Alexey Kovalchuk - The Benko Revisited - Volume 2

Alexey Kovalchuk - The Benko Revisited - Volume 2

I am glad to welcome you to the second volume dedicated to the Benko Gambit. This volume examines the most basic lines. It is these lines that can be found most often at the board. We’ll take a look at the rare and tricky lines and move on to the more popular and classic lines.

In the first volume, in the Introduction, we touched on my personal attitude to this opening, which has been constantly changing over the course of the last 10 years. We touched upon the history of how the opening developed, noted who needed to play this opening and what to expect from it.

What do I want to highlight in this Introduction? This is what the reader will notice in this volume – that the lines have become more specific, sometimes requiring very accurate knowledge. The load on memory increases, but it will be rewarded a hundredfold, since the positions that arise are interesting and full of dynamic factors. In this volume, we look at positions that start after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6. We’ll start with the rarer continuations and end with the most popular and relevant ones.

~ Alexey Kovalchuk