Modern Benoni Defence

Black attacks White's central d-pawn from the flank.

The c-pawn is not free: if 3. dxc5?, Black can recover the material easily with 3...e6, allowing ...Bxc5, and Black has achieved their objective of eliminating one of White's valuable central pawns.

3. d5 is the best way to hold onto the pawn. White cramps Black's position, and they must choose how to attack White's pawn chain.

Defending the pawn with 3. e3?! or 3. Nf3?! allows Black to trade their less valuable c-pawn for White's important d-pawn and reduce White's control in the centre.

After 3. e3, Black can trade immediately 3...cxd4 4. exd4 d5. If White wishes to trade their flank pawn for Black's d-pawn as well, 5. cxd5 Nxd5= and White must play an unhappy isolated queen's pawn position, so the main move is 5. Nc3 and the game transposes into a Caro-Kann Panov attack.

3. Nf3?! transposes into a Symmetrical English position usually reached by 1. c4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4.

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5

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Wikipedia has related information at Benoni Defence

• Modern Chess Openings: MCO-14. 1999. Nick de Firmian, Walter Korn. ISBN 0-8129-3084-3.