Chess Openings: Benko Gambit

The Benko Gambit is one of the most well respected chess gambits. It is a sharp line for black in the Benoni Defense giving up a pawn sacrifice on b5 to gain complete control of the queen side. Black would like to put his rooks on a8 and b8 and put lots of pressure on the queen side of white.

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97 Comments

  1. f7…., he explained it thousands of times in earlier video's
    damn you Chuck

  2. I played it alot with black and came into this variation alot: is this a bookline?

    1. d4 – Nf6 2. c4 – c5 3. d5 – b5 4. dxb5 – a6 5. bxa6 – Bxa6. 6. g3! (not with the idea bishop g2, but with Kg2. After d6, white plays e4.

  3. Wait wait wait…I'm white and at 3:38 you said "a lot of black players prefer this position". So are you saying I wouldn't find this position preferable based the pasty and chalk like hue of my skin tone?? That sounds very racist and derogatory sir… I really think you need to apologize here… I liked the rest of the video but it's just that one comment truly irked me! There's enough racism in this world without needing to find it in the safe haven of acceptance of a chess video!!!! :((

  4. After Nc3 black will play Ne4 and will eventually recover the pawn

  5. Its the light square bishop for white and dark square bishop for black. In fact generally the king's bishop is considered to be the most powerful attacking piece. Although it is a highly generalized view, usually with kings castled on the kingside, the f7 and h7 squares and also those diagonals are often the most sensitive part of the kingside. Bishop on such diagonals can be very fatal at times for the enemy king.

  6. Black could check with Queen on a5 and then capture the pawn at c5. White would have to protect his pawn on c4 and lose momentum in his development.

  7. hahaha no he is not talking about the player skin the player who choose to play with the Black pieces of chess or the Dark pieces of chess as you may notice there is Dark and white pieces of chess in chess noh lol

  8. yes its a book line also played by Portisch, Lajos vs Geller, Efim 1976
    the book opening called Benko Gambit fully accepted
    Lajos Portisch GM Hungarian player Rated 2635
    Efim P Geller was a Soviet chess GM Rated 2620 (January 1976)
    ok i cant post a link to the game so type in google this = Portisch, Lajos vs Geller, Efim 1976 benko gambit

  9. also look at Anatoly Karpov vs Boris Gelfand Sanghi Nagar IND 1995 · Benko Gambit: Accepted. Fully Accepted Variation (A58) · 1-0 with the Kg2 idea

  10. what if white takes the first gambit pawn ?

  11. in the would a good move at the end position be after the king-side bishop is fianchettoed, taking the pawn on e4, then black recaptures with his knight then bishop takes pawn on b2, white recapures with bishop to b2, then queen to b2 and forcing the take on either the knight or the rook?

  12. …e6 makes it virtually impossible for white hold on to the pawn. He covers it in his video on the benoni, go check it out.

  13. @serrie85 The problem with that move (I would hardly give it a !) is that it really weakens white's king side to attack with no bishop fianchettoed after a g3. It also uses a lot of tempo to manually castle the king when white is already behind in development because of the gambit.

  14. This strategy has really revolutionized the way I play. Thanks a bunch 🙂

  15. thechesswebsite is a complete noob

  16. Interesting as white to play Qc2 instead of cxb5, but then black can play Na6! with Nb4 idea.

  17. What do I do if my opponent plays b6 when declining the gambit? the chess engines all suggest different moves like g7 or bxc5

  18. Different bad options. After bxa6 not Bxa6 but g7 and in the declined line with b6 black dont play Qxb6 but playing d6 ,Nd7 and than Nxb6

  19. This is a good one but this could be disarmed by the traxler counter gambit easily and I've don it before

  20. Every good Benko players knows that in the b6 line you dont take back with the Queen, but with the Knight.( Nb8-d7 and than Nxb6)

  21. Benkö Gambit is always inspiring for both Sides. Improves tactical and strategic Skills.

  22. THE WORST OPENING VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN. EXCEPT FOR YOUR OTHER VIDEOS OFCOURSE

  23. 0:46 "One of the most popular lines you'll see is knight to f3, but this is very uncommon"

  24. Instead of the bishop capturing the pawn on a6, why doesn’t the night take it?

  25. 1:20 CP played white queen to A4 threatening my corner rook >:(

  26. 4:28 after Bxb5 then Qa5+ after that expected move from white is Kc3 then Ke4 pressuring the knight and the bishop and its a good game for black

  27. Only cowards dont accept gambits as white.

  28. I think I am viewing something from the archive. I am a new subscriber to your channel and from the audio quality I think I found one of your first ones. No surprise It was uploaded in 2009

  29. nice to reminisce, you helped me crush my middle school tournaments, now i’m getting crushed in college! haha, but still fun nonetheless

  30. I fell like I rarely see the opening move of white’s Pawn to C4. Is that necessary for the Benko Gambit?

  31. Why cant you go Qa5 check and capture the bishop

  32. Demetrius Demarcus Bartholomew James III Jr. says:

    Benko room

  33. Can we get deeper into the middlegame and also see some famous games featuring the iconic Benko gambit 🙂

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