The tabiya comes after nine moves, where Black chooses between exchanging his bishop on f3 (as we have seen three games with), or 9...Re8, or the clever 9...Na6 followed by 10...Rb8, being ready for ...b7-b5 straight away.
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.e3(!) 4...0-0 5.Be2 c5 6.d5 e6 7.Nc3 exd5
7...d6 8.0-0 Re8 9.e4 exd5 10.exd5 was how Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat Boris Gelfand in the 2014 Grand Prix in Baku. Black is allowed to play ...Ne4, but he would have preferred to prepare it with ...Bf5 instead of ...Re8. After 10...Bf5 11.Bd3 Ne4 12.Nxe4 Bxe4 13.Bxe4 Rxe4 14.Qc2 Re8 15.Bf4 Black still has a few problems to solve regarding his development.
The straightforward moves run into a problem: 15...Qb6 16.Rfe1 Nd7 17.Re2! And White wins the e-file since 17...Rxe2 18.Qxe2 Nf6 19.Re1 Re8?? 20.Qxe8† delivers mate.
The line splits into A) 9...Bg4, B) 9...Re8 and C) 9...Na6. 9...a6 10.a4 is likely to transpose to one of the other lines.
A) 9...Bg4 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Nbd7
11...Na6 was Anand – Ragger, and the combination of ...Bg4 and ...Na6 still feels illogical. 12.a4
12...c4N
Since I criticized 12...a6, we have to look at an alternative.
12...a6 was Kramnik’s choice. I prefer 13.Bd2 (to Morozevich’s 13.g4) and a few logical moves are 13...Rc8 14.Be2 c4 15.a5 Re8 16.Ra4 when White won’t win the pawn, but will open up the light squares.
13.Be2 Rc8 14.Bd2
14.a5 followed by Ra4 is what White wants to play, but first he has to protect the a-pawn indirectly since 14...Rc5 15.Qa4 Nxd5 exchanges the c-pawn for the d-pawn. This looks nice for the light-squared bishop, but we want to win the pawn without giving anything in exchange! A plausible line is the following:
14...Re8 15.a5 Ne4 16.Nxe4 Rxe4 17.Qc2
17...Re5!
Black has to create a counter-threat before White has played Ra4. 18.Bf3
White will still try to get the pawn on c4 for free.
B) 9...Re8 The threat is 10...Ne4.
10.Nd2 Na6
10...a6 11.a4 Nbd7 is an example of Black’s simple development. We could play the standard 12.Nc4 Ne5 13.Na3 and continue developing with h2-h3, e3-e4, Be3 and so on. And f2-f4 is spared until we have improved the heavy pieces.
11.Nc4
11.e4 accepts the loss of a tempo. It is not that stupid, considering that Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura have entered those positions with White.
11...Nc7
11...Ne4N has not been played to this date, but is a better option. 12.Nb5! threatens 13.f3 and after, for example, 12...Nc7, then 13.Nxc7! is not given in Attack with Black (2012). After 13...Qxc7 White should play 14.f3 Nf6 15.a4 when Black doesn’t have the counterplay he strives for in the Benoni.
12.a4
12...Ne4N
This has to be played immediately, as otherwise it’s stopped by 13.f3. 13.Nxe4 Rxe4 14.Bd3 Re8 15.e4
Black is happy that a pair of knights has been exchanged, but the knight on c7 is passive and he is too slow for a successful ...f7-f5. 16.Bf4 is an annoying threat.
C) 9...Na6 10.Nd2 Rb8! Clever, because White doesn’t want to play either 11.Nc4 b5 or 11.a4 Nb4. 11.e4 Re8 12.Re1
12.f3 Nh5! was Nakamura – Vachier-Lagrave, London 2015, when the threat of 13...Bd4† 14.Kh1 Qh4 made Nakamura allow counterplay after 13.f4 Nf6. White would have preferred to delay f2-f4 until he was better developed.
12...Bd7!
Another option is: 12...Nc7 13.a4 a6
13...b6 prevents the blocking a4-a5. Neither Rb1 and b2-b4, nor f2-f4, Bf3 and e4-e5 works, so White should play 14.Bb5, intending a4xb5 with a positional edge. Black is too slow if he insists on ...b7-b5: 14...Re7 15.Nf3 a6 16.Bc6 b5 17.axb5 axb5 18.e5! and White breaks through with a clear advantage.
14.a5 Bd7
Intending ...Nb5 or ...Bb5 next. I suggest:
15.f3N
Freeing the knight. Now there are two moves to consider: 15...Nb5 and 15...Bb5.
together:
a1) 17...Bxc3 18.bxc3 Nxc3 19.Qd3 Nxe2† 20.Qxe2 and White regains the pawn on d6. a2) 17...Bd4† 18.Kh1 Ng7 19.Qc2 f5 20.Bf4! and everything is defended.
a3) 17...Nxc3 18.bxc3 Bxc3 19.Ra3 Bxe1 20.Qxe1 Ng7 21.Nxd6 and the dark squares and the pawns in the centre more than compensate for the exchange.
b) 15...Bb5 16.Nc4 Bxc4 17.Bxc4 b5 18.axb6 Rxb6 A standard exchange. With two vulnerable pawns on the queenside, it’s difficult to organize e4-e5. A year after finding 15.f3, I reached this position in the Swedish league against Jonathan Westerberg.
I evacuated the long diagonal with the prophylactic 19.Ra2. White has many useful moves (Bd2, Kh1 and f3-f4), but Black can also play actively (...Nd7, ...Qf6 and ...Nb5). I would have wanted to say otherwise, but I think the position
is balanced.
The engines suggest the quickest way is 19.e5!? with decent compensation.
After 12...Bd7! I played 13.Bf1 against Sophie Milliet in the French League in 2016, but 13...Ng4 14.h3 Nxf2 15.Kxf2 Bd4† 16.Kg3 Be5† would have given a perpetual. Instead, Stockfish suggests a surprising move.
13.a4 Nb4 14.f3
White continues with Nd2-c4 next move. The reason why it’s okay to allow Black’s knight to jump to b4 straight away is that Black’s bishop is worse on d7 than on c8, not only making the pawn on d6 undefended but also blocking ...Nd7. He has a standard way to create counterplay.
14...Nh5 15.Nc4 Bd4† 16.Be3
White threatens to take twice on d4 and sac the exchange.
16...Bxe3† 17.Nxe3
Black has several dark squares (b4, f4 and e5) but White slowly recovers some of them with Bf1 and g2-g3. However, it would be strange if Black wasn’t okay here and that can also be the conclusion regarding the whole chapter. It’s strange, but it is.
Exercise 1
1.e3 c5 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nf3 g6 4.c4 Bg7 5.d5 0-0 6.Nc3 e6 7.Be2 exd5 8.cxd5 d6 9.0-0 Bg4 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 Nbd7 12.a4 a6 13.g4 c4 14.Be2 Ne5 15.f4
Black to move
Show/Hide Solution
Exercise 2
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.e3 0-0 5.Be2 c5 6.d5 e6 7.Nc3 exd5 8.cxd5 d6 9.0-0 Re8 10.Nd2 Na6 11.Nc4 Ne4
White to move
Show/Hide Solution
Exercise 3
Show/Hide Solution
1.e3 c5 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nf3 g6 4.c4 Bg7 5.d5 0-0 6.Nc3 e6 7.Be2 exd5 8.cxd5 d6 9.0-0 Bg4
White to move
A) 3...b5 4.Bg5 91 a) 4...Qb6 92 b) 4...d6!? 92 c) 4...Bb7 92 d) 4...Qa5† 92 e) 4...Ne4 92 B) 3...e6 4.Nc3 exd5 93 4...b5 93 5.Nxd5 Nxd5 6.Qxd5 Nc6! 93 6...Be7 93 7.e4 d6 94 7...Be7 94 8.Ng5 Qe7 94 8...Qc7 94 9.Bb5! Bd7 10.Bc4 Nd8 94 10...f6? 94 11.0-0 94
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.d5
This chapter will deal with 3...e6 and 3...b5.
For a long time, I considered 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 to be a move order for chickens, designed to avoid the Budapest Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5). Then I faced it – in Budapest – and suddenly realized that it stops the Benko Gambit as well.
A few days later I visited Pal Benko in his house on the outskirts of the city. For hours he told amazing stories, leaving his coffee untouched until it had cooled. Escaping war, sitting in jail, defecting from the east, getting amnesty, fighting Fischer physically before becoming a close friend to him.
He also said that he started to play the Benko Gambit in order to avoid theory and get a fighting game. Studying openings made him fall asleep.
Inspired by his pep talk, I went straight to the round, played 1.e3 and won with the ideas in this book. And the next day I was lucky enough to be allowed to play the Benko Gambit.
Pal Benko never had a reliable antidote to 2.Nf3 and usually transposed into other openings. Nonetheless, Black can try 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.d5 b5, where he will be behind in development, or 3...e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.Nxd5, where he has to live with a backward pawn. But they have their pluses as well.
The previous chapter saw how to handle Black’s Benko tries in the Benoni.