As a bishop of the Black Empire, I sacrifice myself to destroy
the enemy pawn structure. May the Black King live forever!
Banzai Benoni System
Death to d4!
This Banzai Benoni system against 1. d4 preserves at least equality, but avoids the dull drawing QGD Exhange, Colle, and London.
The idea is to make the Banzai exchange Bg7xNc3, since after white recaptures by bxc3 he has doubled blocked c pawns. The extremely closed nature of the position makes both of white's bishops ineffective. Black plays …e5 with equality.
White can of course evade this. He could delay Nc3, going into a delayed Modern Benoni - quite playable for Black. Or white might play Nc3 without a preceding c2-c4 - the Schmid Benoni. This is also fine for black. Achieving the Benoni duo with ...b5 is much easier without white's pawn on c4.
| 1 d4 c5 2 d5 d6 3 e4 g6 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 c4 with early Nc3 |
Banzai BenoniBlack intends Bg7xc3 |
Game Replay | Theory Table | |
| 4 c4 with delayed Nc3 |
Lazy Benoni |
Game Replay | Theory Table |  |
| 4 or 5 Nc3 without c4 |
Schmid Benoni |
Game Replay | Theory Table |  |
