fling : is it you really ?

Forgetting Miles I could accept it....but 1.e4 a6 is far away for the WRG....maybe it's a nice way to assess that many opening moves are leading to not losing middlegames ?

Status of WRG : I have not noticed a recent trend in high Elo players, to play such gambits as White ...it's my status from my usual experience of reading chessbase web pages

What about the WRG in over-the-board tournaments? Any status? I do quite well with it in OTB games.

MNb: 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and supporting lines.  On the rare ocassions where I make a post (limited by a combination of lack of time and fear of exposing my ignorance!) you're definitely one of the people I hope to hear from.

Is Sveinsson-Viola a correspondence game (couldn't find it)?  I've seen 10...Qxd4 and 10...Qxa3, but not 10...Qxc2 which seems to be better than the alternative captures.

I agree that 7.Qd2/8.Bb2 doesn't look promising, but 7.Bf4, although not particularly inspiring at first glance, might be better than it looks.

david Flude:
Nice insight!  A Winckelmann-Reimer/Alapin-Diemer repertoire against players with predictable gambit reponses is an intriguing idea.

Keano:
5...Ne7 looks like a good way to enourage White to tranpose back to Winawer main lines.  I suppose White could avoid this with:
6.Bd3
I'd be willing to play the white side of something like
6...c5 7. exd5 Qxd5 8.Nf3 Nbc6 9.O-O Bd7 10.c4 Qd6 11.dxc5 Qxc5 12.Be3.
On the other hand, I doubt that Black has anything to fear here.

I have come to the conclusion that at the club level 

1) the WRG accepted is almost certainly better for white (possibly closed to a forced win) but that the gambit declined is brtter for black.

2) On the other hand the Alapin-Diemer gambit is better for black if he accepts the gambit  but better for white if he declines the gambit.

At the club level there are players who never accept gambits and others who always accept them. So play the WRG against players who accept all gambits and the alapin Diemer against players who decline all gambits

I'm a bit surprise that the Winckelmann-Riemer Gambit,
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 dxe4 6. f3!?
is not a more popular reply to the French Winawer.  My guess is that one of the declined variations is the culprit.

I've gathered up a number of WRG games over the years and 6...c5 (sometimes given !) seems to be one of the more popular responses.  I seem to recall 6...e5 being recommended as Black's strongest move (in one of Tim Harding's kibitzer columns?).  John Watson once recommended 6...b6 although he may be recommending another move in his most recent edition of Play the French (which I haven't yet acquired - to my shame ).

I also recall Neil McDonald at some point characterizing the whole Winckelmann-Riemer Gambit as unsound, which would seem to imply White can just grab the pawn with 6...exf3.

My own opinion is that accepting the gambit verges on suicidal (I have a very different opinion of the BDG, BTW) and that 6...e5 is a safe (perhaps even very strong) reply - at least with the right follow up.

I'd be interested to know what others think of the Winckelmann-Reimer...