The son of sorrows, Benjamin becoming Benoni after death, all negative thoughts attributed with the defence made me more concerned after I have become a more mature player. When I was a kid things were different, the craze about Modern Benoni was evolving around me. We all wanted to play like Fischer did against Spassky on the 3rd game of their match. Alas later White was armed to his teeth with systems connected along f3 and f4 pushes, Bf4 lines and even the main line with Gligoric refuting 11th world champion’s brainchild Nh5 made people to shy away from this active defence. Thus Serbian GM Ivan Ivanisevic takes the gauntlet and analyses especially each one of these systems very scientifically. The 300 pages book invites the reader who would like to have a journey within a maze of variations which aims to equalize with Black by very active play!
GM Suat Atalik
Ever since my teenage years Ivan was one of the few players from Serbia whose playing style and games I enjoyed watching a lot. Once I heard that he will author a book on the Modern Benoni( my favorite opening)
I knew that the book will be must-read for me. Seeing numerous instructive games( mine included😀) increased my desire and resolve to continue to play Modern Benoni. Ivan created black repertoire from pure move order (1…Nf6,2…c5) and successfully tackled ungrateful task of finding combative options vs dangerous white tries such as Taimanov variation. I think this book is very good aid for any player who wants to get up to speed with recent developments in Modern Benoni.
GM Aleksandar Indjic
My journey with Benoni started somewhere around 1992. Until then, I mostly played the King’s Indian Defense. Of course, that was under the influence of my then-coach and one of the greatest Benoni experts, Draško Velimirović. I remember it was a big refreshment for me because the positions that arose were mostly full of dynamics and active counterplay. There were also some bitter experiences in games against Ilinčić, Damljanović, but there was also my first victory with the black pieces against my main rival of those days – Igor Miladinović, and many other interesting games.
Later, as I matured and realized that allowing White to occupy the center early in the opening with d5 and, for instance, the critical exchange of the central e-pawn for the c-pawn was a very responsible decision for Black, I started applying the Benoni with less enthusiasm and more of Nimzo and Queen’s Indians. However, looking back at the results, Benoni offered me more than, let’s say, Queen’s Indian did. Considering that I was mostly satisfied with Nimzo-Indian and not so much with Queen’s Indian, I applied Benoni against players who started with the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 or 3.g3, and Nimzo-Indian against those who allowed 3…Bb4 after Nc3. This way, White is restricted and cannot play some of the most aggressive variations like the Four Pawns Variation, the Sämisch Variation, etc.
I had several key problems in the 7.Bf4 Variation, as well as in the Classical Variation with the early Nd2, and some problems in the Fianchetto Variation too. So, with great interest, I opened Ivan’s new book on the Benoni Defense and found out that Ivan has resolved many of these problems in this book and had analyzed them in detail! So, if you play or intend to play Benoni, I would definitely recommend studying this book! When you reach the counterplay in the Benoni, those are some of the most interesting positions that arise in modern chess practice after 1.d4!
At the recent Grenke Super Tournament , after a long break since the time of the legendary Gashimov, several Benoni positions appeared in games of Rapport and Carlsen. I justifiably suspect that Ivan’s new book had something to do with this!
GM Aleksandar Kovačevic
Novi Sad,
2024.
Benoni with its unique dynamism and fighting spirit has always been a popular choice among many ex-Yugoslav players. Nowadays grandmaster Aleksandar Indjić is probably its main proponent with countless games against all levels of opposition. Ivan Ivanisević has also gained vast experience in it during his rich career, both as practitioner and author. Therefore in his recent book you can look forward to an optimal blend of his general feeling for positions with a thorough and systematic theoretical approach. As a result, the reader gets an up-to-date repertoire in a modern opening line that he can undoubtedly benefit greatly from in his own practice. Contrary to some prejudices, Benoni is a sound opening that constantly keeps evolving, just as all popular systems do. It rewards players that are familiar with its numerous intricacies and everyone that works with this book diligently, can become that player.
GM Matej Šebenik
