I disagre nigel this opening is bad because of the fact that white gets the bishop pair with this variation(the best one) in an open position and black has exactly what in return?. It may be ok but why would you want to play stuff like this if you dont get anything dangerous from it.

At the lower levels The Budapest is far from risky, and you are right, it is played very frequently.

It scores quite high on the lower boards because it is not a regular visitor to the GM boards and the Black player is usually booked up to the eyelids with all it's wrinkles and traps.

If I were a 1.d4 player ('which thank the Lord I'm not sir,') I'd play 1.d4 and 2.Nf3 just to avoid it.

Budapest Gambiteers love to see games at the top level where Black losses. It lowers the Budapest percentage and in most cases it is all weaker players look at. GM opening stats and GM games.

I've no idea why. The former does not apply to them and they cannot understand the latter.

If it's stats they want.

I have a DB of now nearly 3 million+ 1400-1800 games. Under 25 moves the Black side of the Budapest score 59%. Under 15 moves it goes up to 63%. Games longer than that and I'm rather inclined not to blame an opening. However the stat including all gams still gives Black a healty plus.

I *am* one, sometimes, and I agree. There are a lot of more-or-less subtle move order transpositions which can be played either with black or white -- eg, reaching the Dutch or Indian defences via 1.d4 e6, or playing d4 openings after 1.Nf3.

Some people seem to have a very limited idea of openings ... they think anything not played at elite level is unsound, even though (armed with their engines) they criticize top GMs for 'blundering'. It's clear that these people have no experience of playing masters, don't appreciate just how brutally strong GMs are, and lack any real understanding of opening theory.

Is that pronounced CREH-tin or CREE-tin? (wink)

Very true, and of course the dynamics are very different to GM games, where it's rare for anyone to be unprepared.

A couple of years ago, I had a huge plus score with black, playing mainly the French and Dutch - so much so that in team games I opted to play black in every game, moving up or down a board as necessary.

I think it may be the same for everyone till you get yourself sorted out.

My Latvian Gambit scored me dozens of points. My main Black defence v 1.d4 was the Hennig-Schara Gambit.

Scored massive with Black.

As White I tended to dodge mainline defences with obscure lines. Soon my grade went up and I started to bump into these good guys. I soon discovered why these lines were obscure.

If someone took the time to check I'd be willing to bet that there are more opening books geared towards playing Black openings than there are for White.

It was a typo (i next to o on the keyboard and I'm watching the football, Argentina v Bosnia, I win £90 if Argentina win. Argentina (who I also hope win the cup) are 1-0 up but are not playind too well.