Jean Hebert - Modern Benoni

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Jean Hebert: Modern Benoni

12/02/00

While electronic opening references are fast supplanting printed ones, it is somewhat tough to learn a specific opening from a CD. Part of the problem is that it can be difficult to convey the proper ideas and concepts necessary for really learning and opening. But I think it’s mostly due to the fact that the medium has just not been utilized to its fullest extent. Now I am happy to say that I have seen the first CD that succeeds in this regard. This CD, authored by Canadian IM Jean Hebert and distributed by Chessbase, deals with playing the black side of the Benoni.

This opening CD employs the Chessbase lite interface, and contains over 13000 games, of which over 1600 are annotated. There are 28 training games on the CD, with multiple questions in each game. There is also a Chessbase tree that contains statistical information on the Benoni (you can use this tree to practice with in Fritz). Most of the games are annotated by IM Hebert, but there are some other annotators on the CD as well, including such Benoni luminaries Psakhis and Yudasin (check that he has decent record with Benoni). But overall, IM Hebert annotates nearly all of the games.

There are a large number of games from the 90s on this CD, and even some from the year 2000, so the information is quite current. The average ELO of white and black are 2391 and 2384, respectively.

There are instructional texts for each major variation, along with a clearly stated recommended move, and links to model games. There is a text on general ideas of the opening, along with a game that discusses some of the move orders that will be encountered. I am not qualified to comment on the quality of the annotations of these games, or on IM Hebert’s recommendations for playing this opening. However, I did find some new ideas on this CD, so it’s not just a recycling of existing material.

There was one thing I would improve on this CD if given the chance. I would employ the theme keys, and add some hyperlinks to these keys in the opening texts. I would put these hyperlinks in the each of the sections on the major variations. While you can use the openings key on the database instead, I think the hyperlinks would be a nice touch. Overall though, I consider this shortcoming to be almost inconsequential.

I think that this CD constitutes a good introduction to this complex opening. Furthermore, to my mind, there seems to be the correct amount of instructional text mixed with the games database. So I think this is one of the better opening CDs that I’ve seen. IM Hebert has obviously spent a bit of time putting this CD together, and I think the results are well worthwhile.

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Languages Supported

English, German