3...e6 followed by 4...exd5. Alternative move orders and transpositions It is possible, indeed common, for Black's second and third moves to be reversed: thus 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 and 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 will both transpose into the Modern Benoni if White allows it with 4.d5. The latter move order has been especially popular since the 1980s, as it allows Black to reach the Modern Benoni while sidestepping the Taimanov Attack. It also gives Black the additional option of meeting 4.d5 with 4...b5, the Blumenfeld Gambit. Players who use this move order will often choose a different defence against 3.Nc3, such as the Nimzo-Indian with 3...Bb4. Another frequent transposition into the Modern Benoni occurs when White invites a Catalan Opening with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 and Black responds with 3...c5. If White responds with 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5, Black can play 5...d6, which often transposes into the Fianchetto Variation; but a common alternative is 5...b5, which leads to independent positions. Black can also try to reach the Modern Benoni through a Benoni Defence move order, i.e. 1.d4 c5 2.d5 Nf6, when 3.c4 e6 would complete the transposition. However, White often prefers not to play 3.c4, since it takes away a useful square from a white knight. Several lines of the King's Indian Defence, such as the Four Pawns Attack, the Sämisch Variation and the Fianchetto Variation, can also transpose into variations of the Modern Benoni if Black plays ...c5 followed by ...e6 and ...exd5 and White recaptures with the c-pawn. History The Modern Benoni was invented by Frank Marshall at the New York 1927 chess tournament. He played it twice, gaining a draw against José Raúl Capablanca in the Fianchetto Variation, but losing soundly to Aron Nimzowitsch, who played the Knight's Tour. Nimzowitsch received the third special prize of the tournament for this game and labelled Marshall's opening an "unfortunate" "extravagance" in his annotations; as a result, it lay virtually abandoned for decades. However, Karel Hromádka's experiments with the Benoni Defence in the 1930s occasionally featured the moves ...e7-e6 and ...exd5, resulting in a transposition to the Modern Benoni. Only in the 1950s was interest in the system revived, when the King's Indian Defence gained in popularity among Soviet players and their investigations branched into related opening systems such as the Modern Benoni. The imbalance inherent in its pawn structure and the counter-chances this implied for