8.e5 isn't all that bad YKW, I think White has good chances to equalize with accurate play

I think this move is theory here. The idea is that if white plays something else, like 9.O-O, then black continues ...a6 with tempo and can play b5. White's idea is to prevent b5->b4, which is a space gaining (and e4-pawn threatening) maneuver in the Benoni.

Maybe I lied, I half-know some more theory, and a2-a4 if part of it. I believe the idea must be so that 9...a6 10. Bxx b5 isn't a threat as that is the normal queenside expansion that I'd want. Based on the short spoiler by Tex, I'm guessing he actually knows his way around this opening, so I'm glad I didn't go for 8...Nbd7.

I guess 9...a6 could still be a move to make here, but I'm a little scared of delaying castling especially with my knight pinned and king on the vulnerable e-file.

Natural move from black. I think black can also play 9...Qh4+ there, and 10.g3 looks like a reasonable response but I can't remember anything past that. Anyway, 10.Nf3 is probably the right move here. Prepares to castle and stops and Qh4 business, although I'm not sure if it's a good move or not. Anyway, I'm expecting probably 10...a6 here, I think that's what black usually plays.

Nb8-a6-c7 is the theory, not a6, you silly silly goose

damn it, forgot something in my last post

So, I went through 4 candidate moves here: 10...Re8, f5, a6, and Na6, more or less in that order.

1) 10...Re8. White's king is still in the center, so I hope I can attack it. However, 11. O-O solves that problem. I'm a little stuck for follow-up here, likely have to be 11...a6 or 11...Na6 as I'm rather cramped for much else. 11...f5 would almost be nice, but if 12. exf5 gxf5 and I'm a little unhappy to be exposing my king when I'm more cramped than my opponent. It just feels wrong to enter into another pin on e8 when I just got out of one, and since white probably wants to castle anyway, I'll save ...Re8 for later (but keep it in mind as I continue on).

2) So maybe can I force through 10...f5 now? Hmmm, A) 11. exf5 Rxf5 looks so wrong but I can't quite figure it out. Can he get away with 12. g4 planning on f4-f5 soon? B) 11. e5 dxe5 12. fxe5 Nxe5 loses a pawn for white and destroys his center, something I don't think the passed d-pawn fully compensates for. C) 11. O-O fxe4 12. Nxe4 Nf6. This doesn't look too bad as it takes away his ability to play e4-e5.

3) Another way of avoiding the pin from the LSB is 10...a6. I feel this looks familiar as the move theory approves of. I doubt he'd play 11. Bxd7 as that gives up the bishop pair on a board that's ripe for opening up, and reducing the total piece count is good for me as I'm the one with less space. So 11. Bc4 to protect d5 allowing for an eventual e4-e5, and also maybe discouraging ...f7-f5 as the LSB and my king would line up. Or 11. Bd3 to protect e4 and potentially discourage ...f7-f5. Or 11. Be2 to get the bishop out of the way with plans to redeploy it later as necessary.

In any of those cases, I'm still having trouble getting my pieces untangled as 11...Nf6 seems to run into e4-e5. Not that the e-pawn push is an auto-win for white, but I'd like to know that I get something out of allowing it. So let's see: 10...a6 11. B[somewhere] Nf6 12. e5 Re8 13. O-O dxe5 14. fxe5 Ng4 15. argh, seems good for black. Oh! If 11. Be2, then ...Re8 would not pin the pawn to the white king, so white can play Bf4 and hold onto the pawn center I think, and then g4 is not a safe place for my knight once white moves the Nf3 out of the way of bishop-queen battery.

4) Finally, 10...Na6. I would be happy with 11. Bxa6 bxa6 as giving up a bishop and reducing the overall piece count is good for me as mentioned before. Also, the open b-file would be nice for me. So instead, 11. O-O? I'm actually not sure where I want my knight -- c7 or b4. On the one hand, c7 attacks the Bb5 as well as the d5 pawn and e6 square, and supports a pawn push to b5 at some point, but does get in the way of my queen getting to the queenside. On the other hand, b4 is a safe outpost from which the knight can help invade white's position (maybe eventually something like Qc7, c5-c4, and then Nb4-d3, for instance).

One reason I'm attracted to 10...Na6 is that if I play it now, I can then play ...a7-a6 after the knight moves away, but I can't play the knight to a6 if I put the pawn there first. I know I haven't worked out any concrete line here, but this 'feels' right and I'm not seeing anything tactically wrong with it. It's a move I know you make in the Benoni sometimes.

Sorry all, I'm just trying to out-analyze Tex. That's the real game, the chess game is just a tool.

I wasn't expecting Na6, but it makes perfect sense. Black's plan is the usual Na6->c7 and then a6 and b5. Pretty straightforward and solid. I'm thinking castling has to be the right idea here. Things are going to get interesting soon and I want my king safe before undertaking any action. After he plays Nc7 next, I'll decide on where to park the bishop. I'm never quite sure which square is best so I'll sleep on it and give it some thought.

Tex is moving quickly and using short spoilers, which makes me think that we're still in established theory (so 10...Na6 was 'correct') and that Tex knows this theory (but why? who plays this opening against him so that he knows this stuff?). Eh, enough head games, on to the moves!

I think it's time to move that knight off of a6 so I can play my pawn to a6 so I can expand on the queenside and comfortably put my rook on e8 without tying my knight down to the d7-square. As I already discussed, 11...Nc7 is a bit cramping, something I'm not sure I can afford. And 11...Nb4 instead seems to be the aggression I need when playing this opening. Hopefully it doesn't become a useless and trapped knight. I feel I've seen the knight come here in some variations of the Benko Gambit, so it would be reasonable that the idea works here as well.

Let's do a little analysis to see if white can still force in e4-e5. 11...Nb4 12. Re1 a6 13. Bc4 Re8 and I think I'm ok. In the future, I may play ...b6 and ...Bb7. Or maybe ...Nf6 and ...Bg4.

Nb4 seems much worse than Nc7 to me. Yes, it plants the knight on a nice square, but it doesn't help black ideas much.. However, somehow I am still not a big fan of white's position here. I still maintain my opinion that if you go f4, you gotta go e5 else, just play the safer Bd3 and h3 lines.. but then again, a lot of good players play this as white so it has to be pretty good.

So what is black's plan after Nb4? After Nc7 it's easy, b6, Rb8, a6, b5, etc. Here it might be really hard to get b5 in.. On the other hand, I don't see how white can prepare e5 either. Weird position

doesn't seem like very convincing refutation of 10...f5. but 11. Ng5 does look like an extremely strong response.

I have some vague recollections of Kasparov-Nunn in Lucerne(?) reaching a position like this. Word of warning - it didnt turn out well for Black!

Is c4/Nd3 ever a possibility? That might be insane; I do know that c4 is sometimes an idea, but in these lines?

black usually tries to put pressure on the e pawn and sometimes plays Nxe4 (after Be3) due to the hanging pieces on the e file. also, after Nc7, b6 is actually a bit of a wasted move, as after a6(instead of b6) Kh1 Rb8, a5 doesn't stop b5, as axb6 ep Nxb6 is okay for black

Well, that was unexpected. Like I mentioned last post, I thought black was going for a Nb8->a6->c7 setup to push b5, but apparently that's not the case. If this is a book move then I am most definitely out of theory here and on my own. Time to take a couple of minutes to break down the move.

My gut feeling is that it's too early to put the knight on b4. I'm not exactly sure what it does other than allow black to play a6 next move, which is what I'm thinking he'll play (of course we've seen how good I was at guessing his reply last move). But I need to put aside my initial bias and see if this is actually a good move or not.

On the plus side, it puts the knight on an advanced square, allows black to play a6 to kick the bishop, and keeps pressure on d5 in case white tries to push e5, which is a common idea in the Benoni.

As for negatives, it commits the knight to that square very early where it might not be optimal and pretty much rules out a b5 push which seems to be a good source of counterplay for black in these positions. Also, once black's knight on d7 moves, pressure on e5 will be lessened which could make a later e5 push by white easier to achieve.

Another thing to note is that black isn't putting any pressure on the e4 pawn, which is a key point in white's position. Most other times I've played against the Benoni black tries to put pressure down the e-file, but that isn't happening here. Not sure how that will affect the rest of the game, just an observation.

In general, spots like this are a leak in my game. What I mean is I struggle in positions where I have a vague idea of what I want to do, but there's nothing immediately forcing for either side so it's sort of like this nebulous grey area in my mind.

After much thought, I've decided to play 12.Re1. I feel like this move does several things. It develops the rook to a better square, prepares an e5 push at some point, protects e4, and even opens up the f1 square for a bishop retreat (and potential re-maneuver with Bb5->f1, then g3, then Bg2) if necessary. I also sort of arrived at this move by a process of elimination. I don't want to retreat the b5 bishop without making black spend a tempo on a6, I'm not sure where the queen and c1 bishop will go, and the white knights are nicely placed. I don't want to get caught in the trap of just lazily putting pieces on natural-looking squares (like Re1), but at this point I don't feel like the position is defined enough for me to play other, more committal moves. Could be wrong though if I see a flurry of spoilers

For those curious about the Nb4 idea, I found a few 2400-2500 rated players who've used it multiple times. Here is one game that should be about as "typical" as possible of both sides' plans, as both players are just shy of 2500 with experience in the Nb4 line of this opening (Ippolito has had the white side of this position after 11. ... Nb4 on at least 5 occasions, while Sevillano has had the black side of the same position at least 3 times): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1644157

Ha. But 12.Re1 can't be bad.

Actually, I look at this position and instead try to make 12.f5 work. Can anyone enlighten me?

Well, I think my main candidate here is 12...a6, preparing for queenside expansion, making e8 a safe square, and keeping the knight from b5 which I could see as potentially annoying at some point. If 13. Bd3, then I think 13...Nxd3 is called for, or maybe 13...Qc7 to support the e5 square and a c5-c4 push. 13. Be2 looks weird, blocking the rook from the e-file it just moved onto. 13. Bf1 is possible but doesn't seem to do much, the bishop is passive there. I could play 13...Re8 in response to any of these I think.

12...a6 13. Bc4 feels most likely. Then 13...Re8 holds back the e-pawn, but also 13...Nb6 to harass the bishop looks intriguing -- 14. Bb3 c4 15. Bc2 and maybe 15...Bg4? The threat is ...Bxf3 as it has to be met with gxf3 else Qxf3 ...Nxc2 wins a rook. So possibly 13. Bc4 Nb6 14. b3, but that looks risky as it ... nevermind, 14...Bxc3 wins there. I'm actually liking this ...Nb6.

There's also 12...a6 13. Bxd7 Bxd7 14. e5 dxe5 15. fxe5 and 15...Bg4 with a threat similar to the above paragraph? Let's run it out a bit: 15. fxe5 Bg4 16. d6, ummm, 16...Bxf3 17. gxf3 seems to help white as the pawn can be played to f4 next, supporting e5. So instead, 16...Re8 17. Bf4? I wonder if here, and in other positions, I can play 17...c4 for 18...Nd3 and ...Nxe5? Actually, just noticed that from d3, the knight forks the e1 rook and the f4 bishop, so this seems to work.

Another choice is to immediately oppose his rook with my own. 12...Re8 13. Bxd7 Bxd7 14. e5 dxe5 15. fxe5 Bg4 16. Bf4 bleh. Oh, I think 16...c4 works here like above. Need to also look at 12...Re8 13. e5 dxe5 14. fxe5 and it seems I'll need to play 14...a6 15. Bxd7 Bxd7 transposing to a 12...a6 line.

What about 12...Qc7? 13. e5 dxe5 14. fxe5 Nxe5 15. Bf4 Nxf3+ 16. Qxf3 Qd8 17. d6 is looking very uncomfortable despite being a pawn up. I'm being cut up by the bishops, that d6 pawn is a pain, his rook is on the open e-file, and the other rook is free to move in too. There is always 12...Qc7 13. e5 a6 with me planning on NOT playing ...dxe5, but 14. Bxd7 Bxd7 15. e6 fxe6 16. dxe6 Bc6 17. Ng5 or something is starting to look bad.

So I guess 12...a6 wins the race. Congrats.

ETA: Oh, I forgot, I also looked for a moment at 12...f5, but after 13. e5 it seems I get the same positions as before except I spent a tempo on getting a pawn to f5, which serves to open up my king more and prevent ...Bg4, so I don't like it.

Finally, guessed right for once. The way I look at this, I see three main retreat squares: c4, e2, and f1. I'm ruling out Bd3 because I don't want to allow a trade of that bishop which is often very annoying for black in the Benoni because it can pressure the weak f7 square and help force through an e4->e5->e6 push. I'm also ruling out Bxd7. I might be confused, but I actually think I've seen some lines in this opening (not this exact position, but a similar one) where white plays Bxd7 in a situation like this because the knight can be a very useful piece. I've never been a big fan of giving up a bishop like that so early in the game, plus I feel like here it would really help black untangle. He could probably even play Rb8 and then b5 with the bishop on d7. Plus, as it stands now, he's going to have to figure out what to do with that knight on d7

Here are my thoughts on the various retreat squares.

1) c4 - I like this retreat a lot, and intuitively this is the move I like the most. From c4 the bishop supports d5 and can support a later e5->e6 push which can be really dangerous. On the negative side, it can be vulnerable to a timely Nb6. But in this position, I don't think that's much of an issue. Black can't play b5, so he'd be forced to play Nb6 without pushing b5 first, which pretty much puts the knight on a road to nowhere I think. So playing Bc4, daring black to play Nb6, seems reasonable.

2) e2 - A retreat to e2 makes some sense as well. I'm envisioning some retreat to e2, followed by Nd2->c4 and Bf3 which would make for a favorable time to push e5. Unfortunately that's time consuming and I don't know if it's really achievable. The downside that I don't like about the bishop on e2 is that it clogs the e-file and feels like it gets in the way of white's other pieces.

3) f1 - Could be another fairly time consuming maneuver, but the idea would be to play g3, Bg2, and then push e5 through at some important moment. Again, this will take a lot of time and I'm not sure if it's the idea placement for the bishop.

I think I'm going with Bc4. From c4, the bishop is well placed for any real central action. If the bishop provokes Nb6 and puts the knight on what looks like a poor square, then I can retreat the bishop somewhere else and go from there. But for now I think that looks like the most promising placement.

Still not 100% sure what I want to do yet with the position, but I'll see what black does and go from there.

3) f1 - Could be another fairly time consuming maneuver, but the idea would be to play g3, Bg2, and then push e5 through at some important moment. Again, this will take a lot of time and I'm not sure if it's the idea placement for the bishop.

Actually I quite liked this move since it gets the B out of the way and allows White to continue to build up e5 in comfort.

Yay, it's always nice when he plays the move I considered most likely. But now what to do... White is still threatening e4-e5, and my f5 or b5 pawn breaks seem ineffective at the moment. So I can play 13...Re8 to stop the e-pawn, but then if 14. a5, what do I do? I feel unable to maneuver my pieces to good squares from here.

Then there is the move I considered just before, 13...Nb6. White has several possible responses:

1) 14. Ba2. Certainly 14...Nxa2 15. Rxa2 is possible and it's nice to get that bishop while displacing the rook, but can I hold against e4-e5? 15...Re8 16. e5 dxe5 17. fxe5 Bg4 18. Bf4 Nc4 I think is ok. Also possible is 14...c4, oh, no, because then 15. a5 Nd7 16. Bxc4. What about 14...a5 15. e5 dxe5 16. fxe5 c4? Then 17. d6 and 17...Bg4 with plans of ...Re8 and ...Nd3 is maybe ok, or 17. e6 fxe6 18. dxe6 Qxe1 19. Rxe1 Bxe6 20. Rd6 seems to fork Be6 and Nb6, so maybe not so good. And 17. e6 N4xd5 18. exf7+ Rxf7 19. Nxd5 Nxd5 20. Bxc4 also looks not so good. So maybe that's a no to 14...a5.

2) 14. Bb3 c4 15. Ba2 or Bc2, and I guess I can play NxB like above, or 15...a5 to hold the knight on b6 so it can support c4. Then 16. e5 dxe5 17. fxe5 N4xd5 18. Nxd5 Nxd5 19. Bxc4 (if 15. Ba2) should be fine I think.

3) 14. Be2 or Bf1 and then 14...a5 so that 15. e5 dxe5 16. fxe5 loses a pawn to Nxd5.

4) 14. Bd3 c4 and this should transpose to some line from above. Really just getting a headache from staring at all these similar positions and trying to visualize the pawns that seem to be moving and getting captured so much.

5) 14. Qe2 Nxc4 15. Qxc4 Nc2 wins the exchange.

So I think 13...Nb6 all looks fine enough, and it clears the way for my LSB, and if I don't play it now white can prevent it with a4-a5.