What do you think about Budapest Gambit?

Do you think this is a recommended opening for blitz and bullet games?

I feel it's a tad dubious but only a tad, and it's also interesting. You may be down a pawn but you get good initiative and a very unique position for it, which has some complexity to it. It's not that bad objectively.... It's also quite rare. The fact it allows you to bypass so much d4/c4 theory is also very significant. Much better than something crap like the Englund.

As a player who loves risk and gambits, I must say that this gambit has never convinced me.

Moreover, at high levels where I play, it tends to yield poor results.

If White is prepared, Black's position is one I personally dislike.

I’d rather play other dubious gambits, like the Englund.

I know it's objectively worse according to engines, but it’s much more direct, dynamic, and playable

not to mention more fun and provocative.

If you don’t like the Englund, another option is the Albin Countergambit, which has much more venom.

It can also be combined with the Chigorin Defense, since our opponent won’t always play d4 and c4.

The problem with the Budapest Gambit is that you need to know what to do when White doesn’t play c4 on the second move.

In my early chess years, being a creative player, I used to play the Fajarowicz with Ne4—it’s like the Budapest, but the knight goes to e4 instead of g4.

However, over time, I realized that the Fajarowicz was a complete disaster as an opening. In hindsight, I would have been better off seriously studying the Budapest.

I love the Budapest Defense, it's my main opening against d4, and if the opponent does not play c4 move two, I usually play a Reversed London, unless they play the London, where I play the c5 and Qb6 variation. The Budapest is not great, but playable for sure. I like it, it's aggressive, and fun, but not terrible if white studies theory like in this variation:

That is certainly playable.

Against the Zukertort you just play the Krause transposition and you're fine. You won't transpose with anything from c4/d4, and it's a very compact line.

I know from first hand experience, that it's bad, because I play it all the time. It's a one trick pony, if the opponent doesn't fall for the trick, I invariably get a worse position.

Its my primary response against d4 c4 . My rating is in range 2000 - 2100 & im playing opponents from 1900 - 2200 range and scoring about 57 % win rate. Its a good opening if your playing style is sharp & tactical. But obviously it will be difficult to play with beyond 2500 rating level. So if you are rated below that go for it.

white simply has too many options to give him a clean better game . I can deal with a higher than average eval with black if the position has the right kind of complexity to let me play for a win, because i can cause white real practical problems and overcome the longer it takes to equalize with more knowledge, but the kind of positions you can be forced to get as a budapest player have a nagging edge feel to them with no real good reason to endure them.
but i woudnt sweat it too much if this is the ugly duckling you feel for.You do get playable positions . its not dubious like some gambit you dont get enough compensation for or anything.

Yeah

i really like Seirawan's suggestion agaisnt it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SvgVk_6FNYBut this is if you looking to bust the budapest , with very natural solid play , you can end up with lines where white looks like he is playing the english opening and black still thinks we in a kings pawn game lol

Yeah.

It's not a gambit you can really play "on vibes". You need to know your theory. But even knowing it, the best black can do is achieve a position where white grinds his gears for the next 40 moves, and suffer in agony.

But you can't expect that level of play (or opening knowledge) from the vast majority of players, which makes the opening viable. I myself played it around 1700-2200 online. I ended up stopping because too many people started spouting theory as well, and I didn't want to play an opening where all roads (there's one road) lead to suffering.

I just finished watching that video.

The Nh3 line isn't very effective (although it's not bad) because black can sac a pawn with Nxe5 e3 d5!, and if white takes with the c-pawn, black has Bxh3. if white takes with the queen, black gets a massive development boost and should win the pawn back on c4 with at least equality. But if black doesn't know ...d5, he's just going to be a bit worse unless he chooses a fianchetto ...g6. I used to play 4 Nh3 myself until people started playing ...d5. (after ...Nxe5).

Keep in mind that video was published 12 years ago. The strongest continuations are 4 e3 and 4 e4. They require a lot of tactical sense and study, but if you do your homework, you will get some very nice games. You have to very carefully study the lines where black goes ...Ng6?! rather than ...Nc6 after f4, as there are some lines where white can sacrifice his h-pawn, but it must be followed up correctly. This goes for both 4 e4 Nxe5 5 f4, and 4 e3 Nxe5 5 f4.

In the lines with 4 e3 Nxe5 5 f4 Nec6, there are some VERY important kingside attacking patterns involving combinations of stuff like Bxh7 or Nd5, if black gets greedy to win the e3 pawn after ...Bc5, castles, ...Re8 and so on, if black chooses the wrong move order when developing his queenside (white should usually play Kh1 as a preliminary move if an attack on e3 may happen, you can use stockfish to check the lines).

The Bf4 variation is as solid as ever if white followed a Bb4+ with Nbd2, but I would not play a3 as this is effectively a loss of a tempo. This is an excellent line to grind someone down with, you just have to be able to handle certain piece setups for black.

4 Bf4 Nc6 5 Nf3 Bb4+ 6 Nd2 Qe7 7 e3 Nxe5 8 Nxe5 Nxe5 9 Be2 0-0 10 0-0.

Now everyone will either play ...Bxd2, ...a5 or ...d6 here. They can transpose into each other, but the Rook lift doesn't work: 10...a5 11 a3! (here a3 is important as there is a tactical point that can give white a miniature, I'll get back to that). ...Bxd2 12 Qxd2 Ra6? 13 c5! Rg6 14 Qxa5 d6 15 cxd6 cxd5 16 Rac1, and black is simply down a pawn for nothing.

11 ...Bc5?! can result in a miniature: 12 b4! axb4 13 axb4 Rxa1 14 Qxa1 Bxb4? 15 Bxe5 Bxd2 16 Bxg7 Re8 17 Bf6 Qe6 18 Qe4 and white is +4.01 already.

I had a game go recently: 18 ...c5 19 Qf4 Qe4 20 Qc7! (forced) Qe6?? 21 Qg3+ 1-0, 20...Qg6 21 Ba1 and black is lost despite the currently even material: his kingside is destroyed and the Bd2 is trapped, black will have to lose a few pawns to rescue the bishop with an exchange.

Let's go back to 10 ...Bxd2 immediately.

11 Qxd2 d6 12 b3 b6 13 e4 Bb7 14 f3 Ng6 15 Bg3 a5 16 Rae1 Ne5 17 Bd1 "+/=".

On move 14, some black players may play ...14 Rae8 here, trying to aim for tactics on the Be2 and Bf4 but it doesn't work:

15 Rae1 f5? 16 exf5! Rxf5 17 Bg3 h5? (losing; 17...Qd8 is better, but 18 b4 is just great for white +/-)) 18 f4! Ng4? loses the queen so...black continues 18...h4 19 Bf2 h3 (...Nf7 loses to Bg4). , and now white has only one winning move here--20 g4!. (20 gxh3? Qd7 is much worse), and white wins a piece.

tl;dr: after 4 e3 or 4 e4, both followed by f4, black has no easay path to equality at all, even with stockfish best play.

The resulting positions, imo, while by no means losing for Black, are comfortably slightly better for White with very little risk

you claimed to have watched the video but not once mention what Seirawan actually recommends
5....bb4+ 6.nc3! nc6 7.nf3 BxN 8. cxN qe7 9. qd5! f6 10. exf6 nxf6 11.qd3 d6 12.g3. Black scores miserable here.