Templare2 wrote on 03/03/08 at 10:03:04:
Thanks Bob. So not 1. d4 d5 2. Cf3 Cf6 3. e3 e6 but 3. e3 Bf5?
MNb wrote on 03/03/08 at 22:43:24:
This might lead to the Baltic Variation 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Bf5 or even the Slow Slav (is this the right name?) 4.e3 Bf5.
The ideas suggested earlier in this thread are fine, but I wanted to point out that
3...Bf5 is also a perfectly good way to meet (or rather avoid) the Colle. If White plays 4.c4 you reply 4...c6 (4...e6 might also be an option?) and get the so-called Slow Slav (I think this is the right name).
If White continues with
4.Bd3 (I see this quite a bit, apparently from die-hard Colle players) then Black should continue with
4...e6, not worrying about
5.Bxf5 exf5 which is fine for Black. Note that 4...e6 is better than 4...Bxd3. Probably a good rule of thumb here is that Black should not initiate the bishop trade unless White moves his c-pawn. For example, 5.c3 (instead of 5.Bxf5) should be answered by 5...Bxd3.
An example is the game Vorotnikov-Kobalija, RUS-Cup03 (Geller mem) Moscow (5), 14.02.1999 which continued:
5.Bxf5 exf5 6.Qd3 [6.0–0 Nbd7 7.c4 dxc4 8.Qa4 Bd6 9.Nbd2 0–0 10.Nxc4 Nb6 11.Nxb6 axb6 12.Qc2 Qd7 13.Ne5 Qe6 14.Nc4 Be7 15.Bd2 Rfd8 16.a4 Ne4 Colle-Alekhine, San Remo 1930/0–1 (28)]
6...Qc8 7.c4 [7.b3 Na6 8.0–0 Be7 9.c4 0–0 10.Nc3 c6 11.Bb2 Ne4 12.Rfc1 Rd8 13.Qe2 Qe6= Alekhine-Euwe, Wch16 1935/½–½ (23)]
7...dxc4 8.Qxc4 Bd6 9.Nc3 c6 10.b4 0–0 11.b5 Nbd7 12.Bb2 Nb6 13.Qb3 a6 14.bxc6 Qxc6 15.0–0 Nc4 16.Rfc1 Rac8 17.h3 Rc7 18.Ne5 Bxe5 19.dxe5 Nd7 20.Ne2 b5 Nice knight on c4, eh? and concluded with
21.Qc2 Nc5 22.Bd4 g6 23.Nc3 Ne6 24.Qb3 Re8 25.a4 b4 26.Ne2 a5 27.Rd1 Qa6 28.Qd3 Qb7 29.Nc1 Rd8 30.Nb3 Nb2 31.Bxb2 Rxd3 32.Rxd3 Rc2 33.Bd4 f4 34.Rad1 Qc6 35.Nxa5 Qxa4 36.Nb3 Qc6 37.Ra1 Qe4 38.Rad1 f3 39.g4 Ng5 40.R3d2 Nxh3+ 0–1 Of course I wouldn't claim that Black won here strictly because of the opening, but Black's opening was still prefectly satisfactory - White got no advantage to speak of. [The game is annotated in CBM 70 if you have access to this]