Benoni Defense: Worth it?

the is only one variation of the benoni thats good and thats the benko gambit as it doesnt lose by force of course the benoni is a great opening in blitz and in 10 minute chess but anything else such as thirty minutes bad opening

Inaccessible , weak and overly wild with white mostly being better . I don't think so .

1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 c5 4.d5 d6 5.Nc3 cxd5 6.cxd5 is how I would reach a Modern Benoni but :

(a) Not likely to happen

(b) White has space advantage on queenside and center which is hard to compensate for

(c) King is open

(d) Looks very dry from Black perspective

Hi!

I think it is worth if you like it.

I play sometimes similar positions mainly coming from the King´s Indian and they are not easy but fun. You reach quite tactical play and you need to know some theory especially the variation you showed.

Good luck!

its worth it if its a 10 minute game or less but in higher time controls such as 20 or 30 or higher your just ruining your chances since your opponent will have either a winning or superoier positionin the first 11 moves

the slav-wall is the ANTITHESIS of tactical! I DESPISE IT! I quit playing chess over it because I couldn't find the AWESOME englund gambit hartlaub charlick variation. now THAT is tactical!

you can't play tactics in a straightjacket and you aren't ever going to beat anyone in under 20 with it unless they blunder REALLY REALLY bad

I was looking into the OLD benoni which is considered tactical, but I despise fianchettos, so NOPE (for ME)

looking at the stats, snake benoni looks a bit unsound

thats why you gave up on chess patheic

when you're stuck in a hole with no way out, and no one will listen and make a CORRECT tree based book editor... YEAH... chess was no longer fun KNOWING if only I could find GAMBITS and STUDY THEM, I could improve.

I will not play fianchettos. that's the ONLY THING anyone suggests against 1.d4 for tacticians.

at the time, there was NO SOLUTION to my problem. there weren't youtube gambit videos then either, and I got sick and tired of begging trolls such as yourself for help that wasn't forthcoming.

I DESPISE CLOSED POSITIONS

5...cxd5 is impossible in the indian defense anti nimzo indian (5...exd5?), but the variation is better performing than the snake

old benoni kicks some butt (gambit style, apparently, at +1.4 eval)!

VERY NICE stats, especially for black. there's your benoni advantage. that must be why I was most interested in the old b. after the 5.e4 Bg5 "main line", black is doing even BETTER at 40:55 in the main line with an improved +0.9 eval

I see czech benoni is considered passive, but it gets great stats in the main line

that is a MONSTER main line at 59% winning by move 6 AS BLACK!

Hi!

The Modern Benoni was played by World Champions Tal, Fisher and Kasparov so I think you need to be a very tactical player to succeed with it. It is a complicated opening I would not recommend it to everyone but to advanced players.

The Pawn Storm Taimanov line is rather dangerous, still looks playable:

Good luck!

I think the Benoni is best as one of those openings that one plays against the anti-Nimzo, similar to the BID, QID, and QGD, or as a transposition from the Catalan or KID. The Taimanov has a nasty reputation, but just like everything else in chess, White only gets a slight advantage if Black knows all of their lines, that being said, I believe the NID is far stronger, and why learn lines that only work against the Nimzo move order when one can simply play the Nimzo?