Thursday, January 27, 2011

A trap in the Benko Gambit

A lot of players don't want to face the pressure that Black gets on the a and b files in the main lines of the Benko Gambit (1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5!? 4.cxb5 a6), so they decline the gambit with something like 4.Nf3, 4.Qc2, or 4.cxb5 a6 5.b6. The Bosnian-Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov essayed such a line against super-GM Vassily Ivanchuk at the Olympiad last year, but ended up on the wrong end of a miniature. Sokolov tried 4.Qc2 bxc4 5.e4 d6 6.Bxc4 g6 7.b3??, a move that had been played in previous games by several players, including Sokolov himself. Ivanchuk rudely awakened him with 7...Nxe4!, and suddenly Sokolov was the one playing a gambit, since 8.Qxe4? Bg7 would spear White's rook. After 12.Qe2, White seemed to have some compensation, since his pin on the e-file made it hard for Black to castle. However, Sokolov didn't help his cause with the caveman-like 13.h4?, allowing Black to plant his knight powerfully on e5. Ivanchuk then wrapped up the game in just 12 more moves.

1 comment:

Gopal Menon said...

Was this a blunder? Sokolov actually played this a week before vs. an opponent rated 2330 (Piceu)! However in that game, black didn't play Nxe4 so we're left to draw our own conclusions...