Introduction

In this book I will try to teach you how to put Black into a positional squeeze in the most popular gambits against 1.d4.

Remember the old aphorism that the best way of meeting a gambit is accepting it? This may be true, but only for absolutely incorrect systems, such as 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 d6? Of course, here we take everything and sail forth to converting our material advantage. But look at another example:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bxa6 7.Nf3 d6 8.g3 Bg7 9.Bg2 Nbd7 10.Rb1 Qa5 11.0-0 0-0 12.Qc2 Nb6 13.Rd1 Nfd7 14.Bd2 Nc4 15.Be1 Rfb8, Banikas-Tregubov, Kallithea 2009.

Would you really go for this position as White if you did not know that it was assessed as one of the newest and most sophisticated setups against the Benko?

White is a pawn up, but all his pieces are huddled on the first two ranks. Both rooks are humble defenders of the weak pawns. One imprecise move and White"e;s position will crumble down. Common sense suggests that unless White plays like a machine, he should better seek another approach in that opening.

I do not want to get involved into theoretical disputes over the Benko Accepted. I only claim that White"e;s choice is dubious from practical point of view. The more mistakes you usually commit in your games, the more dangerous it is.

I think that instead of trying to refute those gambits by clutching to an extra pawn, it is better to play good positional chess, occupy the centre, and deny any counterplay to the opponent.

Now comes my strongest argument in favour of the Positional approach: it allows to greatly decrease the role of computer assisted home analysis. Such considerations will soon become a leading factor in the process of constructing a repertoire.

The game of chess has reached a major crossroads in its existence. Due to the rising of the invincible computer monsters, it will either disappear, as it has happened with checkers, or it will branch to different formats: computer chess and human chess. Of course, nothing would stop human players to use a bunch of engines for home preparation. Thus, a lot of more or less forced variations and even whole sharp systems will simply vanish from practice since they will be deeply analysed to finite evaluations. It would be at least impractical to choose sharp concrete variations against weaker players because of the risk of stumbling into a home made theoretical mine.

Therefore, in order to survive the opening, the better players would have to adopt a solid positional approach based on understanding. In such circumstances computers are not too helpful because of the great numbers of branches of similar worth.

Avoiding home preparation is only one part of the problem. The more important task is how to outplay the opponent.

Unlike computers, humans cannot always seek for the best move, executing tons of calculations. They must be saving time and energy so they rely on typical plans, general principles and also involve some degree of prophylaxis in their decisions. When we play over the board, we must always be aware that we are prone to mistakes. By accepting the gambits, we put ourselves in a recarious situation where the price of every move is higher than normal. When we are on the defensive, such mistakes would be often decisive. It would be of little consolation that in the postmortem we could claim an advantage in the form of an extra pawn, for example.

My task in this book will be to help you build a viable, stable and durable repertoire against the major gambits. Note that the systems I propose are safer and much easier to play, but they are in no way inferior to any other. For instance, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Nf3 g6 5.cxb5 a6, the move 6.b6 fares the decent 58% while 6.bxa6 yields only 48%. Two moves earlier, 4.Nf3 achieves 60% to only 52% for 4.cxb5.

My repertoire does not require a lot of memorising since the main lines do not feature an all-in clash. Both sides can choose plenty of different move orders so I focus on plans and ideas. I also explain what to do after the opening, which pieces to exchange and which ones to cherish. And, of course, I provide a full, step by step, branch by branch theoretical coverage in the "Step by Step" chapters.

You will be surprised how easily it could be to play against those gambits if one knows what to do.

Read first the "Main Ideas" chapters! They give explanations which you will not find in the "Step by Step" coverage.

Kiril Georgiev

2010

Content:
004 Bibliography

005 Introduction

The Benko Gambit Declined

009 Part 1 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Nf3! g6 5.cxb5 a6 6.b6

065 Part 2 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Nf3! Other 4th moves of Black

099 Part 3 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.b6 e6, 5...a5

The Budapest Gambit

127 Part 4 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5

The Albin Counter Gambit

153 Part 5 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4

The Blumenfeld Gambit

169 Part 6 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5

191 Index of Variations