In the 1950’s Tal’s sharp, tactical chess replaced, for a short while, the long strategic games of Botvinnik and Smyslov. Chess is like all other aspects in human life: fashions are very important. Fischer used it in his World Championship match against Spassky, and Kasparov has played it several times too, such as a crucial game against Korchnoi at the Lucerne Olympiad 1982, where he daringly sacrificed a piece and won.Īmong modern players the Modern Benoni has less support than previously. Tal is not the only World Champion to have used the Modern Benoni successfully in important games.
Recommended course: The ABC of the Modern Benoni by IM Andrew Martin But at that time Black players would develop their king’s bishop to e7, ignoring the potential for counterplay that developing the bishop to g7 would give. The starting position after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 can be dated back to the end of the 19th century. It is an opening that, more than any other, can be attributed to the hypermodern way of playing chess. The Modern Benoni is also called the son of sorrow.