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Benoni Defense

The Benoni Defense is an active defense for Black to fight for a win. It starts with the moves:

1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3.d5

benoni defense
Black moves

It consists of various variations. See below

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3. d5 b5
Benko Gambit (or Volga Gambit)
Very popular opening. Black sacrifices a pawn with 3…b5
to generate active piece play at the queenside.
Main Line is 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 Bxa6 and after this Black fianchettoes his f8-bishop playing it to g7. (g6,Bg7)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd 5.cxd d6
Modern Benoni
Black tries to unbalance the position and gain active piece play. But
this is risky.
In my opinion Black should not play e6 and exd before castling because he runs into the dangerous Taimanov Variation (or “Flick-Knife Attack”) 1.d4 Nf6
2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8 Bb5+! Nfd7. This bishop check is only possible because Black opened the diagonal f1-b5 playing e6 and exd too early.
benko gambit
Replay Games
modern benoni
Replay Games
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3. d5 e5
Czech Benoni
szech-benoni
Replay Games

Back from – Benoni Defense to – Semi Closed Games

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