Annotated chess game

He played black in this game, not white. Besides that losing a pawn in a gambit does not give the other side the advantage.

Kind of the whole point of a gambit is to get something back for it alright.

i also play the Benko

This is the Zaitsev System, a tricky line for both sides to play. After 5...axb5 6. e4 b4 7. Nb5 d6 8. Bc4 and Black can play 8...Nbd7, or he can enter sharp, tactical play after 8...g6. White can also play 8. Bf4, which is more tricky for Black. The main line goes 6. Nxb5 Ba6 7. Nc3 d6 8. Nf3 g6 9. e4, which is okay for both sides.

It's the second time I didn't play 5.b6 in tournamentgame. The first time was 3rd round of NOVA College weekendtournament the 7th of July this year. After a 2nd round playing the lady in a long battle who won the group. So I missed the concentration which was there during this game.

@jkarp: yes, that's the same thing.

7. d6!? is a sharp and interesting move. Black must not take the pawn because after 7...exd6? 8. e4!(exploiting the d5 square)8...Ba6 9. Bxb5 Bxb5 10. Nxb5, White is clearly better. A interesting choice is 7...Qa5!? Then after 8. e3 Ba6 9. a4 Bg7 10. Nd2 the position is unclear.

Heh. When I was a junior player, I tried out 4. d6?! against the Benko with, indeed, the same idea of 4... exd6 5. e4. However, 4... Qb6 refutes the move.

@jkarp: in general you are right, but if you know the opening line you don't have to think for very long. But you have to be *very* careful with that, only play your moves fast if you are sure they are in the opening book.

Actually, here is the deal- You can play quickly very easily and play good, solid moves. The deal is that- In simple positions, thinking longer will not help you make a better move. In easy positions or time trouble(I rarely get into it, since we should always move quickly) I just pick out the best move based on positional understanding, then check safety and play it.

9. g3 is also a major alternative. The main line goes 9...Bg7 10. Bg2 Nbd7 11. 0-0 Nb6 12. Re1 leads to a quiet position.

I find most people I play against with the benko gambit tend to go for the fenchetto variation. As black I don't mind all that much which variation they play.

I played g3 during my game in Haarlem, but now choose for immediately reducing the number of available black pieces at the queen-side.

11...0-0 is playable. Then after 12. Kg2 Nbd7 13. Re1(13. h3)13...Ng4(13...Qa5 14. h3)(13...Ra6 14. h3)(13...Qb6 14. Re2)14. Re2 Qa5 15. Bg5(15. Rc2)is okay.

I think I slightly prefer ng4 on the basis that this can wait but Ng4 might be prevented of you wait.

The answer is, at that point, you begin playing chess.

@jsiehler: good answer!

14. Re2!? followed by Rc2 deserves attention.

I think Re2 is the more common idea by white. Having said that this idea is quite interesting. It stops black playing Ng4 as well as looking at Nc4 to which prevents black getting in c4 as well as looks over the e5 square. But the move also has some negative aspects to go with the positive same as most lines.

@jkarp: it moves away next move (it's planning to go to c4) so the blocking is only temporary.

I could be wrong here but I get the feeling that you played this move quickly since its the sort of thing you would normally play in simmilier positions. However with whites last move I think I would put some serious consideration into 14...Ne5!?

@jkarp, l-d-j's rooks were already connected (since move 13), and they are doing nothing to control the center. You are taking good lessons and completely misapplying them. Black is (and has been all game) playing for queenside pressure, as he ceded the center to White long ago. The "positive aspect" of 14...Rfb8 is putting another Rook on a half-open file, pressuring b2 and controlling that line. As thereaper1 mentioned, 14...Ne5 probably warranted consideration as it gets the Knight into action and prevents an immediate 15.Nc4.

See this is part of the reason why I think Ne5 should have been played last move.

l-d-j was obviously not using the GK database when he played this game; it was an OTB tournament. He only mentioned it here as a reference and comparison, which is a useful thing to do when annotating a game.

@jkarp: yes, they are protected, but it means the pieces that protect them cannot give up protection of them because then they could be taken. Pressuring them is not the same as threatening to take them.

I think I prefer Nb6 to be honest. I don't think black immediately gains any tactical shots by opening the bishops diagonal and more importantly however I feel as though this knight is heading to the wrong squares. I feel as though blacks plan should be based around trying to get in ...c5 at some point so Nb6 aids that, plus after Nb6 you can follow up with Nd7 at some point.

@jkarp: at certain (types of) positions, especially open positions with lots of tactical possibilities, computers are really, really good and even better than any human. But at other positions, where positional understanding rather than tactical play is required, they can't always judge accurately.

@jkarp: a passed pawn is by definition a pawn that can be stopped by other *pawns* because they are in front of it on the same file (or on an adjacent file so they can take it). So the a-pawn is by definition a passed pawn.

@jkarp: it is not inactive right now, but it was inactive on d7.