Hi All,

Not sure waht you're worried about.
Not many moves and hardly critical.

Why don't you just play it and see what positions and results you get.

I wonder how many of the games results will be attributable to this early position or something that happens later on in the game.

If your happy/curious/at home with these early moves then play them and analyse the resulting positions and plans e.t.c for future improvement.

Regards,

Nelson.

You could meet 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 a6 with 5.Nf3 b5 6.b3, and 4...e6 5.Nf3 a6 with 6.b3. In the latter line, you need to be prepared for 6...Bb4 7.Bd2 Nbd7, though.

I asked the following question in a different thread
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1245424061;start=40;action=thr...

but the discussion went a different way, so I try again.

I´m currently playing the 3.Nc3 move order to reach the Anti-Meran position.
Usually this is 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Sf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 and now 7.Bd3 oder sometimes 7.g4

On the way to reach this position, Black can go for some kind of Chebanenko - System with 4....a6 or 5....a6. It´s tough to find helpful books, since they usually use the more common 3.Nf3 mover order.

After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Sf6 4.e3 a6, which is quite often played, I would prefer 5.Qc2 over 5.Nf3, both are the by far most common moves. But if Black plays 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 a6, I would be back in line I did not want to play.

What about playing 4.e3 e6 5.Qc2 anyway and only after 5....Nbd7 6.Nf3? Are there any problems with this rare move order? In the databases, Black almost anytime plays Nbd7 or Bd6 transposing to the Anti-Meran mainline.