A Detailed Guide to the Old Benoni

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The Benoni is one of the most popular, most interesting, most aggressive, and, at the same time, riskiest defenses black could choose to play against d4. For an introduction to the opening, watch this video on the basics:    • Introduction to the Benoni Defense  

Its name has come from the Hebrew term “Ben Oni”, meaning son of sorrow, which depicts the defense perfectly. It can lead to quick, interesting wins, but it can also horribly backfire and you could get punished very quickly.

The Old Benoni is the least popular, but still very interesting way to play a Benoni type position. It comes with its own pros and cons, as every variation does.

What is the Old Benoni? Well, the theoretical definition is playing c5 on move one, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be true. The reason for that is that black (and white) are able to avoid playing the Old Benoni position and can deviate at several points.

The Old Benoni is a position in which black plays all the normal Benoni plans with g6, Bg7, pawn on c5, playing for b5, but he doesn’t push his e pawn to e6 (or e5). The consequence of that is that the d6 pawn, the biggest weakness in the opening is still defended by the e7 pawn! That is a huge difference because it will not need babysitting for the whole game.

The downside of not playing e6 and opening up the e file, is that black will not be able to exert pressure along it with his rook(s) and queen.

A big advantage for black is that starting with 1...c5 is flexible. You give white the option to go wrong early on with several neat traps which can occur if he doesn’t play precisely, and you can still transpose to the Benko, Modern or Czech if you wish to do so.

Playing the Old Benoni either way is fine. Use it as a move order confusion to get white out of prep, or play it properly without moving your e pawn!

#chess