Welcome to this course − Black is Back: Old Benoni! Let me introduce myself, and offer a bit of background on my experience as an author and my motivation behind creating this course. I am a 24-year-old International Master who spent the last 7 years teaching club players full-time, alongside getting my Bachelor's and Master's degrees. I also played for America's number one chess college team, Webster University, where I met and worked with multiple top-100 players. Therefore, I have a lot of practice when it comes to opening preparation at all levels. However, in my experience, what players of all levels NEED is more understanding of the arising positions and not exact specific knowledge of particular lines. According to my observations, everyone who moved on from memorizing to understanding more, from GMs to club players, made a lot of progress. All my courses @@StartBracket@@this is my 9th Chessable course!@@EndBracket@@ are aimed at EXPLAINING things and not focusing on showing a lot of lines that need to be memorized. It looks like this approach worked so far since my courses have been praised exactly for this − for having plenty of explanations. I also really like focusing on model games, and in some of my last courses − a full White 1.Nf3 repertoire, the French Defense for Black, and a two-part Lifetime Repertoire 1.e4 for White − I've offered an innovative approach with a chapter on typical pawn structures that arise in the course. This time, I decided to write about a topic I was really passionate about, and the opening that I played almost exclusively during the part of my journey from 1600 to 2000 FIDE or so. What is the Old Benoni and why are we playing it? This opening is aimed at creating a closed position without forcing lines. No sharp theory? Check! The main plan Black has, which works nearly universally, is trading off the bad bishop. A clear plan? Check! Black can also choose another plan, where we try to slowly build a kingside attack. Option to play flexibly? Check! The more I write and develop as an author, the more I come to realize how few lines a club player @@StartBracket@@and a titled one!@@EndBracket@@ need to actually remember. That's why the goal for this course was to fit in a ballpark of about 100 theoretical variations, and I managed to do just that! Long gone are the days of endless theory @@StartBracket@@yes, that does sound like a bit of an advertisement, but I couldn't help myself@@EndBracket@@. Let's just learn 2 big theoretical chapters, 3 minor ones, and see a lot of model games and get going! I know the Old Benoni does not enjoy the best theoretical reputation. However, here are a few important things you should understand: ♟ It has been played regularly by players with terrific positional understanding, such as the greatest coach of all times Dvoretsky! He could play it against GM-level opposition, and so can we! ♟ From some standpoint, for example, for a top GM, maybe we could say the only sound openings are Najdorf, Berlin, Queen's Gambit, and Grünfeld. But does it mean we should never analyze other fun ones? The Pirc? Alekhine? Modern? Benko? King's Indian? Dutch? Hell no! Chess is so much richer than the few lines offered by the engine. ♟ I did my best to make this repertoire as bulletproof as possible. I challenged some of the major existing books and courses − more on that in Repertoire Clashes. ♟ Your opponents will not be prepared! This opening is really rare, after all. So yes, I can admit White can achieve a slight edge in a very small number of lines, but besides that, Black gets very comfortable and easy play based on logical plans and ideas. I've spent a lot of effort working on this course and I am really in love with the arising positions! I sincerely hope you enjoy it greatly!