Franco-Benoni Defense

Hello,

I was interested in learning more about the opening e4, e6, d4, c5.  I know it can transition into different sicilians, but I was more interested in learning more about its entrance into the franco-benoni.

One part that has been difficult is that the majority of benoni openings that I can find involve having a e4 / d5 pawn structure rather than a the pawn structure that opens from the franco-benoni (mainly c4 / d5).

I was wondering if anyone had advice to find some general lines to help, or advice to differentiate the differences between the benoni openings.

Thank you!

i think the benoni covers positions where white plays d4 and replies d5 to c5. now black can play c5 on move 1 or later so there's a lot of variance here.

with 1 e4 e6 2 d4 c5 (or similarly 1 e4 c5 2 d4 e6 but a rarer move order) you invite a benoni, but one where white hasn't played c4 yet and he doesn't have to, and also where white hasn't played nf3 yet meaning he can play f4 first at some point.

if you are looking to cover all sensible setups for white here, you have a lot to digest. another concern is the very little room for error you have in the benoni, so it will not be forgiving of learning curves as much as other lines. it might frustrate you to get crushed by just making a few inaccurate moves.

if you still want to learn it, i don't object. just make sure to try and improve other areas of your game that have more overall utility like tactical play and endgame play, so that you can more effectively use what you learn from opening study.

as for lines, here are some:

i play the benoni, but i don't play all kinds of it. i prefer to avoid f4 lines

1 d4 nf6 2 c4 e6 and only if 3 nf3 c5 inviting a benoni where white doesn't have f4 anymore

lines where white doesn't play c4 ( at least not for a long time) are known as a schmidt benoni. i could be wrong about the name or i could be overgeneralizing. but the idea is to put a knight on c4 later, usually the king's knight via f3-d2. sometimes a bishop can be also good there but rarer.

the line where white plays f4 before nf3 is known as the flick knife attack as far as i can recall.  bb5+ is the idea and trying to get in e5 also. one of the sharpest that white can do. 

i did not give specific lines as you can easily find them online if you know the name of the variation, and likely you will find a better explanation that what i've come up with alongside.

Thank you for the reply!

Appreciate the help. I definitely see what you mean by one mistake being very unforgiving in this opening.  I'll have to try it out a little more to see if I should come back to it later or stick with it.

Thanks again!

I've played the Franco-Benoni at times, but I don't recommend it as anything more than a secondary transpositional weapon.