I forgot how to Benoni.

What can I say... Got barely out of the opening only to lose in a few more moves

Athough I play the Benoni now and then when my opponent refuses the Nimzo-Indian, I have no real knowledge of it - any Benoni players ?

But from what I can see :

9...Bc8 ? (undevelops) -> ...Qc7. Actually maybe even at move 8 ...Nbd7 was better with the idea that the queen on a4 prevents White to play a4, so Black can play his ...a6 - ...b5 without problems.

11...b6 is not very Benoni-like. The plan is ...a6-...b5, so I would rather take advantadge here of the fact White did not want to occupy e4 by ...Re8 followed by ...Bf5, in parallel to the ...a6/...b5 plan.

17...Be5 ? : I have no idea what Black's plan should be here, but certainly exchanging that strong bishop is not a good idea. Even if it's a "bad" bishop, he does a much better job than White's.

After that, once you lose a piece it's pretty much over... Nice try for a perpetual though (...Bxh3), I almost fell for it myself.

9... Qc7 leads to some complications after 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. Qxb7 ... I wanted to avoid this. My opponent pointed out the earlier inaccuracy that is 7. ... Bg7. Instead I should play ... a6. 8. ... Nbd7 hangs the e6 pawn?

And what comes to queenside play, I'm not so sure if it works so well here I mean, white is hitting hard on the b5 square and I really never got a chance to challenge him there.

I agree that Be5 was bad. The idea was to ease the pressure on the e6 pawn. But Ne5 would've been more challenging perhaps.

I had a look on the 9. ... Qc7 move in the game explorer and it does seem playable since white can't take on d6 because black gets advantage after 10. ... Qxd6 11. Qxb7 Qb6.

Guess I'll be better off with something less tricky from now on

I used to play the Benoni first but stopped playing it becoz i totally hated how hard it was to develop ur light squared bishop and queen's knight.Even the b5 break was not that dangerous after white played a5 and axb5.

If Black manages to play ...b5 before White has played a4 without sacrificing the pawn, he gets everything he want out of the Benoni.

But that's almost impossible.White always plays an early a4.

Oh sorry, I misread your previous comment as meaning that White would answer ...b5 with a4.

Yeah, when that fails the Benoni becomes hard to play... My score in the lines where I can't play ...b5 must be 30% or less.

Yeah.Black's counterplay in the benoni is entirely basedo n queenside expansion and if that fails and white manages to get in e5 it becomes really hard for black.