The Nikolayev Gambit!

The “Niko­layev gam­bit” is a hy­brid of the Blu­men­feld and Benko gam­bits. I believe I have played this con­tin­u­a­tion at mas­ter level more than any­one else. To jus­tify this new clas­si­fi­ca­tion we need to do a brief sur­vey on some related open­ing the­ory.

A. Blumenfeld

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 

B. Benko/Volga Gambit

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 

C. Nikolayev Gambit

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 e6 6.Nc3 exd5 7.Nxd5 Nxa6!?