Round 10: A Benko To Finish; Winners Announced

Posted: 05/12/2012 by Ian in Club News

BenkoRound 10 was the Benko Gambit

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 Bxa6 6. Nc3 d6 7. e4 Bxf1

The original name of the opening was the Volga Gambit, named after the Volga River because of an article about 3…b5!? published  in the USSR in 1946. The term is still widely used in Russian literature. Beginning in the late 1960s, this opening idea was also promoted by Pal Benko, a Hungarian-American Grandmaster, who provided many new suggestions and published his book The Benko Gambit in 1974. The name Benko Gambit stuck and is particularly used in English-speaking countries. Though “Volga Gambit” originally referred solely to the move 3…b5 (sometimes followed by an early …e6), while Benko himself analyzed in his Batsford treatise solely what is now the main line, 3…b5 4.cxb5 a6, both the terms Benko Gambit and Volga Gambit are now used interchangeably or concurrently (for example, Volga–Benko Gambit).

Final results for the A Division are updated here, and for the B division here. Peter took out the A division with a score of 7.5 out of a possible 8, dropping a half point to Stefan as white with the Urusov gambit. Ian Managed 7 out of 10 in the B division, while Daniel Davis was rewarded with “50 Chess Lessons” as a book prize for being the best Club Junior on 6.5.

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