The Flick-Knife Attack

By 1956, the Modern Benoni was established as black's most dynamic response to 1.d4, due to it's adoption by the Soviet players, chief among them Mikhail Tal.

1.d4 Nf6
2.c4 c5
3.d5 e6
4.Nc3 exd5
5.cxd5 d6
6.e4 g6
7.Nf3

Traditional (favours black)
7...Bg7
8.Be2 0-0
9.0-0

Modern (favours white)
7...Bg7
8.h3 0-0
9.Bd3

Modern avoided (favours black)
7...a6

Until the Taimanov Attack (invented by Mark Taimanov, later known as the Flick-Knife attack), the traditional play was 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0, until in 1973 Ljubojevic demonstrated 9...a6 10.a4 Bg4 11.Bf4 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Qe7, deterring white players from continuing this gambit until the late 80's where a modern line pursued as 8.h3 0-0 9.Bd3. If black continues in the same manner as the traditional line of 9...a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.0-0 Re8, then white appears to regain the advantage with 12.Bf4.

Black adjusted with 9...b5 10.Nxb5 Nxe4 11.Bxe4 Re8 and maintain the prevailing thought until 12.Ng5 was discovered in 1990 by white. The 10...Re8 is a better way of recovering the pawn setting up a complicated game.

The other capture of 10.Bxb5, let to a conclusion that 10...Nxe4 11.Nxe4 Qa5+ 12.Nfd2 Qxb5 13.Nxd6 Qa6 14.N2c4 Nd7 15.0-0 was the only way that black could maintain equality and push for a draw. With such a large amount of theory being required knowledge to even salvage a draw, black looked for other ways of combating this modern line of play.

If black plays 7...a6 threatening 8...b5, white responds with 8.a4, allowing black a transposition of 8...Bg4 back to the traditional Ljubojevic main line of 9.Be2 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Bg7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Bf4 Qe7.
White cannot avoid this with 9.Qb3, as 9...Bxf3 10.Qxb7 allows black to either maintain material and positional equality with 10...Bxg2 or try for more with 10...Nbd7. It also cannot escape black’s idea with 8.h3 as this allows 8...b5,necessitating 9.Bd3 Bg7 10.0-0 0-0.

Taimanov's analysis in 1956 wasn't fully realised until the 1980's when the variant of 7.f4 Bg7 that allowed white to transpose to the main line of the Four Pawns Attack in the King's Indian Defense with 8.Nf3 0-0 9.Be2 was modified to 8.Bb5+ Nfd7, with Kasparov showing that 9.a4 was more dangerous for black.

It is here the Taimanov Attack was christened The Flick-Knife attack. Huge respect for any FUMBBL player that is still actually ready the bio of a [L] goblin with historical discussion of the intricacies of high level closed game chess.

As an epilogue, I will mention that over 20 years later in the 21st century this opening is still quite reasonable as Watson showed that a disruptive check on 9...Qh4+ was playable. This is not the only option for black as Gashimov showed us that 9...0-0 10.Nf3 Na6 11.0-0 Nb4 still has much game to be played.

Taimanov Attack (The Flick-Knife Attack)
1.d4 Nf6
2.c4 c5
3.d5 e6
4.Nc3 exd5
5.cxd5 d6
6.e4 g6
7.f4 Bg7
8.Bb5+ Nfd7
9.a4