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**Sam Sloan**

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 10:44:30 +0200, Jürgen R. wrote:

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.

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

Sloan, you are a fool.

That is not a Benko Gambit. The Benko Gambit involves a pawn sacrifice
on move three. You and others are citing games which might transpose
into some variatoion of the Benko Gambit Declined later on, but did
not start with the moves 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5.

For example, in the game Johannessen-Fischer, Havana Olympiad, 1966,
White played 2. Nf3, so when Black played 3. ... b5 he was not
offering to sacrifuce a pawn.

Sam Sloan

[Event "Chess Olympiad"]
[Site "Havana"]
[Date "1966.??.??"]
[White "Johannessen,Svein "]
[Black "Fischer,Robert J "]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A46"]
[Round "7"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. d5 b5 4. c4 Bb7 5. g3 g6 6. Bg2 bxc4 7. Nc3 Bg7

8. O-O O-O 9. Ne5 d6 10. Nxc4 Nbd7 11. Re1 Ba6 12. Qa4 Qc8 13. Na5 Nb6
14. Qh4 Re8
15. Bg5 Qc7 16. Nc6 Bb7 17. e4 Nbd7 18. f4 Kh8 19. e5 dxe5 20. fxe5
Nxd5 21. Nxd5 Qxc6
22. e6 Ne5 23. Rxe5 Bxe5 24. exf7 Rf8 25. h3 Rxf7 26. Nf4 Rxf4 0-1