Reversed Chigorin Defense

After 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3, Black usually plays 2...d5 to stop e4. The move 2...c5 instead hits d4 at once, in the style of a Benoni. White's knight changes the nature of that structure: it rules out the c4 advance seen in true Benoni lines, but it supports an early e4. Engines give White a slight edge, and Wikibooks treats 2...c5 as dubious. Overall results in the Lichess database are nearly even.

About half of all games continue 3. d5, which gains space and keeps the knight free to support e4. After 3...e6 4. e4, a Black player who treats the position like a Modern Benoni with 4...exd5?? runs into 5. e5. One line runs 5...d4 6. exf6 dxc3? 7. Qe2+ Be7 8. fxe7 Qc7 9. bxc3, and White comes out winning. The quieter options 3. dxc5 and 3. Bf4 are each chosen in a smaller share of games, and Black has scored better against both than against 3. d5.