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**Jürgen R.**

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 02:53:48 GMT, (Sam Sloan)
wrote:

At 10:32 AM 4/29/2005 -0600, Brian Wall wrote:

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 19:15:00 GMT, (Sam Sloan)
wrote:

Benko clearly invented the Benko Gambit. Nobody played the Benko
Gambit before Benko did, yet the Soviets refused to call it that,
perhaps because Benko was a defector, so they called it the Volga
Gambit.

Sam Sloan

The epilogue on page 6 of the aforementioned chess pamphlet states:
"Milan wishes everyone to know that it was he, and not Pal Benko , who was
first to use what is now called the Benko Gambit. He met and played Benko in
Atlanta and it was during the next round that Momic used it against a high rated
player. He (Momic) calls it the Volga Gambit. ' Benko saw me make the first
move and said it was not a good opening; after that he started using it, and
everyone called it Benko Gambit! If you are going to call it Benko Gambit, why
not Momic Gambit , because he saw me use it first!"

The problem with this and many similar claims is that first we do not
have the game score or even the name of the opponent.

You can check all the databases. There is no game with the opening
moves 1. d5 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 in any database anywhere, prior to
when Benko started playing it.

Sloan, you are a fool; and, as usual, you are wrong.

Keres and quite a few other Russians played this opening in the
1950's. You can find all kinds of analyses in the Russian journals
around that time.

Fischer (that's right: Your personal friend Robert J. Fischer) played
the Wolga Gambit in 1966: Fischer-Johannesen, Havana Olympics.

Even in my limited library I can find all sorts of citations earlier
than 1967. For example in the 1979 edition of the Encyclopedia. Check
it yourself.

If that doesn't please you try Euwe's Opening book, second edition
1965. It has a section on the Wolga Gambit with lots of citations.

Actually, I watched the first game with the Benko Gambit as it was
played. The game was Laver-Benko, American Open, Santa Monica 1967.
That is the first game in Benko's book, but he gives the wrong year,
1968. I know it was 1967 because I was there. That was the same
tournament where I beat Walter Browne.

No need to be so modest. I was also at the Santa Monica tournament and
Benkö told me himself that he learned the Benkö Gambit from you.

However, in the game Weaver-Valvo, last round of the 1963 US
Intercollegiate Championship, Notre Dame Indiana, 1963, Valvo played
something very similar to the Benko Gambit. Valvo played the b5
sacrifice on move 5 or 6 and won in convincing style. However, it is
not a Benko Gambit unless b5 is played on move 3.

There is also an old game Capablanca-Nimzovitch where the b5 sacrifice
was played but again that was about on move 5 and was not on move 3.

The idea of sacrificing a pawn with b5 was known by the 1920s, but
only Benko played it on move 3.

As to whether anybody analyzed the move prior to Benko I do not know.
To make a claim like that, one would have to provide the name, date
and year of the publication.

Euwe, Max - Theorie der Schacheröffnungen, Teil VI-VII, page 74.
Siegfried-Engelhardt-Verlag, Berlin, March 1965, 2nd edition.

Sloan, you are a fool.

I believe there is no such publication.
If somebody analyzed it privately without publishing it and without
playing it over the board and no record was kept that would not form
the basis for any claim to name the opening.

Sam Sloan