* chessbug@chessbug.com

Pinski does not start the book with “Know Thyself” but he does start it with a heart moving dedication, “This book is dedicated to my best friend Wojciech Ehrenfeucht (1955-2002): one of the greatest experts on the Benko Gambit. I hope that we will share a beer again.” I think you would agree that a book that starts like this cannot be too bad. However, you must understand that this book does not go very well with beer because it is a rather complex piece of work. Immediately after the dedication, Pinski goes to the introduction which is in all means on the heavy side. I thought I would sit in my armchair and read the introduction before I move to the deep analytical material but as soon as I started reading the first game of the introduction, I had to sit at my table, open my chess set, and start moving the pieces. In this very first game you already see Pinski at his best and worst, but before I go into the details let me pause for a moment and tell you what the contents of the book are.

One feature that I like a lot about how the publishers, Quality Chess, do their books is that they use diagrams in the variation index. The diagrams make searching the index much easier and faster. I wish other publishers would take Quality Chess’ example on this matter. But let me go back to the beginning and talk about the introduction of The Benko Gambit. As I wrote above, Pinski’s strengths and weaknesses show from the very first game (Ehlvest – Fedorowicz, 1989). First, and this is on the good side, Pinski is a courageous writer who is not intimidated by big names. The player with the white pieces, Ehlvest, was one of the world greatest grandmasters when the game has been played (1989). Still, Pinski criticizes Ehlvest’s game directly and without reservations, though never with disrespect. Second, and this has good sides and bad sides, the analysis is pretty much in depth for the first game of an introduction. The good side is that Pinski has clearly put a lot of work into the introduction, and as far as I can see the analysis is accurate and has many fine points. The down side is that there are too many fine points and some of the focus of the main ideas is lost. A reader who never played the Benko Gambit will find Pinski’s introduction quite challenging, yet fruitful.

Another place where Pinski’s courage in his analysis shows is in Pinski’s attitude to his digital companion, Fritz 8. Pinski is far from being intimidated by the silicon monster and a nice example is game number 4 (Sjodahl-Adams, 1992). In this game Pinski shows how the chess software missed on a simple tactic:

Here, with Black to move, Fritz 8 thinks that the position is reasonable for white but Pinski suggests 23…Nxb3! 24 axb3 Qxa1 with an analysis that I find fully convincing. One must have a healthy amount of originality to refute Fritz so easily.  Pinski’s courage shows also in his writing style. Despite the fact that Pinski is clearly not a native speaker of English (with sentences like “White is playing as if he is the better developed player” or “This could very well be the case short-term” among many others) he does not shy away from speaking. I prefer a writer who makes mistakes in English and writes entertainingly, to one who writes an opening book that is grammatically correct but dry. Pinski has a sarcastic sense of humor that you learn to love as the book goes along. One example from the first game is “Ehlvest was one of the truly great players of the 1980’s but in this game it seems as if he was a little hung-over and allowed Black to move the pieces for both sides.” You can see another example in the quote at the bottom of this review but there are many other humorous remarks, and they lighten the book and give the readers a prize for their hard work.

By now, those of you who are willing to put some hard work into it because they love playing the Benko Gambit, must surely ask, “but what about the Epishin variation? Does Pinski have new ideas against this dangerous variation or is the Benko busted?” The answer is that Pinski has an original and quite promising idea although, obviously, this is not the end of the story and White may have his own answers, as I will show below.

In this position Pinski states that White’s best move is 14 f4! (to prevent g6-g5) This move led to great advantage for White in all games prior to the book. But Pinski suggests 14…Bb7! 15 Bb2 0-0 16 Qd2 Rfe8! The last move is Pinski’s novelty and he goes on to prove, quite forcefully, that Black is doing fine in the resulting positions. In order to check Pinski’s evaluation of this critical line I searched some online databases and found no game from 2006 where White played 14 f4 so it seems as though I was not the only one convinced by Pinski’s analysis. I did see a couple of games where White tried 14 0-0, a move that Pinski does not mention. In Bensdorp-Van der Weide, Black played 14…g5 15 Nf3 Qf5 16 e4 Qg6 with a position that seems roughly equal and the game ended in a draw. The important idea, in my opinion is that the black queen on g6 helps defend the kingside that has been weakened by the g6-g5 advance. In a later game, Jovanic-Novak, Black decided to attack the d5 pawn and leave his queen on the queenside. After 14…g5 15 Nf3 Bb7 16 e4 0-0 17 Re1 Ng4 the rivals arrived at the following position:

Here White exploited the loose pawn structure’s in Black’s kingside, and the fact that the queen can no longer defend the king 18 h4 gxh4 19 Nxh4 e6 20 Bb2 Bf6 21 Qe2 Ne5 22 Nf3 Ng6 23 Na4! And White soon had a crushing attack on the kingside. Still, as we saw in the game Bensdorp-Van der Weide, 14 0-0 is not too dangerous for Black. Yet, with the game Jovanic-Novak in mind, I asked myself whether White can improve on what Pinski expects. Pinski says that “14 Bb2?! g5 15 Nf3 Bb7 16 Nd2 0-0 gives Black a good game because White must either lose the d5 pawn or leave the king in the center.” I am inclined to disagree with the assessment of this variation. In Gustaffson- S. Kasparov, 2002 after 14 Bb2 g5 15 Nf3 Bb7 the following position arose:

Here White played 16 Rd1 0-0 17 0-0! Now, despite the fact that White’s d5 pawn is undefended White has advantage because of the loose position of Black’s king. The game continued 17…Nfxd5 18 Nxd5 Nxd5 19 Bxg7 Kxg7 20 Nxg5! White retains his material advantage and Black has no compensation, and Gustaffson went on to win the game. To sum up, 14 Bb2 seems very dangerous for Black. It was used successfully by both Gustaffson and Epishin who is, needless to say, an authority on the Epishin Variation. I have only touched the surface on this complicated variation and we at Chessbug would be happy to hear the readers’ comments.

The fact that I disagree with Pinski does not change my high view of his book, The Benko Gambit. It is a part of life that once an opening book comes out, it immediately creates responses, corrections, and new suggestions. No book has “the last word,” and the discussion goes on. Pinski’s book is an important step in the discussion on the Benko Gambit and every Benko Gambit player should have this book. Those who never played the Benko Gambit and have an ELO of less than 2000 will find the book challenging but there is one tip that can be useful for the less advanced readers: something very helpful that Pinski does is that he finishes every game (not every chapter but every game!) with a short paragraph that he calls “game conclusions”. I found it constructive to start every chapter with going through the game conclusions, and only later going through the games themselves. Thus, I had a wide perspective of each variation before I went into the details.

Who is it good for? The Benko Gambit is an excellent choice for the serious learner of the Benko Gambit. Pinski’s book will benefit mostly players above 2000 but is also suitable for ambitious players above 1600 who have some prior knowledge of the Benko Gambit.

The Good Things:

• Original analysis

• A unique sense of humor

• Useful conclusions after every game

• An open approach that gives deep analysis but also makes it clear for the reader that he has to think on his own

The Bad Things:

• The English could be improved

• The book is dense from the very start and therefore unsuitable for beginners or those who do not wish to work hard.

Quote:

“Game Conclusions: Black has good play with 5…e6 even after the most natural 10 e4. The critical position after move 19 is approximately equal, but in no way simple. I would recommend those wanting to employ this line to take a closer look at this position. And maybe even play a few training games against a friend or, if you don’t have any, a computer.”

The Bottom Line:

The Benko Gambit is a great effort by Pinski but it also demands some effort from its reader. If you are a hard working player who dares to sacrifice a pawn for the attack even with the black pieces or surely if you are already a Benko Gambit player, prepare for many hours of productive joy with Pinski’s The Benko Gambit.

Rating: 9/10

Review written by Chessbug.

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