Wild, wilder, wildest

I was twice crashed lately in the Hubsch gambit by master opponents after the 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e4 opening. My strong opponents indicated they would never play 3...dxe4 ( because of the upcoming Blackmar Diemer complications ), and both played the strong 3...Nxe4 4.Nxe4 dxe4 5.Bc4 Nc6 6.c3 e5 7.d5.

The first opponent ( rated 2340 ) tried 7...Ne7, the other player ( rated 2310 ) tried 7...Nb8, both crushing me. After the game, both confirmed to me that this was their prepared response to the Blackmar Diemer tries.
So I said to myself, "Never again !" and decided to focus on 1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 instead - at least I wont be crushed anymore by the Hubsch.

Today I will focus on the line 1.d4 Nf6 2.f3 c5 3.d5 e6 4.e4 exd5 5.e5

Black has three important options : 5...Qe7, 5...Ng8 and 5...Nh5

a/ 5...Qe7 6.Qe2 Ng8 7.Nc3 with slight advantage for white

b/ 5...Ng8 6.Qxd5 with an equal game

c/ 5...Nh5 6.Qe2 ( see diagram ) White threatens to play g4, winning the knight.

This blog looks at black's strongest reply 6...Nc6 7.g4. Other black options will be considered later.

c1/ 7...Nd4 8.Qg2 with very complicated play, eg
c11/ 8...d6 9.Nc3 dxe5 10.gxh5 with roughly equal play
c12/ 8...Qh4+ 9.Kd1 d6 10.Nc3 =
c13/ 8...Qa5+ 9.Nc3 =
c14/ 8...Qe7 9.Kd1 =
c15/ 8...Be7 9.gxh5 +=


c2/ 7...d6 8.exd6+ Be6 9.d7+ Qxd7 10.gxh, again with complicated play
c21/ 10...Be7 11.Bf4 =
c22/ 10...000 11.Bf4 +=
c23/ 10...Bd6 11.Na3 =
c24/ 10...Nd4 11.Qf2 +=



c3/ 7...Be7 8.gxh5 +=

For once, white is not on the gambiting sides...