Now White's 'normal' move here is 11 Qd3, but in the game Aronian - Palac, European Team Ch, Gothenburg 2005, the former world junior champion came up with the paradoxical 11 Qd1!?, which I believe was the brainchild of the St. The Classical Variation with 4.d5 often leads to very sharp positions, one of which arises after the moves 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 d5 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 Qxc3 Ne4 7 Qc2 c5 8 dxc5 Nc6 9 Nf3 Qa5+ 10 Nd2 Nd4: The game J.Rogers-Ward, English Club Championship Final 2005 is in fact the first 'known' black win in the line, but this doesn't necessarily mean that all Black's problems are solved. It could easily be called the Epishin Variation, because Epishin has played it at least four times (four wins!) and with that type of success rate it is unsurprising that one or two others are having a go. To me it just looks too crude to really be the refutation of 7.a6, but no concrete easy way to equality has yet been discovered for Black. White's idea is to exploit Black's lagging development with a very quick e4-e5. Is fast becoming a bit of a pain in the backside for 7.a6 devotees. The line 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 c4 c5 4 d5 d6 5 Nc3 exd5 6 cxd5 g6 7 e4 a6 8 Qe2: a6 and only then decide on a queen retreat, although doing so does require one to understand the typical themes and positions arising from both variations. Qe7 lines, especially when White opts for Bd3, but the retreat to d8 is holding up well. Much remains to be discovered after it, and Black does gain some pretty thematic Benoni counterplay. Qh4+ remains a good counter to the Taimanov Attack. This is a crafty move order which exploits the fact that an exchange on d7 isn't especially problematic for Black. In these two games we'll also study 9.a6!?: Should Black not be convinced that e7 is the best square for the queen (it's currently slightly the more popular choice) then he can prefer 10.Qd8, when the queen can head to a5 or to c7, and we'll consider that approach in McEntee - Casella, Las Vegas 2004 and Carlsen - Lie, Molde 2004. On e7 Black's queen targets the e-pawn, although Black must be careful as here the queen can be vulnerable to an e4-e5. In Lautier - Abergel, French League 2004 and Koepcke - Sevillano, Las Vegas 2005 we consider 10 g3 Qe7. Furthermore, the white kingside has been weakened and thus Black's often-problematic light-squared bishop is able to find a good square on g4 or h3. A crafty way to force that through is with the important manoeuvre Bd2-e1-g3, but that is no longer possible here after 10 g3 (10 Kf1 disrupts White's development, isn't too dangerous and remains pretty rare). In the Taimanov Attack White aims to complete his development while restraining any counterplay, and he can then prepare the e5-advance. The queen check is actually quite logical. We reach the critical position after 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 e4 g6 7 f4 Bg7 8 Bb5+ Nfd7 9 a4 Qh4+: However, there have been some new developments after the queen check and we'll consider those in the next four games. It's true that this particular line hasn't especially caught on, quite possibly because many still enter the Benoni only via 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 c5. Qh4+ĩ.Qh4+ in the critical Taimanov Attack was John Watson's suggestion in his inspirational 2001 Gambit Guide to the Modern Benoni. Remember, if you have any opinions, ideas or questions, please either make yourself heard at the Forum (the link above on the right) or subscribers can email me at PGN of July '05 Nimzo and Benoni games
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