Alexey Kovalchuk: The Benko Revisited, Volume 2

Thinkers publishing, paperback, Englisch, ISBN: 978-94-6420-147-5, 350 Seiten, 2022.

Vorwort:

I am glad to welcome you to the second volume dedicated to the Benko Gambit. This volume examines the most basic lines. It is these lines that can be found most often at the board. We'll take a look at the rare and tricky lines and move on to the more popular and classic lines.

In the first volume, in the Introduction, we touched on my personal attitude to this opening, which has been constantly changing over the course of the last 10 years. We touched upon the history of how the opening developed, noted who needed to play this opening and what to expect from it.

What do I want to highlight in this Introduction?

This is what the reader will notice in this volume - that the lines have become more specific, sometimes requiring very accurate knowledge. The load on memory increases, but it will be rewarded a hundredfold, since the positions that arise are
interesting and full of dynamic factors.

In this volume, we look at positions that start after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6. We'll start with the rarer continuations and end with the most popular and relevant ones.

My first classical game with the Benko Gambit
My path to the Benko Gambit began in 2012 when a wonderful book by the Ukrainian grandmaster Valery Aveskulov, Attack with Black, was published. I think this is the best book on the Benko Gambit (but I hope that my work will also take a
prominent place). Having carefully studied this book, I went into battle. The game was played at one of the championships of the Rostov region in Russia. By the way, the future promising young Russian grandmaster (now rated over 2700), Andrey
Esipenko, played in that tournament. I drew with him, but returning to the Benko Gambit, I played against the leader of the tournament, Igor Mandrykin.

Alexey Kovalchuk was born in Russia in 1994 and learned to play chess at the “late” age of 12. In November of 2017 he reached his highest Elo yet of 2445 and is considered an IM without the norms. Alexey has never had a coach having studied with the aid of books and other materials.

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