This article was published originally on The Chess Improver blog on 2017-01-10
I have reposted it here for reference.
Wikipedia mentions about this opening:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benko_Gambit
"... Many of the world's strongest players have used it at one time or another, including former World Champions Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov and Mikhail Tal, and Grandmasters Vassily Ivanchuk, Michael Adams, Alexei Shirov, Boris Gelfand, and Evgeny Bareev."
Admit it, every now and then we have our urges to play like savages in the jungle. There are several gambit choices available, mostly busted and not suitable for correspondence chess play; still it is hard to resist the urge, right? I look at the above list of top and over the top players choosing Volga-Benko and it soothes the pain of losing this game. I rubbed shoulders with giants in a funny way. It is my belief this could be a good reference game for many a player from this point on.
I chose to play this game because of an urge. It is as simple as that. My partner was unknown to me before the game and got the winning lottery ticket of facing it. His play was extremely inspiring! The value of this game is enhanced by the fact both of us could and did use engine assistance. Right now white has a solid idea and plan to work with, while black will have to go back to the drawing board and find a better play than I did. Hope you will enjoy the game and annotations:
[Event "KE72 Canadian Championship (CCCA) 2016"][Site "ICCF"][Date "2016.02.01"][White "MacTilstra, Ian"][Black "Demian, Valer-Eugen"][Result "1-0"] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.a7 Rxa7 8.e4 O-O 9.Be2 d6 10.Nf3 Ba6 11.a4 Nfd7 12.O-O {Game Sychev - Dubov 0-1, 69th Moscow blitz 2015} Bxe2 13.Qxe2 Na6 14.Nb5 Ra8 {Game Vasilevich - Lagerman 1/2-1/2, Reykjavik blitz 2006. It is not reliable to use blitz games as reference because it is very possible the final result might be affected by blunders} 15.Bg5 h6 16.Bh4 Nb4 {A normal move, placing the Knight where it should be. The engines prefer it even at the expense of the d6-pawn; my guess is they do that because taking on d6 gives black a piece for 3 pawns} (16...g5 {Looking back this is one choice to explore in future games}) 17.Nxd6 g5 18.Bxg5 hxg5 19.Nf5 e6 {Another important moment in the game. The other options are worth exploring for better outcomes} (19...g4 {This one looks risky. It does nothing to bring more defenders and holding onto it should be harder} 20.Ng5 Ne5) (19...Ra6 20.Nxg5 Rg6 21.f4 {White now has 4 pawns for the piece}) 20.Nxg7 (20.dxe6 fxe6 21.Nxg7 Kxg7 22.Rfd1 Nc6 (22...g4 23.Rxd7+ Qxd7 24.Ne5 Qd4 25.Qxg4+ Kh7 26.Qh5+ Kg7 27.Qg6+ Kh8 28.Qh6+ Kg8 29.Qxe6+) 23.Rd6 Rxf3) 20...Kxg7 21.Nxg5 {Unbelievable move! I missed this completely once because it is counter intuitive to sacrifice another piece here and secondly because the engines like other moves} 21...Qxg5 22.Ra3 {OK, now things are starting to look really bad for black positionally. It is not so much the fact white threatens to win the Queen, as the material balance of Queen + 4 pawns versus Rook and 2 Knights is clearly in white's favour. The black pieces just sit around doing nothing. I think this is a clear indication white's plan has already succeeded. Slowly but surely the engines also begin to figure it out and give white credit} 22...Qf4 {I chose this one to stop the f2-pawn from advancing; however there is not much to choose from} (22...Qh6) 23.Rg3+ Kh7 24.Rf3 {Once the engines discover this move after crunching line after line to an increased depth, they show a winning advantage for white. There is no turning back now in correspondence chess. The remaining moves are the only ones for black to extend the game until the end; anything else would lose much faster} 24...Qe5 25.Rh3+ Kg6 (25...Kg7 26.Qg4+ Kf6 27.Qh4+ Qg5 28.Rf3+) 26.f4 Qd4+ 27.Kh1 exd5 28.e5 Nf6 {Black is forced to give back a piece, hoping to escape with the King from the g- and h-files. That Knight was not doing anything anyway} 29.f5+ Kg5 30.Rg3+ Kh6 31.exf6 {Please look at this position and acknowledge it is not the number of pieces you have, but where they are placed. All black pieces are powerless to defend their King. The double f5- and f6-pawns have boxed in the same King and are more important than any black piece} Rh8 32.Qe1 Na2 33.Qe7 Raf8 34.Rg6+ {Spectacular looking move, taking advantage of the bad positioning of all black pieces. It will decisively chase the black King out of that corner and closer to mate} 34...fxg6 35.Qg7+ Kg5 36.Qxg6+ Kh4 37.f7 Nc1 38.Rf4+ Qxf4 39.g3+ Kh3 40.gxf4 Ne2 41.Qg2+ Kh4 42.h3 Ng3+ 43.Kh2 {A position one does not see every day. White has mate in 13 moves or faster}
The attack beginning with 21.Nxg5!! ... could be featured in any tactics book. Replay it whenever you feel the need to refresh your tactics skills. I look forward to see more games branching out from ours. If you have any games and/ or positions you would like me to look at, please do not hesitate to let me know. I will gladly include them in my column for everyone's benefit. Looking forward to your messages!
I have reposted it here for reference.
Wikipedia mentions about this opening:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benko_Gambit
"... Many of the world's strongest players have used it at one time or another, including former World Champions Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov and Mikhail Tal, and Grandmasters Vassily Ivanchuk, Michael Adams, Alexei Shirov, Boris Gelfand, and Evgeny Bareev."
Admit it, every now and then we have our urges to play like savages in the jungle. There are several gambit choices available, mostly busted and not suitable for correspondence chess play; still it is hard to resist the urge, right? I look at the above list of top and over the top players choosing Volga-Benko and it soothes the pain of losing this game. I rubbed shoulders with giants in a funny way. It is my belief this could be a good reference game for many a player from this point on.
I chose to play this game because of an urge. It is as simple as that. My partner was unknown to me before the game and got the winning lottery ticket of facing it. His play was extremely inspiring! The value of this game is enhanced by the fact both of us could and did use engine assistance. Right now white has a solid idea and plan to work with, while black will have to go back to the drawing board and find a better play than I did. Hope you will enjoy the game and annotations:
[Event "KE72 Canadian Championship (CCCA) 2016"][Site "ICCF"][Date "2016.02.01"][White "MacTilstra, Ian"][Black "Demian, Valer-Eugen"][Result "1-0"] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.a7 Rxa7 8.e4 O-O 9.Be2 d6 10.Nf3 Ba6 11.a4 Nfd7 12.O-O {Game Sychev - Dubov 0-1, 69th Moscow blitz 2015} Bxe2 13.Qxe2 Na6 14.Nb5 Ra8 {Game Vasilevich - Lagerman 1/2-1/2, Reykjavik blitz 2006. It is not reliable to use blitz games as reference because it is very possible the final result might be affected by blunders} 15.Bg5 h6 16.Bh4 Nb4 {A normal move, placing the Knight where it should be. The engines prefer it even at the expense of the d6-pawn; my guess is they do that because taking on d6 gives black a piece for 3 pawns} (16...g5 {Looking back this is one choice to explore in future games}) 17.Nxd6 g5 18.Bxg5 hxg5 19.Nf5 e6 {Another important moment in the game. The other options are worth exploring for better outcomes} (19...g4 {This one looks risky. It does nothing to bring more defenders and holding onto it should be harder} 20.Ng5 Ne5) (19...Ra6 20.Nxg5 Rg6 21.f4 {White now has 4 pawns for the piece}) 20.Nxg7 (20.dxe6 fxe6 21.Nxg7 Kxg7 22.Rfd1 Nc6 (22...g4 23.Rxd7+ Qxd7 24.Ne5 Qd4 25.Qxg4+ Kh7 26.Qh5+ Kg7 27.Qg6+ Kh8 28.Qh6+ Kg8 29.Qxe6+) 23.Rd6 Rxf3) 20...Kxg7 21.Nxg5 {Unbelievable move! I missed this completely once because it is counter intuitive to sacrifice another piece here and secondly because the engines like other moves} 21...Qxg5 22.Ra3 {OK, now things are starting to look really bad for black positionally. It is not so much the fact white threatens to win the Queen, as the material balance of Queen + 4 pawns versus Rook and 2 Knights is clearly in white's favour. The black pieces just sit around doing nothing. I think this is a clear indication white's plan has already succeeded. Slowly but surely the engines also begin to figure it out and give white credit} 22...Qf4 {I chose this one to stop the f2-pawn from advancing; however there is not much to choose from} (22...Qh6) 23.Rg3+ Kh7 24.Rf3 {Once the engines discover this move after crunching line after line to an increased depth, they show a winning advantage for white. There is no turning back now in correspondence chess. The remaining moves are the only ones for black to extend the game until the end; anything else would lose much faster} 24...Qe5 25.Rh3+ Kg6 (25...Kg7 26.Qg4+ Kf6 27.Qh4+ Qg5 28.Rf3+) 26.f4 Qd4+ 27.Kh1 exd5 28.e5 Nf6 {Black is forced to give back a piece, hoping to escape with the King from the g- and h-files. That Knight was not doing anything anyway} 29.f5+ Kg5 30.Rg3+ Kh6 31.exf6 {Please look at this position and acknowledge it is not the number of pieces you have, but where they are placed. All black pieces are powerless to defend their King. The double f5- and f6-pawns have boxed in the same King and are more important than any black piece} Rh8 32.Qe1 Na2 33.Qe7 Raf8 34.Rg6+ {Spectacular looking move, taking advantage of the bad positioning of all black pieces. It will decisively chase the black King out of that corner and closer to mate} 34...fxg6 35.Qg7+ Kg5 36.Qxg6+ Kh4 37.f7 Nc1 38.Rf4+ Qxf4 39.g3+ Kh3 40.gxf4 Ne2 41.Qg2+ Kh4 42.h3 Ng3+ 43.Kh2 {A position one does not see every day. White has mate in 13 moves or faster}
The attack beginning with 21.Nxg5!! ... could be featured in any tactics book. Replay it whenever you feel the need to refresh your tactics skills. I look forward to see more games branching out from ours. If you have any games and/ or positions you would like me to look at, please do not hesitate to let me know. I will gladly include them in my column for everyone's benefit. Looking forward to your messages!