Russ I cannot be bothered looking at The Benko. I don’t play it.
The opening moves of the Benko. are 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5
White takes the pawn on b5 (4 cxb5) and Black plays 4...a6.
As White I would not take the a6 pawn. That is what Black wants and they will be
booked up to eye lids on it. So I suggest we don’t play 5.bxa6 but 5.Nc3 instead.
There are two well known traps in this line. RHP players have fell for both of them,
rsand2 - blither RHP 2007
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. Nc3 {The move I like.} 5... axb5 6. e4 b4 7. Nb5 {And if Black plays...} 7... Nxe4 {....they lose a piece.} 8. Qe2 {If 8....f5 then 9.f3. 8...Nf6 9.Nd6 mate.} 8... Nxf2 {Black realised they cannot move this Knight and hopes this distracts White.} 9. Nd6 {No. It’s checkmate.}
The other trap. This time it is for Black and it is White’s turn to lose a piece.
Novaboy - bagger RHP 2003
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. Nc3 axb5 6. Nxb5 {Better is 6.e4 but this is OK.} 6... Ba6 {White should drop the Knight back to c3.} 7. e3 {Looks plausible but...} 7... Bxb5 8. Bxb5 Qa5+ {Black wins a piece 0-1.}
To take this further I thought we would look at the game between the Irish player
Tim O’Shenko and the English player Michael Adams. They have met twice and...
These two have met twice, both times Adams was Black and the Benko was played.
In the first game Adams played a suspicious 7th move but got away with it and won.
In the second game, played one year later, the Russian was waiting for Adams to
make the same 7th move but in this game (the one we look at it) Adams deviated first.
G. Timoshchenko - M. Adams, London, 1992
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 {The Benko trademark.} 4. cxb5 a6 {And instead of the heavily analysed 5.bxa6 we look at...} 5. Nc3 {Which also has a fair amount of theory attached to it but you skip the mainline.} 5... axb5 6. e4 Qa5 {Quite a rare move. 6.b4 Nb5 is the usual continuation.} 7. e5 {In the first game here Adams played 7...Ne4. I think it's OK but other have tagged it as ?!} 7... b4 8. Nb5 Ne4 {In the first game this Knight managed to swapped itself for a Bishop. Here is it loose.} 9. Bc4 Ba6 10. Qd3 b3+ {Setting up a cute trick but White has judged the coming position as better for him.} 11. Ke2 {The obvious 11.Bd2 would allow 11...Nxd2. The e4 Knight will fall.} 11... Bxb5 12. Bxb5 Qxa2 {Nice and but it does appear to be forced else Black losses a piece.} 13. Rxa2 bxa2 14. Qxe4 a1=Q 15. Nf3 {The smoke clears. Black is the exchange up but White a lead in the Big D. Game on.} 15... Qa5 16. Bc4 e6 {Centre nibbling and trying to tempt the pawn to d6 so the b8 Knight can get out.} 17. Rd1 {Meanwhile White is bringing into play all his bits and pieces.} 17... Be7 18. Bg5 {Preventing Black from castling. 18....Bxg5 19 Nxg5 h6 20,Nxf7!} 18... Ra7 {Black wants to activate their Queen. This Rook has to move from a8 first.} 19. Bxe7 Kxe7 20. Ng5 Qb4 21. Qf4 {White ignores the check on b2 and is ready to hit the weak spots.} 21... f6 {A mistake in a very difficult position to defend if indeed it can be saved.} 22. exf6+ {White now blasts their way in.} 22... gxf6 23. d6+ Ke8 24. Qxf6 {White can allow the Bishop to go with a check,} 24... Qxc4+ {Without waiting for White's reply Black resigned. Mate on e7 cannot be stopped.}
Back on move 18.Bg5 (Black to play)
Timoshchenko gives a wonderful variation in Informator 55 which
I have dug out to show what can happen if Black had played 18...h6.
Remember that all of this would have been crafted without a computer.
So here we acknowledge the blood and sweat that went into this line.
FEN
rn2k2r/3pbppp/4p3/q1pPP3/2B1Q3/5N2/1P2KPPP/2BR4 w kq - 0 18
[FEN "rn2k2r/3pbppp/4p3/q1pPP3/2B1Q3/5N2/1P2KPPP/2BR4 w kq - 0 18"] 18. Bg5 {In the actual game Adams now played 18...Ra7.} 18... h6 19. Bxe7 Kxe7 20. dxe6 {if dxe6 then Qb7+} 20... fxe6 21. Qh4+ Kf8 {Timoshchenko does gives wins for alternatives but this line is the most attractive.} 22. Ng5 Qb4 23. Nxe6+ dxe6 24. Qd8+ Kf7 25. Qc7+ {if Kg8 then Rd8+ and Bd3+ etc.} 25... Kg6 26. Bd3+ Kh5 27. Qf7+ Kh4 28. g3+ Kh3 29. Qh5+ Kg2 30. Qf3+ Kh3 {Now g4+ mates quicker, g4+ Qg3+ and h4 mate. But we are treated too...} 31. Kf1 {With the charming idea of Kg1 and Bf1 checkmate 1-0.}
One of the great things about doing this blog is fishing for a position or a situation
( I was looking for a lone Knight mating a King and a Rook’s Pawn in the corner.)
and just when I thought I’d seen every kind of blunder on a chessboard RHP finds
another. This one is incredible, totally unexpected and I’m sorry ...I had to laugh.
First the lone Knight checkmate in the corner I was looking for.
irishgreen - iosebah RHP 2011
FEN
8/8/8/8/p7/2KN4/k7/8 w - - 0 1
[FEN "8/8/8/8/p7/2KN4/k7/8 w - - 0 1"] 1. Kc2 {Black should now play 1...Ka3.} 1... Ka1 {Now White can force a checkmate.} 2. Nb4 {The Black King cannot move.} 2... a3 {Only move.} 3. Kc1 {Freeing c2 for the Knight and keeping the King imprisoned.} 3... a2 {Only move.} 4. Nc2 {Checkmate.}
And now we look what else I found.
Aleshka54 - Arayn RHP 2022 (Black to play)
White has just played a5-a6 and Black should now play 1...Nd8 to answer 2. a7 with
2...Nc6+ and 3...Nxa7 a draw. Instead we saw 1...Kc7 expecting White to play axb7.
White, wide-eyed and cheerful slide the pawn past the Knight and played 2. a7 1-0.
OOPS! I nearly forgot this weeks puzzle. This is from Alexander’s Book ‘Chess Positions.’
Matokhine - Kuzmine USSR 1970.
Black to play and win. I’ll show a picture of the book cover and then the solution.
FEN
8/5p1k/4p1p1/3p2K1/3P1Q1P/P4P2/7q/8 b - - 0 1
[FEN "8/5p1k/4p1p1/3p2K1/3P1Q1P/P4P2/7q/8 b - - 0 1"] 1... f6+ {1...Kxf6 2.Qxf4+ The Black King has to stay protecting Queen. 1....Qxf6 2.Qg3 mate..} 2. Kg4 Qg2+ 3. Qg3 {Only move.} 3... f5+ 4. Kf4 {The White King must stay next to the White Queen.} 4... e5+ {The key move. White is forced to put a pawn e5.} 5. dxe5 Qd2 {Checkmate!}
