Title: The ABC of the Benko Gambit

Author: Andrew Martin

Publisher: ChessBase (FritzTrainer series)

Genre: Openings

Level:  Advanced Beginner/Intermediate

“When I was younger/So much younger than today/I never needed anybody’s help in any way/But now these days are gone and I am not so self assured…” Thus sing the Beatles and how rightly so. When I was younger (so much younger than today) I would take on any opening, grounding my confidence on some general ideas about chess and my tactical skills. At times, I would suffer miserable losses but at other times I would frustrate my better-prepared opposition.  I specifically remember one sparring partner who would constantly play the Benko Gambit as Black. At first I used to take the a6 pawn and he would beat me with the thematic plan (of which I will talk later) but after sometime I saw that if only I play 5 b6, declining the gambit, I win in most of the games.

I did not know what theory suggests after 5 b6 nor did I play so well, but it was my opponent (let us call him “Paul”) who got so upset, being unable to play his gambit, that he would lose heart, and make silly tactical mistakes. After a few games in this manner, Paul found the appropriate response: he started calling me “a coward” every time I pushed my b pawn forward, until I just could not bear the provocation anymore, went back to 5 bxa6, and went back to losing. It is clear that Paul’s “strategy” will not work against any player, and this you must remember when you play the Benko Gambit.

* chessbug@chessbug.com

If you just heard about the Benko Gambit it must sound like a dream opening – you give one pawn, and for that miserable pawn, you get (1) everlasting initiative on the Queenside, (2) a healthy pawn formation and (3) a safe king, and all that when playing Black! As a matter of fact, it is a rather great gambit, and for this reason it has been played by some of chess greatest including Benko, Bronstein, Topalov, Adams, and even Kasparov tried it, when he was desperate for a win in Black. The power of the Benko Gambit is even stronger at the amateur level, because Black has a position where natural moves on both sides work better for him, and he has a clear strategic plan that works fine even if the queens are swiped off the board before he manages to capture back his sacrificed pawn.

So where is the catch? The catch is that White has many ways of declining the pawn (5 b6, 5 e3, 5 f3…). Objectively, as Martin explains very well in this DVD, none of the ways of declining the pawn yields an advantage for White but at the club level, all that White has to do is learn one of these variations while Black has to learn them all. For this reason I think that Martin took on himself a great challenge trying to explain the complex Benko Gambit on a DVD (though a rather long DVD) rather than on a more traditional media, such as a book or a CD-ROM. Martin has already managed to do the impossible in his wonderful DVD on The Scandinavian but I think the Benko Gambit is much more complicated to explain than the Scandinavian. As in the other DVD, Martin is an excellent teacher and the product is highly enjoyable but you have to be warned that the Benko Gambit is a “high maintenance” opening, not an opening for the working class.

Andrew Martin is fully aware of the complexity inherent to the Benko Gambit, and he both admits it and does the best he can to help the viewer understand the opening in the shortest time. Martin starts the DVD with a rather long yet important and entertaining introduction where he shows no less than 5 historical games played in the Benko Gambit. The rest of the material is also organized around thematic games and divided in the following way:

Benko Gambit Accepted

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 Bxa6 6 Nc3 d6 7 g3

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 Bxa6 6 Nc3 d6

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 g6 6 Nc3 Bxa6 7 Nf3

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 g6 6 Nc3 Bxa6 7 g3

Pawn Structures (a general discussion of the characteristic pawn structure)

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 g6 6 Nc3 Bxa6 7 f4

Benko Gambit Declined

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 e3

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 b6 (2 games)

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 Nc3

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 f3

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 Nf3

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 a4

As you can see from the contents, there are quite a few options that you must know prior to becoming a true Benko Gambit warlord. Therefore I really appreciate Martin’s honesty about the fact that the DVD is only an introduction of the Gambit. Again and again, Martin reminds the viewer that the main thing in The ABC of the Benko Gambit is to understand the ideas and not necessarily to remember every variation. The system of focusing on the ideas, works perfectly in the first half of the DVD (the Benko Gambit Accepted) and less so with the lines where White declines the gambit. In the first half, Martin nails the ideas into your brain quite effectively: Sac the pawn, bring your rooks and queen to the open files, know your pawn formation, know about possible knight maneuvers and so on. In the second half of the DVD, Martin tells his viewer the bad news – in the lines of the Benko Gambit Declined one has to be more acquainted with the specific lines because Black has to sail through stormy waters before he gets to the safe shores of equality. For example, in the game Elson-Mannion, after leading the viewer through a sea of (fascinating) complications, Martin explains the critical weakness of the dark squares in White’s camp. Just when I thought I had an anchor of understanding in the position, Black swiped off his dark squares bishop, the bishop which, I thought, was the most valuable piece in the position. All this goes to show how tactical and hard to understand the positions that arise in the Benko Gambit Declined are.

Despite the hard work that is involved with learning the Benko Gambit, I think that it is worth it. Andrew Martin teaches you an opening that you can really fall in love with. You play a true gambit with the black pieces, you have the initiative and you learn to put a long term pressure on your opponent. This opening, if you study it properly, may help you improve both your tactical skills and your strategic insight. Crucial in this learning process is the fact which never seizes to surprise me – the pressure can be maintained even after the queens are off the board (see the game Taimanov-Bronstein in the DVD, and what I wrote about it in the Chessbug Endgame Section). Martin is, as always, a dependable teacher who does not try to oversell the opening and still keeps the material as down to earth as possible.

To summarize this review, here’s another quote from the Beatles “Baby, you can drive my car/ Yes, I'm gonna be a star/ Baby you can drive my car/ And maybe I'll love you” What is the connection, you ask? Well the Benko Gambit is gonna be a star with or without you playing it. You can take it for a test drive with Andrew Martin’s new DVD, and who knows, maybe it will love you. If the Benko Gambit does love you, please remember you must treat it like the star it is – keep on learning, keep on improving, and never think it is fully yours.

The Good Things:

• Andrew Martin is a natural born chess teacher; the free and relaxed atmosphere adds to the viewer's confidence in the opening.

• Martin emphasizes what is most important in the club and intermediate level – strategic and tactic ideas rather than long variations.

• The Benko Gambit is an aggressive opening that trains you to prefer initiative to material – a good lesson in the  long-term.

 The Bad Things:

• This is not a fault of the DVD, but you must be aware of the fact that the Benko Gambit is a complex opening that demands a lot of work, and subsequently you will need to know detailed variations.

Quote: “We’ve seen that the game in the Benko Gambit Declined is not quite as straight forward for Black as play in the ‘Accepted’ variations, but there are a couple of golden rules which I think you have to bear in mind…”

The Bottom Line: “The ABC of the Benko Gambit” is a good and approachable introduction of the Benko Gambit. It is ideal for a player who never played the Benko Gambit, but if you try the gambit and like it, at some point you will have to get a more in-depth material about the Benko Gambit.

Rating: 8.5/10

Review written by Chessbug.