ErictheRed wrote on 12/14/17 at 18:11:59:

This is a common way of thinking. I have seen this argument made against playing the classical 1.e4 e5 as black, and the Open Sicilian as white. On the other side of the coin, I have seen this argument used in favor of playing the Scandinavian (amongst others). E.g.:

"The appeal of the Scandinavian Defence is easy to understand: it is very forcing – Black is virtually guaranteed to get his desired structure. There are no annoying ‘Anti-Scandinavians’ to study!" --https://www.newinchess.com/en_US/understanding-the-scandinavian

Whether or not this thinking is correct, we should account for it in our preparations.

I have played the White side of 4...e6 5.Nbd2 on and off for years, and the books have been recommending 5...c5 as the antidote for most of that time. But I hardly ever see it played. Maybe it looks too strange to "waste a tempo" this early for players below a certain level (2300?).

The solution for White if 5.Nbd2 c5! equalizes may be 5.b3 instead, as Avrukh has been recommending; sometimes reaching the same positions but in some move orders putting the knight on c3 anyway.

ErictheRed wrote on 12/13/17 at 16:01:23:

Here it was suggested that 5.Nbd2 c5 6.b3 is not easy for black:
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1491838454/32#32

I think best is meant to be 5...Nbd7 6 Bd3 Bd6 and meet e3-e4 with ...e5, but these aren't exactly easy positions to win for Black.

Marc Benford wrote on 06/04/15 at 15:59:00:

This assumes that somehow it is a victory for black to be able to go into a standard 5.e3 Semi-Slav (plus there must be some at least okay alternative to 5.Nf3), while not counting that white has made it less attrative for black to play standard Slav systems with dxc4 (of course there are still interesting lines such as 4...Bf5 5.cxd5 cxd5 6.Qb3 Nc6).

Marc Benford wrote on 06/04/15 at 15:59:00:

I would agree that white can get a different character of play than in e.g. the Meran Semi-Slav, but even with Nc3+e3+Nf3 played white can choose lines with b3/Qc2 etc. that are reasonably positional. I would not agree that the extra lines that white can play objectively offer white any more of an advantage than the lines after Nc3+e3+Nf3. Do not get me wrong, I like so of the positions you can get from this move order for white, but I do not really believe they are objectively better for white. However, the real downside of 3.Nf3+4.e3 is that 4...Bf5 and 4...Bg4 (without having to play 4...dxc4 first) are reasonable attempts to punish the white move order without an early Nc3. These moves become possible due to the lesser pressure on d5 - you cannot really play 4...Bf5 after e.g. 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3, but after 4.e3 it is very good and so is 4...Bg4. GMs obviously still play this for white with the hope of getting an advantage (and Avrukh did recommend it in his GM repetoire #1), but if it were not for these extra options, then this move order would of course be even more popular.

In either case (3.Nc3 or 3.Nf3), once 4.e3 is in 4...g6 also becomes more attractive than when white still has the option to go 5.Bf4 (if both knights had moved).

Such things as "?!" and "much weaker than the usual Semi-Slav" imply at least a definite "+=", and if there is such a consensus about 4...e6 it is news to me.

Hi.

Someone told me that:

- Against the move order 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 or 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3, the move 4...e6 is averagely effective. This is an usual Semi-Slav. White now has two options: 5. e3 and 5. Bg5

- Against the move order 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3, the move 4...e6 is extremely effective, since White has already committed to playing e3, so White has lost his second option (5. Bg5), White has only one option left: he will need to play 5. Nf3 transposing into a 5. e3 Semi-Slav.

- Against the move order 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3, the move 4...e6 is not very effective: it's still 'playable' but it's much weaker than the usual Semi-Slav. It's due to the fact that White now has four options: 5. Nc3, 5. Bd3, 5. Nbd2 and 5. b3. The first option just transposes into a normal 5. e3 Semi-Slav, while the three other options give White an advantage that is even bigger than usual (and they tend to lead to games which are more positional, not sharp and tactical games like in the usual Semi-Slav).

Could I get your opinions on this please? Is it true?

Thanks in advance for your answers.