Thus players who are seeking the typical imbalance in pawn structure associated with the Modern Benoni tend to prefer the immediate 3...e6 followed by 4...exd5.

Nimzowitsch received the third special prize of the tournament for this game and labelled Marshall's opening an "unfortunate" "extravagance" in his annotations;[9] as a result, it lay virtually abandoned for decades.

The imbalance inherent in its pawn structure and the counter-chances this implied for Black appealed to aggressive players such as Rashid Nezhmetdinov and Alexander Tolush;[11] the Israeli master Moshe Czerniak also employed it frequently.

Lev Polugaevsky,[11] Boris Spassky[11] and Alexey Suetin[12] were among the younger generation of Soviet players who used it regularly in the 1950s and 1960s.

[13] The tactical positions it led to were a perfect fit for Tal's combinatorial gifts and he crushed many opponents in brilliant style.

Famous examples include his game against Bukhuti Gurgenidze at the 1957 USSR championship, excerpted below, and his win against Yuri Averbakh at the same tournament the following year.

[17] In the 1960s Larry Evans began employing the system frequently, and from 1966 onwards, Bobby Fischer also included it in his repertoire, albeit as a secondary weapon.

[8] It became a favoured weapon for players needing to win against 1.d4: for example, Psakhis used it to defeat Yuri Razuvaev in the penultimate round of the 1980 USSR Championship,[22] catching Alexander Beliavsky in the lead and ultimately sharing first place with him.

[23] But in the early 1980s, White scored several crushing victories at high-profile tournaments using the aggressive Taimanov Attack, which caused players to question the fundamental soundness of Black's opening.

[24][25] By the end of the decade, the Modern Main Line had also emerged as a dangerous weapon for White, which only compounded Black's troubles.

[26][27] Those who continued to play it often chose to do so via the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5, when White's early development of the knight to f3 rules out the Taimanov Attack and gives Black opportunities to avoid the Modern Main Line.

Many of the ideas he recommended, such as 9...Qh4+ versus the Taimanov Attack[32] and 9...Nh5 in the Modern Main Line,[33] grew in popularity after its publication.

[35] Nevertheless, Étienne Bacrot, Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk have all since used the Modern Benoni at the highest levels of competition, while Vugar Gashimov became the opening's most notable proponent.

[36] He was the strongest player willing to use the original 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 move order and defend Black's cause in both the Taimanov Attack[32] and the Modern Main Line.

[34] The creation of such a pronounced structural imbalance so early on in the game implies that Black aims to counterattack rather than equalize.

"[23] Since White's central superiority typically constitutes a positional advantage, Black must frequently resort to tactical play and material sacrifices in order not to be forced into passivity.

Tactics involving ...Nxe4 are not uncommon—the games Averbakh–Tal, USSR championship, Riga 1958,[15][14] and Uhlmann–Fischer, Interzonal, Palma de Mallorca 1970,[52][53] are well-known examples.

[54] En route to winning his first USSR championship,[55] Tal provided a brilliant example of how Black's dark-square control could lead to a kingside attack.

Even though this would give Black the opportunity to establish a passed c-pawn with ...c5-c4, blockading the queenside in this manner may allow White to pursue play in the centre and on the kingside undisturbed.

[77][70][64] By the late 1980s Ljubojević's plan of exchanging the light-squared bishop had been proven so reliable it was deterring White from entering the Classical Main Line altogether.

In the resulting positions Black has found it difficult to generate any winning chances, and even finding equality has not been a simple task.

[99] But in two crushing and high-profile victories with White (against Frans Andre Cuijpers at the 1980 World Junior Chess Championship in Dortmund, and against Nunn at the 1982 Olympiad in Lucerne) Kasparov showed that 9.a4 was more dangerous for Black, it having the advantage of not determining the bishop's retreat square for the time being.

[99] White's success with this idea led some to question the soundness of the Modern Benoni, at least in its original move order.

In 1982, Nunn concluded his analysis of the Taimanov with the words, "Black badly needs a new idea against 8.Bb5+ and 9.a4 to keep the Benoni in business";[100] two years later, he had given up the opening altogether.

[101] Other players such as Psakhis resorted to using the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6, only playing 3...c5 in response to 3.Nf3 to avoid the Taimanov, while choosing an entirely different opening against 3.Nc3.

[104] Later players such as Gashimov showed that the queen check is not mandatory, and that Black also retains good chances in the line 9...0-0 10.Nf3 Na6 11.0-0 Nb4, taking advantage of the outpost on b4.

[120] Noted proponents of the Fianchetto Variation have included strong positional players such as Viktor Korchnoi,[122] Gennadi Sosonko[123] and Predrag Nikolić,[122] and after a recommendation by the influential theorist Boris Avrukh in 2010, the line has become more topical.

[124][125] Play typically proceeds 7.g3 Bg7 8.Bg2 0-0 9.0-0, and now the most common continuation sees Black developing in standard Benoni fashion while White manoeuvres the king's knight to c4, i.e. 9...a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.Nd2 Re8 12.h3 Rb8 13.Nc4.

Another possibility is 9.h3 0-0 10.e3, which gives the bishop a retreat square in case of ...Nh5 and delays further expansion in the centre until the White's development is complete.

Although a number of opening books recommended the 7.Bf4 variation for White in the early 21st century,[136][137] Black appears to be able to maintain the balance in this line.