I've been having some trouble against the Benko in a couple of recent games, and since it is said (paraphrasing a little here) that if you lose three consecutive games in the same opening, you should give up chess, I thought I'd try to make a thread about the subject to avoid that. Since at least one other person was interested, I thought I'd kick off a discussion.
Really, this is more about the Benko middlegame than the opening, since looking back I didn't play the opening that badly, so I'll put in a couple of different opening options that I found reasonable.
The main problem is that Black's plan is just so much clearer than White's and so I'm spending a lot of energy (and time, which is already a problem) without making noticeable progress (and then eventually giving the pawn back to reach an inferior endgame well behind on the clock). Mainly, I'm looking for insight into where White's pieces belong.
One final remark -- I'm reaching these positions from an early Nf3 move order. I know that 30% of you will think that this is terrible and the reason for all of my troubles. It's hard for me to avoid this without a very serious overhaul of my repertoire, though.
Variation I -- White Castles By Hand
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 c5 4.d5 b5 5.cxb5 a6 6.bxa6 Bxa6 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.e4 Bxf1 9.Kxf1 d6 10.g3 0-0 11.Kg2 Nbd7
This all makes sense to me. You'll see from this (and the next line I'll mention) that I'm not comfortable with Black targeting d3, so I prefer to play this way, and just get rid of the bishops, or keep the pawn on e2. The question is: what now? Black has a few obvious plans (as I see it): put major pieces on a/b files, shuffle the knights around to put one on e5, and play e6. I, on the other hand, don't know whether White should play h3 (to prevent Ng4), wait for Ng4-e5 and play f4 (but doesn't that weaken the king and encourage f5?), and definitely don't know where any of the pieces belong.
Variation II -- White Sticks with e2
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 c5 4.d5 b5 5.cxb5 a6 6.bxa6 Bxa6 7.Nc3 Bg7 8.g3 d6 9.Bg2 Nbd7 10.0-0 Nb6
Similar comments as to before, except here, Black works to make the most of White avoiding e4, but playing quickly against d5. Black can force e4 by playing something like Bb7, but that's something of a waste of time...I think.
Of course, playing 5.Qc2 lines or 6.b6 lines is possible. But, come on now, that can't really be better than taking the pawn, can it? And there may be more modern ways of meeting the gambit (but do they work with an early Nf3?) which I will be interested in learning from you.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!