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Mikhail Tal vs Dragoljub Velimirovic
Moscow Interzonal (1982), Moscow URS, rd 8, Sep-17
Benoni Defense: Taimanov Variation (A67)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jun-08-04  Whitehat1963: Tal crushes the opening of the day!
Dec-29-04  Poisonpawns: Is this the best line against the modern benoni? It seems like Tal chastises velimirovic for playing "his" benoni.It seems after 9..Qh4+ black had lost too much time already and was in big trouble.
Dec-23-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  JustCurious: Yes, this is probably the line that has caused Benoni players the most headaches.

9...Qh4+ is probably not the problem here. In fact, this move is advocated by John Watson in his Gambit Guide to the Modern Benoni, which is quite probably the most authoritative book on this opening.

I think black's problem here is the Nb8-a6-b4 manoeuvre, which takes time and doesn't attack anything. Furthermore, the move 9...Qh4+ aims at weakening the light squares by prompting the answer 10 g3. Black should take advantage of this by placing his light-squared bishop on g4 or h3, not b7. In such a sharp variation, the second player has to generate much more counterplay than this, even if it involves sacrificing some material.

Nov-29-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  Fusilli: <JustCurious> Indeed. John Emms' book on the Benoni also points out that the Na6-Nb4 maneuver is, most of the time, positionally flawed for the reasons you mention.
Sep-15-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Tal plays the dreaded "Flick-Knife" variation which Kasparov used to crush Benoni exponent John Nunn in one of the Olympiads :)
Sep-15-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: The Qh4+ idea is mentioned here as something trendy for black to do:

https://chesspublishing.com/content...

Feb-04-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: <Sep-15-21 kingscrusher: Tal plays the dreaded "Flick-Knife" variation which Kasparov used to crush Benoni exponent John Nunn in one of the Olympiads :)>

Kasparov vs Nunn, 1982

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