Benko Gambit Accepted: Re2

The following chess position is from the Benko Gambit accepted or the Volga Gambit. Victor Korchnoi used to play the White side of this opening with extraordinary results. The White rook at e2 supports the e5 thrust and guards the sensitive b2 square.

This is one of the castle by hand variations where White has to be careful about his King residing on the h1-a8 diagonal in the lines where Black plays e6. GM DeFirmian recommends that White play this like a regular Benoni "forgetting" he has an extra pawn.

I like this accept the gambit pawn variation in an opening where there are so many decline the gambit pawn lines.

Jacob Aagaard from Denmark, in his excellent magnum opus titled Excelling at Positional Chess uses this tabiya to show that Black need not prove that there is compensation for the pawn he "sacrificed as the positional trumps are self-evident with the the rooks occupying the half-open a and b files, exceptionally, active pieces, and a compact pawn structure as chef John Fedorowicz describes it.

Aagaard does a remarkable job of proving that  the nebulous notion of material is just another aspect of any chess position and that one should be prepared to part with it if the position demands it!

Also Jacob, like many chess players, has a sensitive and restless mind as characterized by a John Shaw article at Quality Chess Blog. Chess was that outlet that allowed him to channel that unchecked energy into becoming a world class chess author.