I wasn't overly impressed with his 5.f3 coverage that I saw in the extract.  5.f3 is what I play against the Benko and the only line I know pretty well; let's just say I won't be losing much sleep over people using this new book to prepare.  Not that I think his coverage is bad, I just didn't see much of anything new that I'm not already aware of.  And I'm not exactly a theory hound, either.

Here is a brief review by James Pratt: http://www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk/?p=1875

I have purchased the book, though I haven't had a good look at it yet. On an initial impression I agree with the majority of the recommendations.

I recently thumbed through this book by Nicolai Pedersen, and while I have not delved into it sufficiently enough to comment on the merit of his repertoire choices or, for the most part, the strength of his analyses (which might be all that some of you may care about), I can tell you this:

1)  The bibliography cites only 7 book sources, including Benko's 1974 work...but nothing by Fedorowicz.   He does cite Avrukh and Georgiev...but not Pinski.  And of course, he cites his chief editor's (Byron Jacobs) 1995 Batsford effort, but not McDonald's from 2004.  And you can forget about any foreign language sources.

Maybe it's just me, but consulting 1974 and 1995 works (along with Ravikumar's from 1992), and ignoring the more recent 2004 book and Pinski's 2005 work (from Everyman's competitor, Quality Chess), doesn't sit right with me.  Maybe I've come to expect authors to do what I do...which is to thoroughly research an opening by consulting virtually every work available.  Maybe an author like Vigorito has spoiled me...look at his bibliographies for his thoroughly researched two volume KID series.

2)  On page 14, near the top of the second column, he gives a line that he states gives black compensation for a pawn...but White has a huge, very obvious improvement on move 16, whereby Black is forced to sacrifice a knight for two pawns and insufficient compensation, in order to save his queen.

3)  I understand that many foreign authors do not have a very good command of the English language...but those who proofread and edited the book should have been so skilled.  Just randomly thumbing through the pages I found numerous grammatical errors, such as word and phrase repetitions, for which there is really no excuse.  But it doesn't end there...moves are left out of a couple of lines (usu. at the beginning), and a few diagrams are incorrect.

It is not my intention to appear overly harsh, but errors like those referenced above irk me.  I can see no reason for them in this day and age of chess engines and word processors.  My initial impression is that this is a poorly edited rush job, and I can only hope that I will find something positive to say after thoroughly going through the book and its analyses.

I think the ...Nfd7/Nb6 line is covered in Avrukh's GM Repertoire 2. Would Petersen have improvements on Avrukh's recommendations?

Schandorff-Skytte, DANchT-48 2010-11, jan. 2011 looks good for White. Black's play is very slow.

Gilchrist is a legend wrote on 07/23/11 at 02:38:15:

In the PDF sample, the Introduction summarises Black's approach here:

"The modern Rb1 in the Fianchetto Variation is also prophylactic in nature, as White takes steps (with b2-b3 and Bb2) to prevent a later ...c5-c4, ...Qa3 or ...Nc4 arising from Black’s classical formation with ...Nbd7, ...0-0, ...Qa5 and ...Rfb8. In fact this idea has been the most serious threat to the Benko in the last decade or so, which is why in Chapter One I suggest that Black take preventative measures in turn by playing 9...Nfd7 and 10...Nb6."

It's an interesting idea - Glenn Flear also looked at it last year:

http://www.chesspublishing.com/content/11/sep10.htm#ben

I don't know what to make of it myself

Now there´s a download for the Benko book by Nicolai Pedersen:
http://www.everymanchess.com/chess/books/Play_the_Benko_Gambit

Contents

004  Bibliography
005  Introduction

Benko Accepted
012  1 The Fianchetto Variation
033  2 The Classical Variation
073  3 The ‘Quiet’ 5 e3

Benko Declined
085  4 The 5 f3 Variation
099  5 White plays b5-b6
114  6 Other Options for White

Anti-Benko
149  7 The Kasparov Gambit
173  8 The Topalov Variation

202  Index of Variations
207  Index of Complete Games

tracke