An ambitious setup against the Benoni

The Benoni Defence is an active opening for Black and it is one which is enjoying a comeback. White players have always found it difficult to tame the opponent's dynamics in positions where Black can fall back on his active pieces and the queenside pawn majority. The topic of this 60 minute video clip is the major idea of the 8.h3 0-0 9.Bd3 line (after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.Nf3 Bg7). It has not won much love among defenders of the Benoni - White players are coming dangerously close to realising the dream of squeezing the opponent. Meeting the promising setup is a matter of heated on-going dispute as not every player is happy with Black's main line with the immediate 9…b5. Well prepared lovers of the Benoni can still find ways of coming close to equality, but the initiative remains firmly in the hand of White. Slovakian GM Lubomir Ftacnik presents all the important ideas of the defence and reveals ways of putting pressure on Black. Anybody looking for a solid, promising and well defined opening system against the Benoni will find lots of carefully selected information. All Black's key defensive ideas are analysed, evaluated and supplemented with a database with the most important games.