Benoni Defence
Opening course for Black · ECO A56-A79
Hand over the centre, take the queenside, and keep the game sharp.
Black gives White a pawn centre on move three and takes a queenside pawn majority for it. The bishop goes to g7, the rook to e8, the pawns to a6 and b5, and White spends the game trying to break with e4-e5. It is the sharpest answer to 1.d4 on this shelf, and the honest version of that is that Black counterattacks rather than equalises.
- Chapters
- 4
- Lines
- 14
- Sources
- 7
Nothing to review. Learn the next line.
Next: Trade the light-squared bishop, against 7.Nf3 and 8.Be2.
Part of your daily work.
- Learn
- Walk the line with the coach, a note on the moves that need one.
- Recall
- Play it from memory. Learned lines come back on a schedule.
- Tempo
- The same line against the clock, for a score to beat.
- Off book
- The opponent leaves the book with a real move; Stockfish prices your answers.
Before the moves: the big ideas
Two majorities, one on each wing
The trade of Black's e-pawn for White's c-pawn leaves White with the extra pawn in the centre and Black with the extra pawn on the queenside. White's counts sooner, because e4-e5 opens lines at once. Black's does not go away. Almost every plan on either side for the next twenty moves comes back to those two pawn masses.
The bishop on g7 is the defence and the attack
Black's dark-squared bishop guards the king and looks straight down the long diagonal at White's queenside. When the knight on f6 steps aside the bishop bears on c3, which is what makes the queenside pawns dangerous rather than merely numerous.
Control e5, or make White pay for taking it
The rook on e8, the knight on d7 and the pawn on d6 all cover e5, and that is usually enough to stop e4-e5 outright. The second method is to pressure the d5-pawn instead, so that when White does push, the pawn behind it falls.
...a6 and ...Rb8 come before ...b5
The break is ...b5, and it needs preparation, because a4 and the pieces on c3 and e2 all cover that square. The standard preparation is ...a6 and ...Rb8. The other routes are the knight to c7 by way of a6, and ...c4 first, which cuts a white bishop off from b5.
The lines, chapter by chapter
In learning order. The coach serves review one line a day; open any line yourself when you want it now.
White Builds the Centre
3 lines
White plays e4 and owns the middle of the board. Black's answer is always the same in outline: fianchetto, castle, put a rook on e8, and start the queenside pawns moving before White's centre can move.
When White Throws the f-Pawn
3 lines
7.f4 is the move that gave the Benoni its bad decade. Three different attacks come out of it, and they need three different answers: a knight on b4, a king walk that wins a pawn, and a queenside push that starts before White's centre gets going.
White Develops Before Pushing
4 lines
With 6.Nf3 White keeps the e-pawn home, so there is no target on e4 and no half-open file to lean on. These four lines are about the other half of Black's game: the queenside break, and the squares White's pieces leave behind while they set up.
When White Will Not Play d5
4 lines
Five games in six from the starting position go 3.d5 and the course above. The other one goes somewhere else, and three of those somewhere-elses are common enough to recognise on sight. Two of them are still a Benoni. One is not, and knowing which is which saves a bad opening.
Puzzles from this opening
The Benoni Defence in brief
The Benoni Defence is the chess opening that begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5, and it is filed under ECO A56-A79. This course teaches it from Black's side in 14 drills across 4 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
- Trade the light-squared bishop against 7.Nf3 and 8.Be2
- Keep the bishop off f4 against 8.h3 and 9.Bd3
- The knight on e2 leaves c4 free against 7.Bd3
- Take the outpost on b4 against 7.f4 and 8.Bb5+
- Give up castling, keep the pawn against 7.f4 and 8.e5
- Push past the pawn wall against 7.f4 and 8.Nf3
- Answer the fianchetto on the queenside against 6.Nf3 g6 7.g3
- Meet the knight tour with a knight against 6.Nf3 g6 7.Nd2
- Stop the queen check first against 6.Nf3 g6 7.Bf4
- Break the pin with ...a6 in hand against 6.Nf3 g6 7.Bg5
- Answer 3.Nf3 with ...e6 against 3.Nf3
- 3.e3 is a different opening against 3.e3
- Let White have c5 for a moment against 3.dxc5
- Recapture toward the middle against 4.dxe6
Theory credited to
- Opening Repertoire: The Modern BenoniFM John Doknjas
- The Modernized Delayed BenoniGM Ivan Ivanisevic
- Wikipedia: Modern Benoni
- Wikipedia: Benoni Defense
- lichess-org/chess-openings
- 365Chess Benoni Defense guide
- Chess.com Benoni Defense guide
8 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
- What is the Benoni Defence?
- The Benoni Defence is the chess opening that begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5, filed under ECO A56-A79. Hand over the centre, take the queenside, and keep the game sharp. Black gives White a pawn centre on move three and takes a queenside pawn majority for it.
- How do you learn the Benoni Defence?
- This course splits it into 14 drills across 4 chapters. You play each line from Black's side against a coach note that explains the move, then the same lines come back on a spaced-repetition schedule until you can play them without prompting. Every position is verified with Stockfish at depth 20 before it ships.
- What does White play against the Benoni Defence?
- The course answers every major reply: d5, Nf3, e3, dxc5. Each one has its own drill or a documented transposition into another, and the branches that are not drilled are listed with the reason.
- Where does the theory in this Benoni Defence course come from?
- From published work by FM John Doknjas, GM Ivan Ivanisevic and the reference sources credited on this page. The engine verifies the moves; the plans and assessments belong to the authors, and every drill records the page or section it came from.