Benoni Defense: King's Pawn Line (8… exd5 9. cxd5)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 c5 4. d5 d6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Nc3 e6 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 exd5 9. cxd5

Benoni Defense: King's Pawn Line after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 c5 4. d5 d6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Nc3 e6 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 exd5 9. cxd5 87654321abcdefgh

The Benoni Defense: King's Pawn Line is a chess opening classified as ECO A65, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 c5 4. d5 d6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Nc3 e6 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 exd5 9. cxd5. It is a line of the Benoni Defense. Black is to move.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: +0.16 (Stockfish, depth 30; best line 9… a6 10. a4 Qa5 11. Nge2 Nbd7 12. Ng3)

ECO
A65
Moves
17 plies
FEN
rnbq1rk1/pp3pbp/3p1np1/2pP4/4P3/2N1BP2/PP1Q2PP/R3KBNR b KQ - 0 9
PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 c5 4. d5 d6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Nc3 e6 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 exd5 9. cxd5

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Master games

1 over-the-board game is classified under this line (White 0%, draw 0%, Black 100%). The strongest:

Search all games of the Benoni Defense: King's Pawn Line and its sub-variations

Comes from

Indian Defense: Anti-Grünfeld, Alekhine Variation 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3

More Benoni Defense lines (all)

Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.