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Learn Benoni defense - from a live chess lesson
Aleksandar Randjelovic

Learn Benoni defense - from a live chess lesson

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The video is made of an online live chess lesson, featuring a student with around 1900/2000 ChessCom/Lichess rating points, whose fascinating voice and comments add a special flavor to the session in general.

By watching the video, you can learn the basic ideas and plans of the Benoni Defense (Modern Benoni). Originally meant to be a lesson that tends to emphasize the importance of understanding the pawn structure, this Benoni sequence is only a prelude to the main discussion which moves into the Nimzo- and Queen's Indian defense pawn structure. However, the other part of the session (Nimzo- and Queen's Indian defense pawn structures) will probably be shown in another video in the future.

Content of the lesson:

  • How to get into Modern Benoni?
  • Discussing Benoni pawn structure
  • How to develop minor pieces?
  • Black's pawn expansion on the queenside
  • White's pawn break in the center (e4-e5)
  • Trading the c8-bishop for the f3-knight
  • Should Black move g6-g5 to stop f2-f4?
  • Black uses the dark-squares (e5 & d4)
  • Is black King in danger after g6-g5?
  • Is solidifying e4 with f2-f3 good for White?
  • White plan - attack the weakness (d6-pawn)!
  • How to install b7-b5 (for Black)?
  • Doubled a-pawns (...Na6, Bxa6 bxa6)

Overall, the order of the content could've been better organized, but I guess this is still OK knowing that this was a live lesson, and not a pre-organized video content.

I've been experimenting with various formats, and - although there are some serious drawbacks - faceless videos are the easiest to make. The usual number of hours it takes to make a 12-min video is 50 (in my case), while for this (faceless) one the process goes down to only 20, which is probably acceptable (taking into account that the channel is far from developed or popular, currently with around 1800 subscribers).

Let me know what you think, and - in case you'd want to help my channel grow and tease me to work harder (and post videos more often) - consider doing one of the following:

  • watch the video to the end
  • like the video
  • leave a comment on Youtube
  • share the link when the context is suitable

Those actions may help the video to get more viewers on Youtube when someone types "Benoni defense" or similar.

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