Modern Benoni Books and Videos

The Complete Benoni, Lev Psakhis (Batsford 1995)

A very good book, which covers all the Benoni lines in great depth, and also includes Benoni structures from the Four Pawns Attack and Saemisch, although these lines are generally obtained via the Kings Indian move order (see Andy Martin's King's Indian site). Psakhis is a successful and knowledgeable Benoni practitioner, and this comes across quite plainly in his work. The only thing going against it (and this is not a criticism of the book, but a reflection on its suitability now) is that some of the material on the Modern Classical is now out of date (the theory of the Modern Classical having moved so fast).

The Modern Benoni, Norwood (Cadogan 1994)

A more lightweight, but nevertheless enjoyable book from the young English Grandmaster. Norwood used the Benoni to score some excellent results in his chess youth (see his classic game versus Saeed in the Fianchetto Variation). At only 144 pages the book is not comprehensive by any means. However, the 20-page introduction explaining the roles of both White's and Black's pieces gives the reader a good feel of what the Benoni is all about. And there's also the refreshing honesty. Talking about the dangerous 8 Bb5+ (which Norwood aptly called the Flick-Knife Attack), he admits " The name of the game is survival", before ending on the more positive "but if you can confuse, bluff or bamboozle White you may find yourself coming out on top most of the time!"

The Benoni for the Tournament Player, Nunn (Batsford 1982)

The predecessor to Psakhis's work, this excellent work is no less than you would expect from John Nunn. Naturally it's a bit out of date now (as well as out of print), but much of the study in the less fashionable lines is still worth a look.

The Modern Benoni Ward (GM Video 1999).

Another entertaining video by Chris Ward, which provides the black player with a complete Benoni repertoire, plus what to do if White avoids taking the plunge with d4-d5. Ward bases Black's armoury around the early ...a6 lines which have been so successful for Black (see Statistics page).