It could be noted that encyclopedias (E/N/MCO) think White should be slightly better in that queen-exchange line.

No, I mean that it's not to my taste (which is just a synonym). I have no idea how to evaluate the line. After glancing through a few games it seems though that I should try to overcome my bias.

Don't like the early exchange of Queens. White has 3.d4, 3.e3 and 3.Nf3.

When Black plays the Leningrad it is more logical to play a fianchetto against the English as well, don't you think?

iggystiv wrote on 11/25/10 at 13:15:05:

You won't hear me say that I know the chess truth. I just have played this myself as Black and also have played through a couple of games. I noticed that, as I wrote above, Black has problems activating that Bishop on e7.
Belaji's suggestion (c6 and Na6) might be a solution; the game at least seems to be a good fight. That should make us happy enough.

belaji wrote on 11/07/10 at 15:30:54:

Move order is also an issue. 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 f5 3.d4! so 1.c4 f5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 (3.g3 e5 4.d4 again) d6 4.d4. Black has to have the Classical Dutch with an early ...d6 in his/her repertoire.

MNb wrote on 11/07/10 at 20:40:34:

Is this true?  The reason I ask is because I believed that the Botvinnik-Wall posed no problems for black's position.

Furthermore, I've experimented with this position.  1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.g3 f5 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.d3 Be7 6.f4!?

Lastly, I always thought the best recipe against this system was a quick d4.  I think Marin proposes to play like this.  Check these games out.

[Event "EU-chT Oberhausen"]
[Site "01"]
[Date "1961.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Roman Toran Albero"]
[Black "Mikhail Tal"]
[ECO "A21"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "50"]

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.g3 f5 4.d4 e4 5.f3 Nf6 6.Bg2 exf3 7.Nxf3 g6 8.O-O Bg7 9.e4?! (Raetsky and Chetverik 9.Bg5 and 9.d5 as much better options) fxe4 10.Ng5 O-O 11.Ngxe4 Nxe4 12.Rxf8+ Qxf8 13.Nxe4 Nc6 14.Be3 Bf5 15.Qd2 Re8 16.Ng5 Rxe3 {One might think that White should resign on the spot, since the Queen cannot recapture in lieu of Bxd4. However, White has a powerful drawing resource.} 17.Bd5+ Kh8 18.Nf7+ Qxf7 {Tal isn't interested in a draw.} 19.Bxf7 Rd3 20.Qe2 Bxd4+ 21.Kg2 Ne5 22.Rd1 Re3 23.Qf1 Be4+ 24.Kh3 Rf3 25.Qe2 Bf5{Albero resigns,
as Kg2 runs into Rf2+, and Kh4 falls victim to Re3!
threatening the queen and Nf3+} 0-1

[Event "World Blitz Cup"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2007.11.22"]
[EventDate "2007.11.21"]
[Round "36"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Vladimir Kramnik"]
[Black "Etienne Bacrot"]
[ECO "A20"]
[WhiteElo "2785"]
[BlackElo "2695"]
[PlyCount "79"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 f5 3. d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Qe3+ Be7 6. Bg2 Nf6 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Nh3 Re8 9. O-O Bf8 10. Qd2 Ne5 11. b3 d6 12. Nf4 c6 13. Rd1 Qc7 14. Ba3 Nf7 15. Rac1 Bd7 16. e3 Rad8 17. b4 Ne5 18. Qe2 g5 19. Nh5 Nxh5 20. Qxh5 Be6 21. Qxg5+ Qg7
22. Qxg7+ Bxg7 23. b5 Nxc4 24. bxc6 Nxa3 25. cxb7 Bxc3 26. Rxc3 Nc4 27. Bd5 Bxd5 28. Rxd5 Nb6 29. Ra5 Rb8 30. Rc7 Rf8 31. Rxa7 Rf7 32. Rxf7 Kxf7 33. a4 Ke6 34. a5 Nd7 35. Kg2 Kd5 36. Kf3 Kc6 37. a6 Nc5 38. Ra8 Kc7 39. a7 Rxb7 40. Rc8+ 1-0

Peter Rhodes wrote on 11/05/10 at 21:55:49:


Have you looked at the Symmetrical, 1...c5? It took Marin an entire book to fight for an advantage against it, so it cannot be bad 

I really like the system with Be7:
Michael Henningan - Simon Williams
1.g3 f5 2.Bg2 Nf6 3.d3 e5 4.Nf3 d6 5.c4 Be7 6.Nc3 O-O 7.O-O Qe8 8.e3 Bd8 9.b4 Qh5 10.Ne1 Qh6 11.f4 c6 12.Nf3 exf4 13.gxf4 Re8 14.Qb3 Kh8 15.Bd2 Nbd7 16.Rae1 Nf8 17.Ng5 Qg6 18.Rf3 Ng4 19.Nh3 Qh5 20.b5 Bd7 21.a4 Ng6 22.Bh1 Bb6 23.d4 Nxf4 24.Nxf4 Qxh2+ 25.Kf1 Qxd2 26.Re2 Qc1+ 27.Re1 Nh2+ 28.Ke2 Nxf3 White resigns

If Black gets to move 6 or 7 the statistics are really good for him!

Play it reversed too:
Luke McShane (2615) - Ivan Cheparinov (2667)
1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Be2 d6 6.O-O Nf6 7.Qe1 O-O 8.Qh4 c4 9.Kh1 cxd3 10.cxd3 Bg4 11.Nc3 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Qb6 13.Bd1 Qa6 14.Rf3 Rfc8 15.Rh3 h5 16.f5 Ne5 17.Bg5 Kf8 18.fxg6 fxg6 19.Bb3 Nxd3 20.Rf3 1-0