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| Jan-22-04 | | refutor: yes they tranpose, but they only transpose into things if i want them to :) for instance, i like playing v. the slav but not the benko, so 1.Nf3 it is instead of 1.d4 :) |
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| Apr-18-04 | | Viking: Is trading down pieces good for white, or is it just drawish? Blacks pressure on the QS is pretty strong... |
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| May-14-04 | | ruylopez900: Does anyone know what Pal did to get his name slapped on to this interesting gambit? I understand he called it the Benoni countergambit but isn't the benoni a gambit for black (as is the benko)?? Therefore who's doing the countergambit!!! |
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| May-14-04 | | AgentRgent: <Is trading down pieces good for white> In my experience, no it isn't. White needs his pieces to counter Black's pressure on the queenside. After trading down usually it's Black who has the much better pieces. IMHO. |
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| May-14-04 | | AgentRgent: <Does anyone know what Pal did to get his name slapped on to this interesting gambit?> He played the heck out of it! <I understand he called it the Benoni countergambit but isn't the benoni a gambit for black (as is the benko)??> The Benoni isn't really a gambit, though it's almost as sharp as one. <Therefore who's doing the countergambit!!!> Honestly I'm not sure why he called it a countergambit. As usually a "countergambit" is a form of declined gambit (i.e. Albin). |
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| May-14-04 | | ruylopez900: Or Falkbeer. (from Kings Gambit) |
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| May-19-04 | | ruylopez900: There aren't any top GMs who play this opening these days, are there? |
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| May-19-04 | | Gypsy: Are Tregubov or Van Wely top enough? |
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| May-19-04 | | Benjamin Lau: Topalov and Adams play this. |
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| May-19-04 | | PinkPanther: Correction-Adams played this opening, he doesn't do it anymore. |
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| May-19-04 | | PinkPanther: Leko and Khalifman used to play the Benko Gambit as well. |
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| May-20-04 | | ruylopez900: Thanks guys, so it does have its following, but it isn't their main defence to d4, is it? I don't think so otherwise I would have known at least one of them. |
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| May-20-04 | | PinkPanther: No, the Benko gambit was never the primary defense against d4 of those players. Leko used to play the Grünfeld, Adams has always been a practicioner of the Nf6 e6 systems (Bogo Indian, Queen's Indian, Nimzo Indian), Topalov has played the Benoni in the past (and some other systems, namely the KID) and to be quite honest I'm not so familiar with Van Wely, so I'm not sure what he plays. |
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| May-21-04 | | Dillinger: <ruy> here is what I posted on the Pal Benko page:
Benko introduced the BG to international tournament play. He also wrote a book on the opening. Ironically, he developed the opening because he disliked opening preparation and thought it would take his opponents out of their books: "I desperately wanted an opening that would allow me to avoid mainstream theory, and would force my opponents to think for themselves...Here was a complete system (against 1.d4) that had no body of theory (thus no memorization!), was largely unknown,...that lent itself well to general ideas and strategic motifs, and that gave Black excellent chances in most endgames." |
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| Jun-15-04 | | AgentRgent: Any comments on this Benko Gambit?
1. d4 c5 2. d5 Nf6 3. c4 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 Bxa6 6. Nc3 g6 7. e4 Bxf1 8. Kxf1 d6 9. Bg5 Bg7 10. Nge2 O-O 11. f3 Nbd7 12. Qc2 Qb6 13. Be3 Rfb8 14. Rb1 Ne5 15. b3 Nfd7 16. Kf2 Qa6 17. Na4 Nb6 18. Nxb6 Rxb6 19. a4 Rab8 20. h3 Nd3+ 21. Kg3 Nb4 22. Qc4 Qb7 23. Nc1 Na6 24. Bd2 Nc7 25. Ba5 Ra6 26. Bxc7 Rc8 27. Bxd6 exd6 28. Nd3 Rb6 29. Rhe1 Rb8 30. Nc1 Rb4 31. Qc2 Rxa4 32. bxa4 Qxb1 33. Qxb1 Rxb1 34. Nd3 Rb3 35. Nf2 Be5+ 36. Kg4 h5+ 37. Kg5 Rb2 38. f4 Bd4 39. e5 Rxf2 40. g4 dxe5 41. fxe5 Kg7 42. gxh5 Rg2+ 43. Kf4 g5+ 44. Kf3 Rf2+ 45. Kg3 Rf5 46. Kg4 Rxe5 47. Rxe5 Bxe5 48. Kf5 Bd6 49. a5 c4 50. Ke4 Bc5 51. d6 Bxd6 52. Kd4 c3 53. Kxc3 Bc5 54. Kc4 Ba7 55. Kd5 Bb8 56. Ke4 Kh6 57. Kf5 Kxh5 0-1 |
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| Jun-16-04 | | AgentRgent: 9. Bg5 appears to be a novelty. Perhaps White is trying to limit the scope of the traditionally strong Benko bishop by encouraging the knight to remain on f6 as a screen to the e7 pawn which can become weak after 0-0 and Qb6. However as the pressure builds on the queenside the bishop is needed there. It's also interesting to note the journey of the Queens knight: Nd7 - Ne5 - Nd3 - Nb4 - Na6 - Nc7. |
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| Jun-22-04 | | tacticsjokerxxx: As for top GM's (2700+) that play this opening, guys, apart from Topalov which you've already mentioned, I think you've missed a key practitioner... Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk has never lost a game with the Volga, except for this one > Gelfand vs Ivanchuk, 1995 where he realised drawing chances were lost after 94 moves, _but_ he did take his revenge against Gelfand in 2002 with the volga.. BLINDFOLDED and beat him in 46 moves in this very nice and tactical game > Gelfand vs Ivanchuk, 2002 So if you're going to play the Volga/Benko-gambit and want a role-model then I'd recommend Ivanchuk, there's around 14 games of his in this opening on chessgames to observe, a novelty I've noticed in the way he plays it is not to take the a-pawn at once, he plays g6 first, this is 1. an enticement to play "6.e3?" 2. a psychological move, "why take the pawn now? you can't save it anyway".
and 3. an encouragement for white to play 6.Nc3? (after which black should take the a-pawn). Notice that I call this opening the volga-gambit, because I think that it sounds better than the "benko" gambit. blacks queenside a and b file rook attack can resemble the long and powerful river Volga, ending up at the king in Moscow, if I've got my geography right =) I've been studying this opening a lot the past few days and looking for key tactics and elements, like getting a rook (or two) on the seventh rank and so on. playing the knight to g4 before white plays h3, etc. soon I'll see if the fruits of my labour have paid off in the next tournament, otherwise I'll switch to a different aggressive line against 1.d4. so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions give me a hint. By the way I let fritz 8 play the volga against crafty 19.01 and they keep on drawing. I don't think computers can grasp this opening very well, it's probably a good anti-computer opening. |
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| Jun-22-04 | | AgentRgent: <tacticsjokerxxx> As I understand it, there are actually differences between the Volga and the Benko Gambits. Typically in the Volga Gambit black plays an early e6 (dxe6 fxe6), in the Benko Gambit black does not. |
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| Jun-23-04 | | tacticsjokerxxx: well in non-enlish speaking countries the standard Benko Gambit is referred to as the Volga gambit. |
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| Jul-12-04 | | tomh72000: <Honestly I'm not sure why he called it a countergambit> I thought a countergambit was where one player plays a gambit, and then the other player answers by playing another gambit, e.g. White plays King's Gambit, then black plays Falkbeer <countergambit>. Another example- white plays queen's gambit, black "counter-gambits" with "Albin Countergambit". I hope this makes sense... |
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| Jul-12-04 | | refutor: <a novelty I've noticed in the way he plays it is not to take the a-pawn at once, he plays g6 first> there is a reason for this. according to MCO, it is more accurate to do it this way because sometimes Black will want to recapture with the knight. A line they gave is 6.b3 Bg7 7.Bb2 O-O 8.g3 Nxa6! "This key move allows Black excellent play against White's setup". they say that the line played in Fokin vs Platonov, 1977 (up to move 12) gives Black "too little counterplay for the pawn"" |
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| Jul-30-04 | | Helloween: I play the 5.f3 variation and sometimes the 5.b6 variation after 4.cxb5 a6 from the above diagram. I find 5.f3 to be interesting. White usually gets a big centre and a nice space advantage for the sake of not being castled for quite awhile(there are some lines where White gives back a pawn to get better development and great tactical chances). What surprised me when I started using it was that not a lot of Black players were prepared for it. The only time I play 5.b6 is in games just for fun. I love the way it annoys the heck out of quite a few Benko Gambiteers- only about 1 in 5 actually seem to enjoy the type of play Black gets in the 5.b6 variation. |
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| Aug-08-04 | | Bobsterman3000: Can anyone tell me why GM's seem to shy away from 4. b3 in this opening? According to the database, GM's playing white tend to overwhelmingly choose 4.cxb5 here instead. However, I don't see what's wrong with 4. b3... |
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| Sep-03-04 | | Giancarlo: <Bobsterman3000>
4.b3 isn't that bad, but there's some thing I can see why not to many people play it:1) I weakens the dark squares on the white queen side. 2) cxb5 controls the c6 and a6 squares, which are good outposts for the black knight. 3) e3 can be played to defend the extra pawn and try to make it an annoiance for black's position. Here's why 4.b3 can be good though:
1) It develops a finnachetto for the queen's bishop.
2) Maintains the pawn chain and supports c5 in enemy territory. Both are good I think but it depends on the type of line the player is comfortable with in my oponion. Personally I would take the pawn as white. |
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| Sep-08-04 | | Marvol: On a completely different note, there's four/five years of (young) Shirov getting this opening served against him, and he totally thrashes his opponents. No losses, four draws, eleven* wins.
Is that why after 1993 there are no more black-plays-Benko-against-Shirov games? Nobody dared anymore?
*) there seems to be a double listing... |
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