Benoni Defense - a quick guide

Benoni is one of the best openings for Black against 1.d4, involving a quick development and initiative. It is an excellent defense for positional, slow-building, strategic players, but also for tactical genius such as Mikhail Tal (also Garry Kasparov, but getting there through the King'sIndian Defense), one of the best representatives of Benoni defense.

We are dealing with the main goals, ideas and setups for White and Black, arising from the Benoni pawn structure.

The guidelines can be categorized as follows:

1. IDEAS FOR WHITE

• • e4-e5 pawn break:
     
    • recapturing with a piece,
    • supported by f4,
    • as a pawn sacrifice;
  • Nd2-c4 manoeuvre, targeting the d6-weakness;
  • b2-b4 pawn break (works not that often).

B. Ideas for Black

• • b7-b5 pawn break: with Na6-c6 or Nb8-d7!
  • f7-f5 pawn break and pressure along the e-file!
  • c5-c4 pawn advance, followed by Nd7-c5, trying to infiltrate on d3!
  • g6-g5 pawn advance in order to secure the e5-square and dominate  on the dark-squares!

The video that follows is showing examples where these ideas can be applied with success:

Some of the scenes are taken from the short film "Pakt protiv vetra" (Pact Against the Wind). We want to thank the author (Milan Vergot) and invite you to watch the full movie: https://youtu.be/nllXj14rQtU

Let me know what you think!