Great plan for the new year !

I was so frustrated yesterday after my bad loss in the Hubsch gambit ( cfr The difficult Hubsch gambit ) against a FIDE master that I reconsidered my earlier blog on a way to avoid the Hubsch ( cfr Wild, wilder, wildest ).

So let's pick up where we started on 1.d4 Nf6 2.f3

I my post Wild, wilder, wildest I considered the continuation 2...c5 3.d5 e6 4.e4 exd5 5.e5 with terrible complications.

Let's look now at 2...c5 3.d5 d6, which might transpose to a kind of Benoni after the suggested 4.c4

The resulting positions after 4...e6 5.Nc3 exd5 6.cxd5 g6 7.e4 Bg7 can be easily reached from the Saemisch variation of the King's Indian Defence ( or through the Benoni ).

Now the most popular line is 8.Bg5

White provokes 8...h6, hoping to make use of its weakness.

8...00 9.Qd2, and now we have reached a very normal position that has appeared so many times in grandmaster play.

Black' options include :

9...a6 10.a4

9...h6 10.Be3 ( my copy of "The complete Benoni" by Lev Psakhis warns against 10.Bxh6 Nxe4 but Houdini fails too see black advantage after 11.Nxe4 Qh4+ 12.g3 Qxh6 13.Qxh6 Bxh6 14.Nd6 )

9...Na6 10.Nge2 ( or 10.Bc4 )

9...Bd7 10.Nge2 ( or 10.a4 )

9...Re8 10.Be2 ( or 10.a4 or 10.Nge2 )

Lots of these lines were favoured by players like Spassky and Korchnoi, so it seems the Blackmar Diemer is only one oddity ( 2.f3 ) away from becoming a regular chess opening !!