Modern Defense - Pressure on the "Little Center"

A Sudden Explosion Joel Benjamin, 34, of Battery Park City has been one of the most consistent top players in the US lately, winning the U.S. Championship in 1997 and losing only in the Finals of the 1998 Championship. This year, the Championship was held August 22 - September 10 in Salt Lake City, and Benjamin was eliminated in a playoff to get into the SemiFinals. One of Benjamin's toughest battles along the way was against the solid Ben Finegold, 29, who has just moved to Brooklyn in order to teach chess in several scholastic programs in New York City.

In this game, Finegold played the opening close to the vest, but when Benjamin finally engineered a break in the center, the whole position became engulfed in wild complications! Ben Finegold - Joel Benjamin 1999 U.S. Championship, August 25, 1999, Salt Lake City 1 d4 d6 Finegold, a former U.S. Junior Champion, is a quick player who plays solid, not flashy, openings, and tries to use his natural talent later in the game. Here Benjamin plays the Pirc / Modern defense complex, which he has specialized in for the last couple of years. 2 Nf3 Bg4 Clearly a distinctive move to the 1 ... d6 variation.

Generally, Black tries to build a light-squared pawn chain with the bishop out in front of the pawns (achieving a French Defense type of formation without blocking the bishop). 3 e4 Other moves are 3 c4 and 3 g3, ignoring the bishop sortie. Nf6 4 h3 Bh5 5 Nc3 e6 Benjamin starts to build up on the light squares. 6 Bd3 Fairly plain development. A system which makes sense in my view is 6 g4 Bg6 7 Qe2 to cramp Black, and White can castle queenside later. d5 Now on 7 e5?! Nd7, a quick ... c5 will cause problems for White. 7 Bg5 dxe4 8 Nxe4 Nbd7 9 c3 c6 9 ... Be7 seems fine here for Black, who has no problems with his development. 10 Qe2 Qc7 11 O-O White's position is not strong enough to warrant queenside castling. Nxe4 12 Qxe4 Nf6 Benjamin is taking advantage of the position of the White queen, and the same move may have followed 12 Bxe4, as Black tries to snare the two bishops or find some other attribute on which to build an advantage. 13 Bxf6 I think the quiet 13 Qe2 Nd5 14 Be4 was better. Now Black can plan to castle queenside and play on the g-file, while his unopposed dark-squared bishop will be reasonably strong on d6. gxf6 14 a4 Bg6 This allows the rook to scoot over to g8 immediately. Not 14 ... f5? 15 Qe5! Qxe5 16 Nxe5 and the bishop on h5 is poorly placed. 15 Qe2 Be7 16 Nd2 Qf4 Acting against White gaining space with f2-f4.

Black welcomes an endgame here (for example, were White to engineer a queen trade with 17 Bxg6 hxg6 18 Qe3) as his compact pawns and bishop vs. knight situation would bode well. Meanwhile, White is encouraged to budge the annoying queen off the f4 square with the move 17 g3, but this constitutes a weakening. 17 g3 Qc7 18 Kg2 Rd8 Now motifs involving ... c6-c5 come into play. I think 18 ... O-O-O was a viable alternative, although it appears that Benjamin must have felt that an opposite-side-castling situation would give White too many chances. 19 Nf3 Kf8 Walking over to g7. Black has no intention of making the trade on d3 and would rather see if he can get White to take on g6, after which he would take back with the h-pawn 20 Qe3 Kg7 21 h4 c5 This central distraction is the natural antidote to what is becoming a demonstration by White on the kingside. 22 Rh1 Bh5 23 Be2 Rd5 24 Rhg1 Black is getting an initiative here, and I think he can just continue with 24 ... Rhd8 as White does not have any direct threats, even though he is gearing up for a kingside advance. cxd4 25 Nxd4 Re5 Tactically strong. Black has play on the central files as well as the possibility of using the long diagonal. 26 Qf4 A more active defense than 26 Qd2. In some variations there will be a check on g4 to save White. Bxe2 27 Nxe2 Qc6+ 28 Kh3 So that there is no variation in which the f-pawn can be captured with check. Now 28 ... Rxe2? 29 Qg4+, and otherwise the knight is popping back out to d4. Re4 A strong move - White is denied the resource of Qg4+ and the queen is driven to a passive position. 29 Qf3 Rd8 Notice that Black could not play 29 ... Rxh4+?? trying to win the queen, because 30 gxh4 is check to Black's king! But the thing about 29 ... Rd8! is that White cannot play 30 Rad1?? due to 30 ... Rxd1 31 Rxd1 Rxh4+! 32 Kg2 Rh2+! 30 Nf4 f5 Again denying the queen access to g4. The position has become very complicated, and 30 ... Kh8, with the idea of 31 ... e5, was interesting. White would probably escape to an endgame with 31 Rae1. 31 g4 Breaking the position wide open! 31 Rd1 e5!? 32 Nh5+ Kg6 was one wild possibility, while on 31 Rae1 Rd2 Black is doing very well. Kh8 32 gxf5 exf5 Very messy was 32 ... e5!? with the ideas 33 Qg3 Qh6, or 33 Qg4 Bf6 (not 33 ... Qh6 34 Ng6+) 34 Rd1 Rf8. 33 Qg3 Qh6 A winning counter, defending the mate and threatening the knight. If 34 Ng2 Rg4 wins. 34 Rae1 Or 34 Rad1 Rf8 and wins. Bd6? Correct was 34 ... Rxe1!! 35 Rxe1 Bd6, winning. 35 Rxe4? He had to play 35 Rd1! and then to deal with the threat of 36 Rxd6!! Black would have to play 35 ... Rxf4! 36 Rxd6! Rxh4+ 37 Qxh4 Qxh4+ 38 Kxh4 Rxd6 and White has drawing chances. fxe4 36 Rd1 Rg8 Finally Black wins the knight.

0 - 1 (White resigns)