Historical Perspective (cont…)

B. Benko/Volga Gambit

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.b6 

The Benko-Volga gam­bit is a well-es­tab­lished (and strong) re­sponse to 1.d4. Black’s queen­side coun­ter­play is last­ing and solid with his bet­ter piece mo­bil­ity. As be­fore, White has many ways of safely de­clin­ing the pawn (5.b6, 5.e3, 5.f3) though none yields an ad­van­tage for White. Some­how I was not much in­ter­ested in the solid Benko-Volga.