Thanks all. I recommend the books in this thread. Panczyk and Ilczuk (P&I) cover all lines in the Cambridge Springs variation. Rodi's focus is different. He covers several dynamic lines in the Queen's Gambit Declined. He provides his preferred lines for Black in the Cambridge Springs.

Like kylemeister, I am attracted to the old main line (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Qa5 7. Nd2 Bb4 8. Qc2 O-O 9. Be2 e5!?). P&I cover this, but do not recommend it. It is not in Rodi's repertoire. Glenn Flear, ChessPublishing, gave favorable coverage to one line in February 2021. For what it's worth, my current thinking is that it leaves Black with more homework than I want to do.

After 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Qa5 7. Nd2, Rodi and Panczyk and Ilczuk recommend 8...dc4 8. Bf6 Nf6 9. Nc4 Qc7. It makes sense to me. 7Nd2 anticipates 7...Bb4, so perhaps the active looking 7...Bb4 should be avoided. Also, why not take White up on his offer of the two bishops? However, Black's position is a little cramped. I think Black can probably find satisfactory play in all variations and have even provided some recommendations in this thread.

Rodi has a second recommendation. It is also covered by Panczyk and Ilczuk. It splits the difference between the hyper-activity of the old main line and positional stoicism of the 8...dxc line. He recommends 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Qa5 7. Nd2 Bb4 8. Qc2 O-O 9. Be2 c5.

I looked at this before but was not convinced. However, Rodi's advocacy has convinced me to look at it again. His familiarity with the material helps cut through a jungle of possible continuations. I've only started to go through his analysis but am encouraged so far.

For the record, here are the games referenced by FreeRepublic and kylemeister.

• Gruenfeld - Bogoljubov, Maehrisch-Ostrau 1923 
  https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1030736 
• Alekhine - Bogoljubov, World ch m (13) 1929 (see also games 9, 10, 12) 
  https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1012573 
• Formanek - Smith, US Open (5) 1965 
  https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1754997 
• Kasparov - Smyslov, Candidates m (13) 1984 (see also games 3, 7, 9) 
  https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070106 
• Shirov - Piket, Aruba m (6) 1995 
  https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1108942 
• Carlsen - Kasparov, Reykjavik rapid 2004 
  https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1279168 

FreeRepublic wrote on 04/06/24 at 16:15:12:

I'm a bit curious as to what he has to say about this old main line: 7...Bb4 8. Qc2 0-0 9. Be2 e5. Historical notes: it was seen in Kasparov-Smyslov 1984 and Carlsen-Kasparov (rapid) 2004. A trap is 10. dxe5 Ne4 11. Ndxe4 dxe4 12. 0-0 Bxc3 13. bxc3 Nxe5 14. Qxe4 f6 15. Bf4 Bf5. That befell Gruenfeld (against Bogoljubov) in the 1920s, and Ed Formanek (against Ken Smith) in the 1960s.

After 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Qa5!? 7. Nd2!? Panczyk and Ilczuk analyze many moves. The main moves are 7...Bb4 and 7...dxc. They acknowledge that 7...Bb4 is more popular, but they prefer 7...dxc. 7...Bb4 is active and leads to interesting play. However, Black has to play precisely in several lines. This is a practical more than a theoretical problem.

I have been slow to warm up to 7. Nd2!? dc4 8. Bf6 Nf6 9. Nc4 Qc7 as it looks passive. However, I think this calls for a revised way of thinking about the position. One author said that he thought the Nimzo-Indian was a gambit by Black because he gives up the two bishops. If so, then the above sequence is a gambit by White. I now think that if Black accepts the gambit, perhaps returning it later, he gets an acceptable game.

Active play is possible, though not assured. Here's a sample line:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Qa5 7. Nd2 dc4 8. Bf6 Nf6 9. Nc4 Qc7 10. Rc1 Bd6!? 11. f4!? Be7 12. Bd3 O-O 13. O-O c5!? 14. dc5 Bc5 15. Kh1



Black seems ok and can consider 15...Qe7, 15...Rd8, or 15...b6.

The recent book, Modernized Queen's Gambit Declined, by Luis Rodi includes the Cambridge Springs. Like Panczyk and Ilczuk, he covers both 7...Bb4 and 7...dxc, based on his introduction which is available at ForwardChess.com.

Sometimes people act against their better judgment. For some, it's opening that bag of potato chips, lighting that cigarette, or having that drink. For me, it's looking at the Cambridge Springs (or King's Indian).

After 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bg5 c6 6. e3 Qa5 7. cd5 Nd5 8. Qd2, the two major moves are 8...Bb4 and 8...N7d6. However Panczyk and Ilczuk, in their characteristic thoroughness, also cover 8...Bd6 (Location 1117, Kindle). They continue:
8...Bd6 9. e4 Nc3 10. bc3 e5 11. Rb1 O-O 12. Bd3. Stockfish now recommends 12...c5 with equality.

When contemplating the Cambridge Springs variation, I often take a sidelong glance at the exchange variation. By the given move order, perhaps: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bg5 c6 6. cd5 ed5 7. e3 Be7 8. Qc2 Nh5

It's not a bummer. I went in to the Removed section, clicked on the icon for the book, the app said "Downloading", and now I can read it again.

But this gets back to my original point, this only works because Gambit still exists as a company. Once they go away, I have no control over whether their app continues to work, whether the books still appear in the app, etc., etc. 

Even if they keep their content servers turned on, if they stop updating the app then eventually it will stop working. I have seen it before. I go into an app and it refuses to work with a message "you need to update your OS". After updating my OS I go into a different app and it refuses to work with a message "this app is not supported on OS version x.y".

At the moment my phone's proprietary password manager is telling me it won't be supported on an unspecified future version of the OS. So I have stopped doing any updates while I tediously copy many hundreds of passwords into a decent open source password manager.

FreeRepublic wrote on 03/28/22 at 12:02:22:


I have icons for two books which I have already read, but just now clicked on one of them and:
Quote:

I think the books can be deleted when iOS is upgraded.