The King's Fianchetto Opening or Benko's Opening (also known as the Hungarian Opening, Barcza Opening, or Bilek Opening) is a
chess opening
A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the "Sicilian Defens ...
characterized by the move:
:1.
g3
White's 1.g3 ranks as the fifth most popular opening move, but it is far less popular than 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.Nf3. It is usually followed by 2.Bg2,
fianchettoing the
bishop.
Nick de Firmian writes that 1.g3 "can, and usually does, transpose into almost any other opening in which White fianchettos his king's bishop". Included among these are the
Catalan Opening, the
King's Indian Attack and some variations of the
English Opening. For this reason, the ''
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' has no specific code devoted to 1.g3. The move itself is classified under A00, but the numerous
transpositional possibilities can result in various ''ECO'' codes.
While this opening has never been common, the
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
player
Ghulam Kassim
Ghulam Kassim (birth date unknown, died Madras 1844) was an Indian chess player and author of the early 19th century, best known today for a variation of the King's Gambit that bears his name. In colonial India, several native forms of chess we ...
, annotating the 1828
correspondence match between Madras and
Hyderabad, noted that "many of the Indian players commence their game in this way." The
hypermodern player
Richard Reti
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
played 1.g3 several times at
Baden-Baden in 1925, with mixed results. 1.g3 received renewed attention after
Pal Benko
Pál C. Benkő ( hu, Benkő Pál; July 15, 1928 – August 26, 2019) was a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American chess player, author, and Chess composer, composer of Endgame study, endgame studies and chess problems.
Early life
Benko was ...
used it to defeat
Bobby Fischer and
Mikhail Tal in the 1962
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...
in
Curaçao
Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...
, part of the
1963 World Championship cycle. Benko used the opening the first eleven times he was White in the tournament.
Theory
By playing 1.g3, White prepares to
fianchetto their bishop along the and also to push e4 since the bishop is supporting that square. White can also play Nf3 in the future, then
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
to transpose into the
King's Indian Attack. This opening generally leads to , and White can also build up a strong kingside attack.
Sample lines
The following lines are examples of the kinds of positions which can develop from the King's Fianchetto opening. Move order is flexible in each case.
King's Indian Attack
King's Indian Attack, Yugoslav Variation (''ECO'' A07):
:1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 Nf6 3.Nf3 c6 4.0-0 Bg4 5.d3 Nbd7 6.Nbd2 e5 7.e4 (''diagram'').
English Opening
English Opening, Botvinnik System (''ECO'' A26):
:1.g3 g6 2.Bg2 Bg7 3.c4 e5 4.Nc3 d6 5.d3 f5 6.e4 Nf6 7.Nge2 Nc6 8.0-0 0-0 9.Nd5 (''diagram'').
See also
*
List of chess openings
*
List of chess openings named after people
References
Bibliography
*
{{chess
Chess openings
1962 in chess