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H.P.Chavan

The Budapest Gambit from White’s Perspective

The Budapest Gambit (or Budapest Defence) is a chess opening that begins with the moves:

  1. d4 Nf6
  2. c4 e5

The Budapest Defence was first used in a tournament in Budapest in the year 1896 (Alder - Maroczy) and developed into a regional favourite around Hungary in early 20th century. The argument is that Black’s early Knight manoeuvre ignores the usual requirements of a successful opening - like development and center control. Due to this, Budapest is rarely played by professional players in the tournaments. However, on lower levels the Budapest is seen more often as its offbeat character and surprise value can leave opponents confused. In the game below, we will try to decode the Budapest with a variation which is based on Black’s inconvenience due to the sensitive d5 square and the time it takes to regain the e5 pawn.

{Another exposition about the Budapest Gambit was given by Amit Kumar Sharma in the AIWCF Bulletin, 2020 2nd issue: www.aiwcf.org/bulletin/2020-02/Budapest.php -Ed)

Three illustrative games from master play with this variation are given below:
There are 3 games in the frame below. (Notice the floating blue > to navigate to another game)