Just reviving this old thread to point out further vindication of Petrov's work. According to the Quality Chess blog, Avrukh has completely abandoned the main line fianchetto in his new repertoire book (in favor of 10.Bf4).

http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/blog/?p=3573

whatteaux wrote on 10/10/13 at 07:27:51:

Does Petrov at least treat both 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 and 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5?

Does Petrov have a recommendation what to play against 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 ?

I wonder how much time Tomashevsky took in replying to 9...b5 (which I'm pretty sure I've never seen before) ...

MarkG wrote on 09/30/13 at 16:54:38:


And Bacrot converted his advantage without problems, to produce an excellent game!

It is absolutely shocking to me that a player of Ponomariov's stature ran into this line completely unprepared. People have known this 17...Bb5 idea for a long time already, it has been played in games between strong GMs, and it certainly isn't the first time Bacrot plays the Benoni...

Today's Ponomariov-Bacrot game from the FIDE Grand Prix in Paris is a fantastic advertisement for Petrov's recommendation against the fianchetto variation. It looks like white was following Avrukh's recommendation and walked right into 20...Qb3!

22.Qxb3 was the first move not mentioned by Petrov. I can see why he left it out - it looks awfully compliant to me. The game is still going on but it has been one way traffic so far.

Fllg wrote on 07/12/13 at 04:51:53:

Thanks for the information. Do you Know the link?

I miss some reference to the Semkov's Kill KID 14.Qc2 in the 9...Bg4 Four Pawns Attack

That won't be covered in any modern benoni book as it isn't a modern benoni There's an everyman starting out the benoni book which gives OK coverage for all of this sundry benoni stuff.

Or work it out from databases. If a few GMs etc doing it then likely fine, else quite possibly not

White going d5 then meeting e6, ed with ed is one potential problem with this sort of thing. The other vs the classical at least is white going for an accelerated dragon.

I had a few hours on a flight the other night so I worked through the sample chapter on the Mikenas Attack that is available for download. I was very impressed by what I saw. To avoid giving long lines here, I will assume you have the sample pdf and just reference page numbers.

The Mikenas is a theoretical backwater and most books just cover the same ground because black is fine in these lines. Petrov isn't satisfied to do just that and gives some new ideas anyway. For example, on page 13 the moves 12...Rd8 and 12...e4 13. Ng5 Bd4 are new to me. So, based on this small sample, it looks like the book will have a lot of original material.

The other characteristic that struck me was that Petrov expects the reader to do some work. This is not a book for the lazy. For example, on page 13 he gives this note (edited slightly):
"11.Nb5? is deservedly rare: 11...Re8 12.d6+ Kf8 13.Nc7 For some reason the natural 13...Qh4+!N has not been played so far, but it brings Black a clear advantage as shown after: 14.g3 exf4+"
Now Petrov gives only 15.Kf2 without comment. Hmmm - not what I would have considered as the first candidate move Alternatives - including the obvious one - are simply not mentioned. Readers are clearly expected to work this sharp position out for themselves.

In summary, based on the available sample, I think this looks like it might be the single best Benoni book for strong players who are willing to work hard.