Quote:


3...c5!? Could prove annoying. Even 3...e6 looks like a reasonble French. 

Top

Depends on the move order 
Put it that way 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.e3 Nbd7 Why not ? intending e5 4.Nf3 c6 5.c4 e6 6.Nc3 Qa5.

By the way, I have questions on the Scandinavian. Should I use the well-known move order 1.d4 d5 2.e4 the section's favourite...2...Nf6 The acceptance is too terrorizing 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nc3 Qa5 ? 

Yes, too late I noticed it myself. Sorry!

This thread should be in the 1 d4 d5 section!

For a long time (~92-01) I played all the Open Slav (4...dxc4) , the Neo-Slav (4...a6) and the Semi-Slav (via slav move order 4...e6) with Black against 1.d4 . Later for no obvious reason I decided to concentrate on ... the Open Slav. Against 4...e6 5.Lg5 I always played the Cambridge-Springs 5...Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5. A wonderful defence: Black´s problems to reach 6...Qa5 are bigger (but still small) than any problems after 6...Qa5.

As ...e7-e6 only happens after Ng1-f3, White has of course no chance to enter the most favourable lines of QGE with Ng1-e2.
5.cxd5 exd5 gives Black the possibilities 6.e3 Bf5!? or 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Bf5 and 6.Qc2 Na6!? (with equality IMO). - On the other hand 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7.cxd5 Nxd5! is already inside Cambridge-Springs (and very unclear IMO).

So 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.cxd5 exd5 7.e3 is White´s only chance to achieve something by transposing to QGE as Black has neither Nb8-a6 nor Bc8-f5 at he moment. Black´s most natural choice is to play 7...Be7 and enter the old QGE mainlines (with perhaps a very small white advantage). But I prefered 7...Bd6 8.Bd3 Nf8!? what has different advantages: many white QGE players don´t know this very well, the resulting positions are not very typical for QGE, it´s very tactical and easy to prepare, it´s unclear according to ECO. On my 2200-level I had very good results with this. I don´t know the current state of theory but 7...Bd6 would be my suggestion to Cambridge-Springs players. Maybe we should investigate this a little bit more ?!

tracke