What is your opinion on the Benoni defense?

my opinion is that the Benoni is just fine. Don't over exaggerate the +1 for white. computers over value space. think of the KID and the Benoni as cousins. there are certain variations that transpose into each other. like all openings, there are certain ideas that both sides need to be aware of.

hate fianchettos. why does EVERYTHING against 1.d4 involve fianchettos?!!!

The Benoni defense, esp. the modern variation, is very difficult to achieve. Occasionally, as White, I get as far as playing c4 on the 2nd move. Or, as Black, I get as far as answering c4 with c5. But I cannot achieve the opening unless my opponent is interested in it. There are just too many possible combinations of the 1st 5 moves!

I'll tell you a fact, make any conclusion you like with it.

I went to lichess.org, trying to check out what's so wrong with the King's Indian that comp shows 0.8+ for White, in a very high depth it seems. So I made the moves, White playing the main line, continued it, comp playing for both White and Black. Eventually, the result is 0.0, after both sides sac. both their bishops on knights.

@1

"It’s +1 for white once you reach the modern Benoni" ++ Yes

"stick with the King’s Indian" ++ Both the Benoni and the King's Indian Defense are good to play for a win with black, but at great risk of losing.

"the Benoni seems risky, and it feels like it’s not that hard for white to see and play the best moves." ++ The same goes for the King's Indian Defense.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070932

When Fischer was trailing 0-2 to Spassky in their 1972 World Championship Match and thus had to win with black to stay in the match, his choice was the Benoni Defense. He did not dare to play the King's Indian Defense or the Grünfeld Indian Defense against Spassky fearing preparation. Apparently it was hard for World Champion Spassky as white to see and play the best moves.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044727

Hi

The modern variation is difficult to reach following ...1.NF6 in my experience. Ironically, most of the time I achieve the modern Benoni in my games is by transposition through the Old Benoni 1...c5. At least in my Elo range, very few of my opponents will opt to take the pawn, instead pushing to d5. After 2...nf6, you will most likely transpose into the modern.

Have you looked at the Old Indian Defense?

The themes for Black are very similar to those in the King's Indian Defense or the Old Benoni... but it doesn't involve any early fianchetto on the King's side, so White's Be3/Qd2/Bh6 and h2-h4-h5 attacks have no target to shoot at.

After Be7 and castles, Black can either (1) redeploy the Bishop back through f8 to a delayed fianchetto at g7 (as in a regular King's Indian or Benoni) but having already avoided White's most dangerous attacking lines against those openings; or (2) play Bg5 (backed up by the Queen on d8) and trade it off for White's much more useful dark-squared Bishop.

Note that because Black has avoided the g7-g6 weakening fianchetto move, instead retaining that Pawn on g7, he is free to trade off the dark-squared Bishops without worrying about weakening the f6 and h6 squares.

@10

Funny: in the Old Indian black plays ...Be7 and then ...Bf8.
In the King's Indian Defense black plays ...Bg7 and then ...Bf8.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1084375

Steinitz sometimes used to claim that the chess pieces are well posted on their original squares.

@12

Steinitz also invented the Bongcloud:
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1228294

The Sicilian Najdorf Polugaevsky variation must have been invented by a devotee of Steinitz, since Black tends to leave the QN and QB on their original b8 and c8 squares and instead develop the a8-Rook by moving all the Pawns off the second rank and playing Ra7 instead.

Back on topic: here is a recent Carlsen game with the Benoni

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2683165

The Benoni in its purest form is good for White.

Against certain White setups in the Kings Indian, transposing holiness that can also come from the Benoni are often best, but they avoid the bad lines for Black. 6...c5 against the Four pawns and the Saemisch are likely the best move.

Let's use the 4 pawns as an example.

Benoni - 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Nf3 O-O 9.Be2

Kings Indian - 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg4 4.e4 d6 5.f4 O-O 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Be2 exd5 9.cxd5

OK, so we have the same position. The problem with the Benoni move order that the KID does not have is the Flick-Knife Attack. In the Benoni line above, 8.Bb5+ is a problem for Black. In the KID, the White c-pawn is still on c4 and the Bishop cannot jump.

The Benko Gambit is better computer wise with best play than the Benoni. It has a lot of tactics in it like the Kings Gambit.

You can also transpose into a Benoni as well with a potentially better line.

Firstly it goes without saying that top grandmasters wouldn't still be playing the benoni in serious games if it was garbage and didn't get results tthat are highly competitive with other openings.

Another point that should be fairly obvious to people who know about chess is when you are playing for a win as black, you have to take a hit of the computer evaluation. You could go into the safest queen's gambit declined and the evaluation gives 0.2 the entire time, but by the end of it you have zero winning chances yourself. The Benoni is meant to force winning chances even more than the KID.

Now so you get "+1", what does that mean? Is stockfish going to play the rest of the game for you? No. Sometimes you have a position very easy to play for a computer but not for a human and you prefer the human position. For example the fried liver is easy for a computer but almost impossible for a human to hold, or holding onto a knight for a bishop as a last resort because the knight might get you a crucial fork against a human that saves an otherwise hopeless position. Also the evaluation throughout the variation at the start fluctuates from around 0.7 to 1.0 after in-depth analysis on the cloud. Computer evaluations often varies a lot between engines or even the same engine over the years. So no I would not worry about the evaluation.

My gut feeling is that the Benoni is far easier to play against than the King's Indian Defence, and it may be one of those openings that is better for GMs than typical players. Black has all kinds of tricks in the King's Indian that I'm sure the Benoni can be just as good at for the GMs, but it might be that KID is better for as Hikaru would call it cheesing. Also even the KID can be often played to a draw for top grandmasters while the drawing percentage for the Benoni is significantly smaller than in the KID so that could be another reason why they play it - people below grandmaster shouldn't really be concerned that the KID is too drawish. Again on't let me discourage you from playing the Benoni if you like it.

Theory and practice are not the same and the Modern Benoni is one of those openings that can be quite deceptive to the inexperienced. If you are studying with engines, always challenge the evaluations if the position is not clear to you. As far as I know, the Modern Benoni is still playable in correspondence chess at the highest levels where computer assistance is required to be competitive. Conventional wisdom seems to be that it is better through a Nimzo-Indian order to rule out the Flick-Knife Attack, but this still seems to be up for debate. Often when I am analyzing with the computer, I'll see the position will be evaluated around ~0.8 and then the computer gets "stuck" and starts repeating the top move until forced to avoid repetition. Typically, the evaluation will dissipate afterwards and then you have to determine if the advantage was real or an illusion. After a while you start to get a feel for positions when Black is completely OK, even if the engines give a slight advantage for White. The computers are a tool and the evaluations are not ultimate truth and subject to change. The Benoni is highly dynamic and it really tests the accuracy of engine evaluations.

From a practical perspective, I can say from experience that I have ruined many positions with a large advantage as White. Black's counterplay can come quickly even after seemingly small mistakes and it should be treated with respect. Many lines of the King's Indian are considered to be safe for Black based on favorable versions of the Modern Benoni. One of the main reasons I learned the Modern Benoni was to remedy problems I had with the Saemisch variation on both sides.