8.Ne4 practically gives away white's advantage after 8...Ne6.
In a previous post I indicated that White had the advantage; clearly this is true if Black plays 12...Nb4. The critical variation, though, is 12...Bb4ch. White must respond 13.Kf1. Then the problem becomes whether Black can regain the pawn with advantage. As the analysis shows here that is not so easy. Keep in mind that given just two tempos, the King Rook comes into play with the Rook lift h4/Rh3 which cannot be stopped because Black has lost his Queen Bishop. Also, h4 is useful because in some variations, it is possible for White to anchor his Knight on the g5 square.
Chigorin would like the Black pieces; Steinitz would like the pawn.
One way to look at the sequence above is that the 8...Ne6 is a time/tempo attack. Black has four tempos for his pawn, which, in a semi-open position is generally enough for the pawn. Here, it is a little different in the sense that Black is always on the verge of getting his pawn back, and does so for a brief period of time. There is just one subtle difference: In order to attack, Black has compromised his pawn structure; he has three pawns "islands" as opposed to two by White. At high levels of play this is vitally important in endgames, but before the endgame, God created the middlegame.
Here is how Black first gets his four tempos: First of all, c3 is a wash with b5; both can be considered non-developing moves or developing moves depending on your point of view,
1)White made a pawn move, exd5, & later Black played a piece move Nxd5, 2)White made three moves with his Bishop which cost him two tempos, 3)Black was able to meet Bxd7ch with Qxd7 gaining a fourth tempo. However, the main problem for Black is that he starts out the sequence with the second move i.e. he starts out with Black.
A major problem for Black is that unless the attack is successful regaining material and not allowing counter play, that he will slowly, but steadily lose ground. Here is how he loses time:
14.a3! Be7 If Black retreats his Bishop on that diagonal, he loses a tempo because 14.a3 is a useful move i.e. it can be defended by the Bishop and by virtue of a Rook lift to h3. 14...Be7 takes two tempos to get to a square that the Bishop can access in one move. Avoiding the loss of time is only possible if Black plays 14...Ba5, but the Bishop is less useful on that diagonal than the original diagonal i.e. it is a temporary solution. Eventually, Black will have to lose time to unblock the a-pawn's advance,
By contrast, every move that White makes from move 1-23 has a clear consistent purpose, and according to how I define time, gains time.
Black lost a second tempo playing a5/a4, when White had only to play b3, so White picked up a second tempo. If Black doesn't try to exchange off his a-pawn, it is a static weakness in the endgame.
In the endgame, Kf1 is more desirable than O-O by Black because the White King is one tempo closer to the center. This gains a third tempo.
In an effort to create counterplay, Black has given White an outside passed pawn, which is extremely powerful long term in this kind of position. It lulls the Fritz engine into thinking it is okay for Black because it doesn't recognize that the a-pawn will be decisive 20-30 moves down the road.
The computer can only make progress by winning the d-pawn, but by the time that occurs, White will be able to stop the c-pawn and promote the a-pawn.
Black loses another tempo when he played f5.
Black starts out the middlegame with four extra attacking tempos, but by move 22 he is down to only one tempo. Not surprisingly this shows up as White having an outside passed pawn AND an extra pawn. There is no compensation for either advantage, so Black is much worse i.e. +/-.
When the 8...Ne6 variation is viewed as a time/tempo attack and Be7/a5/a4/f5/Kf8 is necessary, it is clear that Black loses ground from move 8 to move 22. If Black doesn't win the d-pawn, he is stuck with an extra pawn island in the endgame, or, White gets an outside passed pawn if he eliminates one pawn island; in either event White is better for the reasons listed above.
In conclusion: 8...Ne6 is much stronger than the Berliner Gambit, but doesn't equalize.
In another post on the Berliner Gambit, the general concensus (according to one post member)
was that we were all agreed that the Berliner Gambit favors White. Here is the main alternative to the Berliner Gambit; it gives Black no better chances to equalize. Here is the first main iteration of the main line.