Quote:I've always wondered about this. Why is 6...e5 considered the main line. Why not commit the knight first? I've found out that if I commit the knight first I do not run into the trouble of the exchange variation (not that much trouble literally, but just one less option for white). So far I've not had any problems doing that, but I'm curious if there are any drawbacks to this compared to 6...e5.
White can play 7.Be3 e5 8.d5!, and if 8...Ng4 then 9.Bd2 f5 10.Ng5. And as IM John Cox points out in his great work
Starting Out: 1.d4!, "White can still caster queenside in a variation like 10...Ndf6 11.exf5 gxf5 12.h3 Nh6 13.Qc2". Of course another drawback for most of us is that we don't play the ...Nbd7 variations anyway, but if it weren't for the above problem I'd probably venture it against an opponent known to play the exchange variation.
Quote:As Grivas shows, maybe the Gallagher's recomendation for Black in exchange variation
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 g6 4.e4 Bg7 5.Nf3 00 6.Be2 e5 7.dxe dxe 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Bg5 Re8 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.cxd c6 12.Bc4 cxd 13.Bxd5 Nd7 is closer to '+=' that to '='.
Really? Does anyone else feel that way? I thought this variation was another complete answer to the exchange variation which required a little accuracy from White for him not to risk being worse. However, looking at my old ECO E vol.2, it show White maintaining a += advantage too starting with 14.Nd2.