The systems that are tough for Black in the accepted gambit are when White plays energetically with 7.Nc3 and 8.e4.  White seems better in most lines.  Black has tried lots of alternatives at move 7, but none are convincing:

7...Bb7 8.e4 Nbd7 9. e5 Ng8 better for White

7...Qc7 8. e4 d4 9. e5 Ng4 10. Ne4 Nxe5 11. Bf4 Nd3+ 12. Bxd3 Qxf4 13. 0-0 Bb7 14. Qd2 with a blockade (Przewoznik, his 1991 book on the Blumenfeld)

7...d4 8. Na4 w/ idea of e3, b3, Bc4 (also Przewoznik)

Bottom line: Black's pawns can be attacked, which gives White time to catch up in development.  If the pawns become blockaded or weakened significantly, Black can be pretty miserable.

An interesting idea is to avoid building the pawn center right away and play 6...Bb7, and only playing ...d5 if White puts pieces on the wrong squares.

All this said, I never miss a chance to play the Blumenfeld in blitz (against sub-master competition).

If you will play a good game with this gambit don't forget to share it.

Awesome

black can win the pawn back with a queen check. That he could perhaps even do at the fifth move.

wow! it looks like white never had a chance in the Alekhine game, the b5 pawn is so unimportant... :) might look into it...

The blumenfeld is a very nice partner to the benko gambit. If white tries to avoid the benko after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 by playing 3.Nf3 then black can play e6 or simply b5 anyway to steer towards a blumenfeld.

It's been very effective for me OTB. The main problem is that it only works after  3 Nf3 so you still need an answer to 3 Nc3, while its sister opening, the Benko, launches a move earlier.

Well, may be black's bishops are blocked by pawns and white's pawn affects queen's knight. But it seems that black has great control of the center. Alekhine found a way to develop his pieces really smoothly.

Nice sharing.

You are on to something :D

thank you for sharing this with us.

Analyze common deviations with rybka, there are a lot of 'missed' good moves, which are not included in opening books and even in new theory sets, so you will be well armed with strong personal novelties.

Dozy, Thank you for your input!

I totally agree! I was quite surprised to see the crappy stats. I sure looks like a fun opening to play at patzer level.

That's an enormous positional advantage to Black.  Maybe in the hands of a grandmaster White stands better, but at my level I'd hate to be playing the position against somebody who knew how to launch an attack.