Modern Benoni: Heroes and Slayers
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Who always wins with the Modern Benoni? Who always beats the Modern Benoni? Find out who tops the list in the stardom and slaying roles. |
Mikhail Tal
The
Wizard from Riga was perhaps the most famous Modern Benoni legend of all time.
The Benoni's sharp and uncompromising style perfectly suited Tal's desire to
checkmate everyone he played. Tal's results with the Modern Benoni were quite
exceptional. From Megabase 99 the statistics are 29 wins, 21 draws and only
9 defeats. In rated games his performance was 2653, nearly 50 points over his
own average rating. Considering that most players perform higher than their
rating with White, and lower than their rating with Black, then these figures
are very favourable.
Smash and Grab: Benoni hero Mikhail Tal plays a brilliant miniature.
Meat and Potatoes: Benoni hero Tal plays simple chess to notch upo a straight forward victory.
Bobby Fischer
Fischer only uses the Modern Benoni sparsely, as a second weapon to his beloved Kings Indian Defence. However, his score of +8,=2,-1 (82%) makes the Benoni a pretty good second choice. Perhaps his best known Modern Benoni game is his crucial 3rd game victory over Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Championship.
A Classical Classic: A World Championship Benoni which caused shockwaves in the chessworld.
Garry Kasparov (Hero and Slayer)
Kasparov
used the Modern Benoni in his youth before moving onto the King's Indian. His
score in Megabase 99 is +5=8-2 (60%), with a rating performance of 2654 (around
50 points lower than his average rating at the time). His Benoni win over Victor
Korchnoi (Lucern 1982) is one of the most famous Benoni games of all time. Perhaps
Kasparov's early retirement from playing the Benoni had something to do with
his own slaying power against the opening. As White Kasparov has scored an impressive
+5,=2-0 (86%) against the Benoni, including a crushing win over John Nunn which
only enhanced further the reputation of the Flick-Knife Attack.
Slaughtered in Their Beds: My advice to you is: Don't play the Benoni against Kasparov, who is most definitely a Benoni Slayer!
Roughed Up: Benoni Expert John Nunn runs into the Kasparov Flick-Knife Attack on a particularly mean day, and the consequences are not pleasant for the English GM.
Kasparov's web of tactics: A stunning game in which the World Champion-to-be produces a mass of complications, which eventually prove to much for the a fighting Korchnoi.
Lev Psakhis
The Ex-Soviet Champion who now represents Israel has done much to popularise the Modern Benoni in the last twenty years. His own score of 27 wins, 19 draws and only 4 losses (73%) puts him up there with the best. His rating performance of 2637 also compares favourably to his average rating at the time of 2566.
Easy as Pie: This collection wouldn't be complete without a victory by Benoni hero Lev Psakhis. This is one of his easier outings.
Veselin Topalov
Bulgarian GM Topalov represents the new generation of Benoni players, and his results of +7,=7,-2 (rating performance 2740) shows that the Modern Benoni is still a viable weapon at the highest levels.
Can you get away with 8...Nbd7?: This is the big question all Black players must ask themselves. If you can, then White suddenly has much more to deal with in the Flick-Knife.
Topalov's Total Tactics: Acrazy game in which Topalov sacrifices a rook in orcer to keep White's king stuck in the centre
Slaughter Down the h-file: Chess prodigy Ettiene Bacrot becomes the youngest member of the Benoni Slayers Club.
Stuck in the Middle: A game which sees Van Wely grab lots of early material, but pay the price of neglecting his king safety. Topalov's energetic play is very refreshing indeed.