Sielecki and L'Ami have done a new Lifetime-Repertoire on chessable against 1.d4. Main suggestion is the  Triangle (Noteboom etc). 

Against 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 they suggest 2...Bf5!? 
Against 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 they also suggest 2...Bf5!?
Maybe interesting companions to the Triangle stuff. 

They try hard to keep things sharp and interesting, to say at least. 
An appetizer from the - free - Short and Sweet version: 
(The comments have been a bit shortened by me.)   

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3
a flexible choice. White may still play c2-c4 on the next move, entering a Queen's Gambit, or opt for a slower development. 
2…Bf5

3.c4
White's most principled and best move. It puts pressure on d5 and prepares the move Qb3 in many situations, looking at the tender b7-pawn.

3...e6
Worse is 3...c6? 4.cxd5 cxd5 5. Qb3 which is awkward for Black. Black's resources are much better after the better choice 3...e6. In some cases, we might be able to play ...c7-c5, fighting for the center with the c-pawn. Another common scenario is answering Qb3 with ...Nb8-c6, leading to sharp play.

4. Nc3
White's most popular move.

4...Nf6!
After 4...c6, White is better in the line 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.c5 Qc7 7.Bf4! Qc8 8.Nh4 Bg6 9.Bxg6 hxg6 10.e4, which we avoid by playing 4...Nf6. After 4...Nf6, White can still play 5.b3, but now we have the dynamic reply 5...c6!, which is much more active.

5.e3
White covers the c4-pawn but locks in the c1-bishop. This is a solid line for White that looks similar to 4.e3, but there is a key difference.After 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bf5 3.c4 e6 4.e3, we suggest 4...c6, when White can't play Nh4, because our queen still has an eye on this square. 

Now, after 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.e3, the situation is different, as 5...c6 6.Nh4 is possible. This would not be terrible at all because we'd just transpose to the Slow Slav. 

5…Bb4!?
is an interesting alternative. 
This move is a frequent guest in the current chapter. Black plays in the style of the Nimzo-Indian or the Ragozin Defense of the Queen's Gambit. Now White usually chooses between 6.Qb3, 6.Qa4+ or 6.Bd2, which is the most frequently played but rather harmless move. The whole 5...Bb4 is still rather unexplored and offers many possibilities for both sides. We, therefore, won't dig that deep and focus on some key lines and ideas.

6.Qa4+ is critical. 

6...Nc6 7.Ne5 
The logical follow-up to the queen check. White puts more pressure on our knight.

7...O-O
It's also possible to play 7...Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 O-O, when 9.Nxc6 bxc6 leads to the same position that we will examine.

8.Nxc6 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 bxc6
White has managed to weaken our pawn structure and can now capture the c6-pawn if desired. White is far behind in development, though, which nicely balances the chances. 
Now we need to check the pawn grab 10.Nxc6 (very risky and dubious) 
and the better move, 10.f3, which takes control of the vital e4-square. We don't need to worry about 10.Ba3?!, as 10...Re8 is a valuable move for us (...e5 is the idea), while the a3-bishop is severely misplaced on a3.

10.f3
This looks like White's best move. It seems slow but preventing ...Ne4 is an important accomplishment for White. How to continue now?
10...e5
Let's open the position even at the cost of the material. Now White can take pawns on e5 or c6 or ignore the captures altogether − we have some ground to cover ...

Yeah I agree, it's a huge number of different openings to prepare for when you were just trying to get a better line against the London!  Not worth it.  But I wanted to point out that the move order recommended by Kaufman in The Chess Advantage in Black and White has an enormous flaw; he didn't consider the position following 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bg5 at all, when Black can't get a Semi-Slav (4...c6 5.e3).  Many people seem unaware of this.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Bg5 is another problem, when Black would need to be prepared to play a Queen's Gambit of some kind as well as all lines of the Semi Slav proper.  It would be a shame for a Noteboom player to be move ordered out of their favorite defense so easily as 2.Nf3 and 3.c4, but  if Black's willing to play all of those openings, then this would be an ideal solution.

Thanks for the replies.  Both approaches seem viable to me although of course neither will equal the complexity of the Noteboom System.  Something we all have to live with in a variety of openings.

Personally, I would just bite the bullet and play a ...d5, ...e6, ...c5 system. I think these positions have a lot more life than people give them credit for. 

Regarding " Essentially, I see no reason why White should not be at least very slightly better in the London and Colle positions above (since in the Colle position he is up a tempo and in the London position he has developed his queen's bishop outside the pawn chain).":

Black has full equality because of his slight space advantage based on the move ...c5. If White doesn't do anything particularly ambitious, there are generally chances to break with ...e5, at which point, if anyone is better, it's Black.

That normally leaves the plan of playing Ne5 and f2-f4 (in the London and the Colle-Zukertort), which is a good and potentially lethal plan. That being said, it does abandon the e4 square, meaning that Black has good counterchances based around the idea of (assuming ...b6 and ...Bb7 has been played) going ...Ne7 followed by ...Ne4, planting the Knight in the hole, then, if possible, following up with ...f6, excevating White's Knight from e5. 

Sure, it isn't the excitement of the Noteboom, but against a weaker opponent, I see no reason why Black shouldn't be able to aim to smoothly outplay White. 

I'm not sure the previously suggested 2...c6 3 Bf4 Qb6 is likely to give Black anything more "dynamic". It looks interesting on the surface, but I think it just amounts to a slightly better for White, kind of stodgy position.

After something like 4 Qc1 Nf6 5 e3 Bf5, granted, if White is playing his "system" moves without looking up from the board, he has no hope for any plus at all, but the position cries out for 6 c4!, when eventually, c4-c5, b2-b4, and so on are likely to happen, and (at least personally) White looks far more comfortable. 

All this being said, I fully admit pretty much all of the above comes down to personal preference 

ErictheRed wrote on 05/30/07 at 05:51:41:


I was thinking of adding this to my repertoire and starting pondering the "boring position" problem.  Did you ever decide on an option?

The Noteboom was my main defence to 1.d4 for many years, and I'm considering playing it again after taking a break for a year or two.  I'm curious about how the Noteboom experts here recommend meeting 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3.

A little background: first, most of my opponents (at least 75%) are rated below 2200, and down here the London, Torre, Colle, Barry Attack, etc. are very popular; it's worth having a little something prepared for them.  Personally, I hate playing the Black side of 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 d5 (here or soon after), as well as the Black side of 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 d5 (again, here or soon after).  Essentially, I see no reason why White should not be at least very slightly better in the London and Colle positions above (since in the Colle position he is up a tempo and in the London position he has developed his queen's bishop outside the pawn chain).  More importantly, I find the above positions quite sterile and a bore to play as Black.  I own John Cox's Dealing with d4 Deviations, but the more I look at the above lines the more I realize I don't want to play them.  I much prefer 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bf4 c5! and even 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 c5!? (or the safer 3...Bf5).  In these lines, Black seems to have better chances of fighting for the initiative.

Anyway, these options aren't available for someone trying to play a Noteboom after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3.  Sometimes when faced with 2.Nf3, I used to play 2...Nf6, gambling that White wasn't man enough to follow up with 3.c4.  But that's obviously not an ideal solution.  Playing into the London and Colle lines given above has always been a bit of a problem for me (those positions are certainly not the type of chess I'm after when I sit down hoping for a Noteboom).  That leaves two moves after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3: 2...e6 and 2...c6.

A few years ago I decided to play 2...e6, with the idea of meeting the Colle with a Stonewall setup: 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 f5!?.  This brought me  a lot of success, as White is denied his normal types of positions and I generally like the Stonewall Dutch.  I wasn't able to find the same sort of solution for the London, though.  After giving it a lot of thought, I eventually settled on 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 Bd6, when 4.Bxd6 Qxd6 (cxd6!?), while still a tad boring, is definitely a little more fun for Black than the standard 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 d5 lines.  However, White could maybe just play it cool with 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 Bd6 4.Bg3, when I don't see that Black has anythin better than playing 4...Nf6 and eventually transposing to an ultra-boring position from the "normal" London (as seen in Cox's book).

So this has got me thinking....would 2...c6 be better for a Noteboom player?  I could still play a Stonewall vs. the Colle (or even just 3...Bf5), and I might have more interesting options against the London.  I haven't given it a great deal of thought, but 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c6 3.Bf4 Qb6!? (or 3...Nf6 4.e3 Qb6!?) might be good, though Black doesn't really put pressure on the d4 pawn like he would if the c-pawn were on c5 instead of c6.  Alternatively, something like 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c6 3.Bf4 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 would probably be a lot more fun for Black than the 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 d5 lines.  I guess White could play 4.c3 to be annoying, though.

Thoughts??  How should a Noteboom player seek to mix it up after 2.Nf3?  Also, I'm sorry for posting so much on such a simple question!