Chess Developments: The Modern Benoni

IM Richard Palliser innleder Everymans nye serie av oppdaterte gjennomganger av kritiske og populære varianter i viktige åpninger. Her blir mesterpartier fra de siste årene analysert.

Moderne Benoni er en dynamisk åpning med klart mål om motspill og ubalanse som straks stiller krav til motspilleren. Åpningen starter i stillingen etter trekkene 1 d4 Sf6 2 c4 e6 3 Sc3 c5 4 d5 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 eller med Sf3 i stedet for Sc3. Noen eller mange spiller åpningen bare hvis hvit har satt springeren på f3 og ikke får valgt "4-bondevarianten" f4 som dekkes i boka. Den regnes tradisjonelt som rimelig kritisk hvis hvit gis muligheten. Boka vier også atskillig oppmerksomhet til fianchetto-varianten med g3 som Avrukhs variantvalg i det anerkjente verket Grandmaster Repertoire 1 d4, volume 2.

I tillegg til "tøff" teoretisk oppdatering har boka også gode forklaringer til ideene og partiene, så dette er enda en ny variant av moderne åpningsbok, som forholder seg offensivt til andre verktøy (på PCen) som dagens interesserte og/eller ambisiøse sjakkspillere... også benytter.

Variantene som dekkes i denne boka:

1. The Modern Main Line
   • Stillingen etter 1 d4 Sf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Sc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 e4 g6 7 Ld3 Lg7 8 h3 0-0 9 Sf3 b5, eller 9...a6
2. The Anti-Modern Main Line
   • Stillingen etter (samme trekk, men nå:) 6 Sf3 g6 7 e4 a6 (eller 7... Lg7)
3. The Tajmanov Attack (4-bondevariant)
   • Etter (samme innledningstrekk og nå:) 6 e4 g6 7 f4 Lg7 8 Lb5+ Sfd7 9 a4 0-0, eller 9...Dh4+
4. The Tajmanov Attack without 8... Nfd7 9 a4 (i stedet 8... Sbd7)
5. The Main Line Fianchetto
   • Stilllingen etter 6 Sf3 g6 7 g3 Lg7 8 Lg2 0-0 9 0-0 a6 10 a4 Sbd7 11 Sd2 Te8
6. The Fianchetto Variation: Early Deviations
   • Om avvik fra svarts side i trekkene 9, 10 eller 11

En bokserie som utfra dette første bidraget tydelig kan bli en ny suksess i dagens spennende bokjungel! Passer best for spillere med ratingstyrke fra omlag 1300 og langt oppover, som tross forklaringene i boka også har et visst fundament av kjennskap til åpningen fra før (som ellers kan hentes fra for eksempel Starting out: The Modern Benoni).

Forfatterens introduksjon (forord):

The Modern Benoni spent much of the 1980’s and 1990’s under something of a cloud, but is nowadays as vibrant and dynamic as it’s ever been. Its modern-day champion is the Azerbaijani super-grandmaster Vugar Gashimov, with Bacrot, Gelfand, Ivanchuk and Radjabov more irregular dabblers in the opening, not to mention a whole host of mere 2600+ grandmasters whose games will be found scattered throughout this work.

With over 7,000 games in the opening from the last five years in which one player was rated over 2300, a work on the critical lines of the Modern Benoni was surely required. The aim of the Chess Developments series is to focus on that time-frame, but at times I’ve extended coverage back a little – after all ten years have passed since John Watson’s The Gambit Guide to the Modern Benoni appeared; a work which remains many Benoni players’ bible to this day.

Over the past decade works on the Benoni have appeared, but Vegh’s Starting Out: The Modern Benoni and my The Modern Benoni Revealed (both 2005) were mainly introductory guides, while Franco’s Chess Explained: The Modern Benoni (2007) was quite short, if rather interesting in places, and Dangerous Weapons: The Benko and Benko (2008) only considered a few unusual ideas. Perhaps the most important piece of literature, on top of the theoretical journals Informator and New in Chess Yearbook, has been Boris Avrukh’s Grandmaster Repertoire 2 - 1.d4 Volume Two (2010), which has inspired a number of players to take up the Fianchetto Variation. I should also mention John Emms’ excellent column on the Nimzo and Benoni for the ChessPublishing website, a source I made much use of and with which I have tried, with just a few unavoidable exceptions, to avoid sharing illustrative games.

Enough of the recent literature, though, and I dare say that many readers will be eager to discover what’s in this work. Unfortunately complete coverage wasn’t possible, due to the sheer amount of games available these days (there’s almost 60,000 games with the opening on my databases!), so I’ve focussed my efforts on presenting an up-to-date picture of the state of theory in the critical Modern Main Line, the closely related, so-called Anti-Modern Main Line, the ever dangerous Taimanov Attack and the increasingly popular Fianchetto Variation.

That does mean that there is no coverage of the likes of the Classical and the Knaak System (7 Bd3 and 8 Nge2), but these and White’s lesser variations have witnessed far fewer important developments over the past decade. Moreover, in my own games with the Modern Benoni over the past ten years, one of the lines considered in this book has occurred 75% of the time. That percentage may be lower at club level, but even there the Taimanov Attack, thanks to some classic games won by the young Kasparov, and the Modern Main Line, which has been advocated by a few repertoire works, such as John Cox’s Starting Out: 1 d4, are likely to be chosen by players who’ve done a little work on their openings. I hope that the theoretical coverage in this work will be of interest to all levels of Benoni aficionado, as well as to those who as White counter the opening with one of the main lines, but the book also has a secondary aim: to reinforce the most common motifs and tactical tricks in the opening. As such three symbols from the Starting Out series have been retained (Note, Tip and Warning), and a new one has been added:

KEY DEVELOPMENT: This signifies a particularly important novelty or a line which has evolved of late to become at the critical edge of theory.

I’ve found this a challenging but very enjoyable book to write and just hope that you, the reader, receive as much satisfaction in your own games and studies from the wonderfully complex and exciting world of the Modern Benoni as I have.
Richard Palliser, York, September 2011