Hello 4... c5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 6. Nf3 Qb6 7. e3 is played many times.

A few points to note:
(i) White has g2-g4 ideas as bishop f8 has moved, and he can play g4 with or without inclusion of b3/Bb2. Sometimes White even goes for a maximalist approach, and grabs space on both wings with a3/b4 and g2-g4.
(ii) Black's queen on b6 is misplaced (it blocks queenside development, vulnerable to Na4 fork etc), so most likely must move again.

I recommend to see games Carlsen-Shaposhnikov, Bareev-Akopian, Van Wely-Li Wenliang, Beliavsky-Shaposhnikov, and the recent Bareev-Ismagambetov from Turin Ol. 2006 (which continued 4. Qc2 c5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 6. Nf3 Qb6 7. e3 Qc7 8. b3 (8. g4 is possible) 8...b6 9. Bb2 a6 10. g4 Bb7 11. Be2 h6 12. Rg1 Bf8 13. h4), all these games have slightly different move orders but White always has same idea of g2-g4. Probably White has some initiative after the g4 thrust, so most GMs on Black side prefer to play safe with 5...0-0 first.

If Black does not play 6....Qb6 then White can play Bg5 of course, when he can argue that he is one tempo up on the Bg5 lines: see Aronian-Karpov Essent (i think in 2003), quite a rout.

Hi All,

I have just switched from the Slav to the Nimzo/Queens Indian as my weapon against 1.d4.

I played a league game a few days ago that went 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 (this is where my knowledge of theory ran out) 5.dxc5 Bxc5 6.Nf3 Qb6 (to force his reply so he couldn't pin my knight on f6) 7.e3

I eventually dropped my queen back to c7 and my bishop to e7 and set up a hedgehog structure and the game was drawn after 45 moves.

I thought I had wasted time in the opening but when I checked the position in chessbase I was surprised to see that a few strong GMs had played this as black.

I also noted that 5...0-0 is the most common move.

My question is what is the current state of this line and is 5...0-0 considered a better move?

Thanks