Budapest Gambit
chess opening 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5
The Budapest Gambit (or Budapest Defence) is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 e5
Black sacrifices a pawn in return for active play. After being introduced by the Hungarian master Geza Maroczy in an off-hand game in 1896, the Budapest Gambit received attention from leading players after a win as Black by Milan Vidmar over Akiba Rubinstein in 1918. It enjoyed some popularity in the early 1920s, but since then it has rarely been played at the top level.
After 3.dxe5 Ng4, intending to recapture the pawn on e5, White has three main replies: 4.Nf3 sees White seeking to return the pawn for quick development; the Alekhine Variation (4.e4) attempts to establish a strong pawn centre and space advantage; the Rubinstein Variation (4.Bf4) leads to an important choice for White after 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 Bb4+ (i.e. the reply 6.Nbd2 leads to a positional game in which White often enjoys the bishop pair, while 6.Nc3 keeps the material advantage of a pawn but allows Black to weaken White's pawn structure with ...Bxc3+).
In the less common Fajarowicz Variation (3...Ne4), Black forgoes regaining the pawn in favour of quickly generating tactical threats connected with ...Bb4+ as well as the f2-square.
History
The first known game with the Budapest Gambit was a casual game played between Mór Adler and Géza Maróczy in Budapest on 5 March 1896. Maróczy himself did not claim credit for the opening, attributing the initial discovery of its playability to Zsigmond Barász, and acknowledging István Abonyi and Gyula Breyer as further developers of the opening.
The public source identifies “Budapest Gambit” as chess opening 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Budapest, Gambit and chess.
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This entry incorporates text from “Budapest Gambit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.