Quote:


Semi-slav is fine, I liked to play the Meran and Antimeran (Dc2 stuff) with black, too. By the way, I never lost a game with black in these two openings so far, even though most of my oppoents were higher rated.
Its not a very solid opening, but black's peaces have nice places and one has no strategical weaknesses in most cases.
However, I still look for a good way for me to meet the Bg5-line (moscow gambit or botvinnik, black's choice... ).....   
So far I focused on the main lines in the moscow gambit here, but the problem is that black has to remember really a lot in order to be (or at least feel ) sure he will not be killed in opening. Unfortunately thats even true in this opening for people with a very good memory (at least for chess positions). I wonder if there is a playable sideline in the moscow gambit or botvinnik for black, where the amount theory is not that huge.

I think the stonewall dutch is very drawish.

as for the dxc4 a4 Bf5 line in the slav I've found white has so many options and methods of attack i'm always looking out to just hold on for a draw. for this reason i've moved on to the semi-slav and have enjoyed much more pleasurable games and results.

Bibs wrote on 12/05/08 at 14:00:25:


Bu Xiangzhi has been playing a lot of Slavs on the black side with a quick dxc4 against the top players with pretty good results.

Quote:


This seems to be very solid indeed. I think about including this line in my black opening repertoire. Do you know some good internet sources for theory in this line (except Chesspublishing) ?

The QGA is probably Black's most 'solid' defence to 1.d4. In most variations of the opening, White has slightly more active pieces, but Black's pawn structure is extremely robust. From my experience with this opening, Black has little trouble neutralising White's slight initiative and often even emerging with the initiative himself.

H-HH wrote on 12/04/08 at 19:30:01:


You mean 3Nf3 Nf6 4Nc3 dxc4 5a4 Bf5, don't you?

Quote:


Exactly the reasons why I abandoned it!

If you want super-solid against 1.d4, I can't imagine anything better than the Tartakower.  You need to learn a line against Bf4, Bxf6, and the Alatortsev.  But in all lines you will be in decent shape.  Some of the lines may be a bit passive, but you'd have to deal with this anyway in an exchange slav and many other 'boring' variations.  The Tartakower scores very well at the top levels, and it's certainly never going to be refuted.  If you like the Caro and/or the Petrov, then the Tartakower would be a great choice.

Scott