Estragon wrote:
White was clueless. 2 d5 should lead to an easy advantage for him.
The defect of the Old Benoni move order is that White hasn't played c2-c4, and can just omit that move and play Nc3 directly, effectively gaining a full tempo in development which makes Black's position very difficult.
I agree that d5 negates the usefulness of 1. ...c5. I guess it only works well if white 2. xc5. On the other hand, 2. d5 does complicate things. In fact, I'll have to check if I have ever won with 2. d5 as black, but my record with 2. xc5 is solid.
New back to chess and first time student of the game (less than a year on both counts), I am trying to develop both opening knowledge and an opening repertoire. I have been experimenting with gambits of bishops pawns (KG as white, for example) and thinking hard about how to parlay this general understanding to black responses to d4. So here is an Old Benoni game I tried and I think highlights some of the dangers for white in accepting the offered queen's bishop's pawn instead of an 2. e5. My general impression is that the lead in dev is significant (just look at lines 5-10). the opportuity to prevent white castling were a nice bonus, but does this come up often? I am playing against a player who is rated bettwr than I by >100, but am even with on games (better lucky than good). Thoughts? Has anyone used old Benoni or Benko much?