huibui wrote on 08/07/11 at 20:11:35:


I agree with all your assessments. It is totally natural to develop a new piece with 9...Ngf6. However, I suggest you look at 9...Qb6 and 9...Nb6. The ChessPub archives cover both moves. You looked at them on move 11, but it might be better to play them on move 9.

White can vary on move 8 (h3, h4, Rc1, and f3). So there is a lot of material here.

For some reason, I think of this as trench warfare. The players are prepared to play on the king side, queen side, and center, and are looking for minute breaches in the opponent's game that they can force open for advantage.

It’s playable, but you need to look at two related openings which could transpose if white plays d4xc5 on move 8 or 9. Usually in these other systems black would prefer to answer c4xd5 with ...Nf6xd5.

• D37 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bf4 O-O 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5
• E39 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5 O-O 6.Nf3 Bxc5 7.Bf4

In your move order 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 Nf6 6.e3 O-O I wonder if white should prefer 7.Nf3, 7.Qc2, or even 7.h3!?

Correcting myself ! If g4 then Be6, if Nge2 / g3, then Be6. The main reference I could find is below:

Hello!

I would like to hear your opinions on the following line:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.e3 Bf5 7.Nge2 Nd7 8.Ng3 (8.g4 is played more often, but there Black has found convincing ways to get good positions imo) Bg6 9.Be2 Ngf6 10.h4 h5 (...h6 11.h5 Bh7 12.Bd3 looks rather dangerous, as Nf5 will force Black to castle and White can open the kingside with g4-g5) 11.Rc1 (Novelty?) Qb6 (11...Nb6 12.0-0 Bd6 13.Re1 Bxf4 14.exf4 0-0 15.f5 Bh7 16.Bxh5 and
11...Nf8 12.Bg5 Ne6 13.Bxf6 Bxf6 14.Bxh5 Bxh4 15.Bxg6 fxg6 16.Nge2 Kf7 seem to be a bit better for White) 12.0-0 0-0 13.Nxh5 Qxb2 14.Nxf6+ Nxf6 (unclear?).

At first glance, he positions arising from this line (8.Ng3, 11.Rc1) seem to give White the easier game. Which line would you play with Black?