Benko Gambit

I'm thinking of switching to d4, as well as play the Benko Gambit vs the Qg..

and i was wondering if its any good, is the gambit sound? And can black do good against black if played correctly?

i prefer the queens gambit

Well you prefer d5 to d4? Cause you cant play queens gambit as black..

Yeah, the Benko is good. Black gets a lot of long term positional pressure and even in endgames black still has this pressure if he has rooks on the a and b files. And it seems to be more straightforward to play as black than white.

At the hands of somebody who knows what he's doing the benko gambit can be EXTREMELY dangerous (however this can be said for almost any opening). It is definately sound, but may be too positional for many players to capitalize upon. As long as you understand the long term goals of the opening, you should be fine (from either side).

The Benko gamb. is very good.The thing is in case White reject it u must be prepared to play the Tarrasch defense of the QGD.Regards.

Please note the upcoming Offical Chess.com Thematic Tournament on the Benko.

http://www.chess.com/tournaments/myhome.html

Thanks but im gonna skip it, i have no knowledge in it and i will get owned.

Care to explain this?  The Tarrasch defense of the QGD has black moving d5, e6 and c5. If white declines the Benko gambit by 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. Nf3 etc. you certainly don't have the Tarrasch (black won't have a pawn on d5).

So I guess you mean that white declines this way . 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 and once again this is not the Tarrasch. This is also a perfectly fine opening for black.

Or maybe you intend white to decline like this. 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. e3 and now if black wants to play the Tarrasch he can, but he certainly doesn't have to. Frankly, I don't think you'll see 3. e3 from white very often.

It's a good opening.  Experiment with it

 ok,ok.I didnt make myself clear.What I meant to say was that after the moves: 1.d4 Nf6 , 2.c4 c5.Here,if White DOES NOT the advance of the d pawn to d5,then the Black side may be able to play as a choice,the Tarrasch def. of course if the second player has it "well chewed" =)

I love the Benko to death, and it has served me very well in over the board play. However, I've begun to play it less and less because (like the benoni) white can avoid it by not playing 3.d5

More and more people are playing 3.Nf3 when play transposes to the symmetrical english...and this is not really my idea of a good time.

mat, send me an invite.  i'll be your practice punching bag.  we can trade off for white to black.  rated or unrated, either way.

I've spent a few days now researching and discussing modern theory and it seems that black can achieve fairly drawish endgames (although maybe not theoretical equality) ... 

Eventually white has to give up his queenside defense if he wants to get something going... once the queenside pawns are gone neither side has much in the way of winning chances.

A good drawing weapon? ... For sure.

Purelly statistically the Benko gambit isn't more drawish than most other fighting games, and it isn't nearly as drawish as for example the exchange variation of the Ruy.

Get ready to resurrect your Benko because 3. Nf3 doesn't transpose to the symmetrical English if you don't want to. As a Benko avoider myself I played 3. Nf3 and for many games transposed into a Maroczy bind line of the Sicilian. This occurs after cxd4 from black and e4 from white. As a player of the  Accelerated Dragon from the black side, I'm familiar with Maroczy bind positions and so this was a successful transposition for me from the murky, unclear area of the Benko to a land of comfort.

However, I played this against a master once and he showed me a different line for black that is very interesting.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nb5 d5 6. cxd5 Bc5 Black gambits a pawn for fast development (black cannot play 6. ... Nxd5 7. Qxd5 Qxd5 8. Nc7+). This is an old gambit, but provides good  play for black.

So after 3. Nf3, no more symmetrical English!!

Yea I've played the Kasparov Gambit a few times with some success, but in general my lazyness and love of closed positions won out and I took up the king's indian.

What  is a benko