wcywing wrote on 02/17/09 at 23:23:02:


"Beating the Anti Kings Indians" by Gallagher would be a great help.

You also need to know how to play against

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nf3 I suggest cxd 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d5 you need to know what you are doing but if you do black has great fun.

I also play the benoni, last year I toyed around with it in icc blitz and in rapid chess tournaments, now it is my main defence, I only have Watson's book on the benoni. But I don't know, somehow I buy a book for an opening I play, put in the shelf, but I don't really use them, more or less I just play the opening by a bit of database research and much more by feeling. I think the Taimanov attack in the benoni is somewhat comparable to the bayonet attack in the kid, it is dreaded and feared, but in the end, if black knows what to do white also has no advantage ... also on the absolute top level, you don't see the taimanov arising so much, white very often choses a different line ... so far I faced it 3 times in blitz and won 3 times, of course  this hasn't to say so much ,   
but still ... I think the benoni is rather easy to play planwise, but you have to be able to calculate well, almost perfect for me

Listen what Lev Psakhis wrote in his book "The Complete Benoni" : " Despite its risky reputation,I can say that after 15 years experience with this defence,it is certainly no worse than any other and has a definite plus in that it does not allow white an easy life. My own results have been exceptional: from over 60 games I scored 70% ,losing only four games."

Psakhis plays the Benoni from the Nimzo-Indian move order. He avoids pawn-storm systems where white can play f4. If white plays 3. Nf3 black plays 3...c5. So the most critical line is probably the Taimanov attack. But there are many dangerous systems!!! It is dangerous to play the Modern Benoni. But it is dangerous for white too. I have played hundreds of blitzgames with the Modern Benoni and have very good results with it. I have even crushed some IM players on ICC. Then I really mean crush. But I have also lost to weaker players. Thats Benoni! 

I think its important to learn the typical Modern Benoni maneuvers and motifs. You should also study different kinds of exchange sacrifices as they sometimes can be the only way to go for the win....or even the only way to survive!
Intuition and calculation is important in the modern benoni.Strong nerves. Just take a look at game 31 in Andrew Kinsmans book Modern benoni page 70. Its a game between Lalic-Kotsur 1997 worldteam championship (its a Taimanov attack). A wonderful game which really shows the Benoni in a nutshell. Look in the game how black opens the b-file and how he activates his rook and sacrifice it for the white darksquared bishop.Then black sends the queen to h4 going for the white king. Thats benoni!! Lalic is a great player but in this game he was wiped of the board.

Good luck with the Modern Benoni!

Thanks, people. I just got my copy of Starting Out: The Modern Benoni. What is the main line Black players of the opening are worrying about right now?

Mastering the Modern Benoni and Benko will teach you (if you can find a copy) how to cope with the different types of positions that (can) arise... The rest is calculation, indeed.

I suggest:

"Chess Explained: The Modern Benoni" 

"Starting Out: The Modern Benoni"

"The Modern Benoni Explained"

"The Gambit Guide to the Modern Benoni"

I don't own the first book, but it is quite good and well worth buying for prospective Benoni players.

The second book offers a good selection of games, but is too basic in its theoretical coverage, although the large chapters on themes and ideas for White and Black makes the book worth buying if you are rated below 1900. This recommendation also applies to "The Modern Benoni Revealed", although don't expect a book of the same quality as Palliser's other works.

The fourth book is the most detailed coverage of the Modern Benoni in a single book that I know of, and would be the most useful of all the books I listed above.

There are probably a few other good books, but those are the most recent.