So come on Semko, how is El Khal going to refute the Alekhine? 4 Nf3 or the Exchange?

I find the original post a bit curious. I wouldn't say any white first move had particular thematic links with the QGA, nor Black defence to e4 really. As someone said, perhaps the Petroff, at least until FIDE sees the light and bans it!

Hello,

@ Boris_Karwash what kevenludwig said looks quite logical to me. Think a QGA player should like direct hand to hand fighting of the peices, so playing 1.e4 as white, and sicillian or 1...e5 as black against 1.e4 makes most sense. This fits the top players already mentioned, and also Kasparov, and Fischer.  As kevenludwig implied you should expect a certain amount of pain in learning the opening at first, as opponents hit you with direct tactics. After you come familiar with opening, you will reach genuiuely equal or better middle-games, and you will also learn about classical chess. Which is why the old soviet coaches used to recommend such openings.
             As black against 1e4, I moving towards playing 1...e5, after playing the French and sicillian variations in the past. When playing the French, I had a liking for more open variations like the Burn variation, and never liked nf6 against the tarrasch like a "real" french player would. When playing against the sicillian, have to be prepared for defending against enormous white attack's in the open main-line variations. Without significant preparation, white's position is so much easier to play, see Polgar's troubles in on-going WC tournament for example.

Bye John S

Inn2's advice is probably more sensible than my own - 1.e4 is likely to be more appropriate than 1.c4 for most players.  My 1.c4 is simply something I have always played and the resulting positions aren't too close to QGA stuff, from what I can see. As for answering 1.e4 I can only repeat that the Taimanov is my preference.  There aren't too many problematic Anti Sicilians to worry about (2...e6 rules out the Bb5 lines) and I think that it gives you a better game than the Rubinstein or the Scan, even if you stray from the main lines early on. Also you could try the Sicilian Kan, which in some ways is perhaps easier to adopt as a 'system' opening.....but again, I wouldn't like to say how well it fits with the QGA.  Personally I am heartened to know that Anand plays both the QGA and the Taimanov quite often, and I didn't know who Rublevsky was until I read about him in the Rizzitano book, but it's encouraging to see that he, too, plays both openings.  Still, I don't think it makes much difference at my lowly level what these guys play - I just want middlegame positions I'm comfortable in, and I get those in the English, and so far I get them in some lines of the QGA, but certainly not all....

Thanks for your useful input Slates. I enjoy playing the QGA as I win with it often, and also because it seems less like old stodge than the QGD (which I played for years and consistantly lost with). As the QGA is now the backbone of my repertoire, I will invest in the book you recommended. 

As you suggested that the English feels comfortable with the QGA, perhaps my friends suggestion of the Reti for white isn't so bad after all. Do any Reti/English players in this forum have an opinion on this? Trouble is that if I build my repertoire around the QGA and the Reti, what would I play as black against 1e4??   1e5 (kevinludwig's recommendation) is tempting (especially after all those negative comments about the Alekhine's) but that looks wrong with the Reti/QGA; and as I have mentioned in this forum before, I just don't have the time or  energy to learn the Sicilian (all those anti-Sicilians put me completely off). Perhaps the Rubinstein French is the solution? oR the Scandinavian??

Semkov, 

I'm looking forward to seeing it!  Is the release just in Europe for now, or also in the US?

About 1. ...e5. I have a short story for you. I started playing the Alekhine when I was just a 1300USCF player, and it took me all the way to about 1800USCF, and probably I could have kept playing it, but I decided to switch repertoire, just out of boredom. Sometime after that I took a few lessons from an IM, and of course he wanted to know what my goals were, and I said "I want to run up my rating as high as possible" or something to that effect. He said "Fine, the first thing you need to do is give up the Alekhine's Defence". At any rate I decided on the Pirc, for whatever reason...I think I had read "Winning with the Modern" at a local University library, and I was inspired, and off I went. Now my rating is somewhere around 1900USCF. Let me tell you, those Alekhine lines, and now these Pirc lines, this is HARD stuff to play. Even when you learn the theory, and you get the position you're supposed to get, sometimes these positions are just HARD. 
Now, I've been learning 1. ...e5 as a side project for about 4 months now--I just don't feel like a real chess player unless I know how to play some of those positions. Sometimes I get blown away in less that 20 moves against some 1200 player on ICC. So there are a lot of tricky positions, probably a lot more traps to be aware of than in other openings. But I have also found that once you get the position you're supposed to get, it's ALOT easier to play from there.
On the other hand, you may get invaluable practice at defense if you play the Alekhine. And of course, this is just my opinion, your results may vary, etc.

Thanks for your help kevinludwig. I already open with 1e4 as white, so I'm glad to hear that this is a good choice. Someone at my chess club suggested the Reti would be a good choice but i don't know if that is a practical idea or not. As black, I keep flitting from opening to opening against 1e4 players. I need to sort something out and stick  with it !! I hadn't considered 1e5 before as it looks very complicated. I was thinking about the Alekhines Defense. I don't mind the pawn structures being different, but I want to play at the same kind of speed in all my openings.

Help Wanted !!

Could any Queens Gambit Accepted players please tell me what they play as White and also what they play as Black against 1e4? What would be a nice fit??Thank You in advance to all who reply.  

IT'S ALIVE !! ALIVE !!