HIVE CHESS COACHING: Saturday's Thematic Tournament on the Old Benoni (Lichess Study included!)

♔ CHESS COACHING: Saturday's Thematic Tournament on the Old Benoni (Lichess Study included!) ♟

Hello everyone, especially to the members of the Hive Chess Community! It's been a busy week, but I've had time to record this new video with a new lesson of our traditional Chess Coaching series for HiveChess.

This time we're going to review a few games played last week at the Saturday thematic tournament. This time we practiced the Old Benoni, an opening we arrived at through this move order: 1. d4 c5 2. d5. So this is going to be feedback for some of the players who participated in the tournament. We are going to look at 4 games to 1) illustrate plans and ideas that contribute to a successful outcome for both sides and 2) of course give some suggestions to both sides to improve the play in the opening mainly.

I am a player in three of the games. Forgive me for picking a lot of games of mine, but as I pointed out in the video, I feel a bit responsible for the suggestions I've given to the community. I've also heard @schmanagerbert's take on trying the opening.

In the last game, by the way, I pointed to an old analysis I did on a similar opening line. Here is the link to that analysis.

I also created this public Lichess Study with the imported and annotated games. Feel free to join and even clone it for saving if you wish.

Well, I think the video is self-explanatory, so I hope you enjoy watching it. Don't forget to share the post and video and let me know what you think in the comments section.

Here are PGNs:

Game 1:

[Event "Hive Thematic Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/a2VBwNTQ"]
[Date "2021.10.16"]
[White "eniolw"]
[Black "Chacald"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2021.10.16"]
[UTCTime "19:30:54"]
[WhiteElo "2433"]
[BlackElo "2366"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "300+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2pP4/8/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[Annotator "lichess.org and eniolw"]


1... Nf6 2. Nc3 d6 3. e4 e6 4. Bb5+ Bd7 5. dxe6 fxe6 6. Bc4 Be7 7. Nf3 h6 8. e5
dxe5 9. Nxe5 O-O 10. Nxd7 Nbxd7 11. Bxe6+ Kh8 12. O-O Qb6 13. Bxd7 Rad8 14. Nd5
Qd6 15. Bf4 Qxd5 16. Bh3 Qe4 17. Qc1 Nd5 18. Bd2 Nf4 19. Bxf4 Qxf4 20. Qxf4
Rxf4 21. Rad1 Rfd4 22. Rxd4 cxd4 23. Bf5 Bf6 24. Bd3 Re8 25. g3 Kg8 26. Kg2 Kf8
27. h4 Rd8 28. Kf3 Rd5 29. Re1 Ra5 30. a3 a6 31. Bg6 Re5 32. Rd1 Rc5 33. Rd2
Ke7 34. h5 Kd6 35. Kg4 Rg5+ 36. Kh3 Kc5 37. f4 Rd5 38. Kg4 Rd8 39. Re2 b5 40.
Bd3 a5 41. Kf5 Rd5+ 42. Kg6 b4 43. axb4+ axb4 44. b3 Rd6 45. Kh7 Rd8 46. g4 Ra8
47. Re6 Ra1 48. Bf5 Rf1 49. Kg6 Rxf4 50. Rxf6 gxf6 51. Kxf6 d3 52. cxd3 Kd4 53.
Kg6 Ke5 54. Kxh6 Rf2 55. Kg7 Rb2 56. h6 Ra2 57. h7 1-0

Game 2:

[Event "Hive Thematic Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/6Jt4QEQK"]
[Date "2021.10.16"]
[White "eniolw"]
[Black "stayoutoftherz"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2021.10.16"]
[UTCTime "19:49:01"]
[WhiteElo "2433"]
[BlackElo "2010"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "300+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2pP4/8/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[Annotator "lichess.org and eniolw"]


1... g6 2. Nc3 d6 3. e4 Bg7 4. Bb5+ Bd7 5. a4 a6 6. Bc4 Nf6 7. Nf3 O-O 8. O-O Bg4 9. h3 Bxf3 10. Qxf3 Nbd7 11. Qd1 Ne5 12. Be2 e6 { Black resigns. } 13. f4 1-0

Game 3:

[Event "Hive Thematic Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/QQvuRkEn"]
[Date "2021.10.16"]
[White "Jonbellionfan"]
[Black "eniolw"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2021.10.16"]
[UTCTime "19:27:07"]
[WhiteElo "2061"]
[BlackElo "2433"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "300+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2pP4/8/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[Annotator "lichess.org and eniolw"]

1... d6 2. e4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 O-O 6. Bg5 e6 7. Be2 exd5 8. cxd5 Re8 9. O-O a6 10. a4 Nbd7 11. Qd2 Qa5 12. Bh6 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 Qxd2 14. Nexd2 Bxh6 15. Bd3 Nf6 16. Nc4 Bf8 17. Rfe1 Bg4 18. Nb6 Rad8 19. Nd2 Rxe1+ 20. Rxe1 Nd7 21. Ndc4 Nxb6 22. Nxb6 Bd7 23. f3 Re8 24. Kf2 Rxe1 25. Kxe1 Be8 26. b3 f5 27. Ke2 Kf7 28. Ke3 Ke7 29. f4 Bg7 30. g3 Bd4+ 31. Kf3 Bf7 32. Bc4 Kd8 33. a5 { White resigns. } Bc3 0-1

Game 4:

[Event "Hive Thematic Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/ahs5XURw"]
[Date "2021.10.16"]
[White "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Black "HerbyW"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2021.10.16"]
[UTCTime "19:40:32"]
[WhiteElo "2234"]
[BlackElo "1739"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "300+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2pP4/8/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[Annotator "lichess.org and eniolw"]


1... a6 2. e4 d6 3. f4 b5 4. Nf3 Nd7 5. e5 dxe5 6. fxe5 Nb6 7. Nc3 e6 8. d6 Bd7 9. Ne4 Rc8 10. Bg5 f6 11. exf6 Nxf6 12. Ne5 h6 13. Bxf6 gxf6 { White wins by checkmate. } 14. Qh5# 1-0

One more time, I congratulate and thank @schamangerbert for his idea to organize thematic training tournaments on Saturdays. That's great for us to practice these ideas and improve. And with the same enthusiasm I want to invite everyone to join the weekend tournaments we are having, like the traditional Friday tournament with @stayoutoftherz and the new Sunday Chess Brothers League by @chessbrotherspro.

_{Note: except for the three flyers above, the images and videos in this post belong to the author.}