These are my recommendations..Mostly..I agree with other members

BPaulsen wrote on 12/17/11 at 09:14:42:


I'm pleased that we agree. I had made a post earlier that if += was not possible then the aim would be to reach a position that is easier to play, and that if one option did not work, then another would be investigated.

As far as consistency with the planned repertoire at present is concerned, it would be ideal if 4.cd5 ed5 5.Bf4 worked.

BPaulsen wrote on 12/15/11 at 18:34:55:


Fair enough but I believe the idea of the thread was to strive for +=.

TN wrote on 12/15/11 at 13:28:27:


Yes it seems that variation with 5.Bf4 has often been recommended but no one here has shown how White can get an edge.  In the thread I posted BPaulsen says he considers the exchange variation versus 3...Be7 to be "toothless" if I'm quoting him correctly.  As you mentioned it's an important point because if White doesn't have an independent variation here then he might as well learn something else against 3...Nf6, although perhaps not as much work as I think.

Glenn Snow wrote on 12/15/11 at 07:18:02:


Well, at least something posted in this thread 

TN wrote on 12/12/11 at 09:38:59:


I don't know what has happened after Schandorff's book. It looks like his main line has scored pretty well in practice - 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Qd2 Bb4 9. Rc1 h6 10. Bh4 c5 11. a3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 b6 13. c4 Qxd2+ 14. Nxd2. However, the most played move now seems to be 14 ...Ne7, rather than 14 ...N5f6, although White is doing pretty well in this one too. 

Vachier Lagrave and Kramnik have tried 15.Bd3 here, which also seems to be the recent trend, but the most played move is 15.f3. After looking at some of the games and some comments, it seems to me that White may be a bit better, but precise play by Black will keep a draw. 

Both Malakhov and Shirov seem to defend the Black side, even though Shirov has pretty poor results in this line.

As seen in the game I posted previously, Anand chose to deviate earlier, as did Aronian (also 11.Bc4) in the round before Anand-Shirov. I have also seen a game by Mamedyarov from this year in this variation. Maybe this is where we should start our analysis? 



Black has tried 11 ...Nxc3, 11 ...cxd4, 11 ...N7b6 and Ruslan's suggestion of the natural 11 ...0-0. Suggestions?

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 12/12/11 at 02:35:46:


Schandorff's recommendations seem fine, but now I understand that we might not be able to copy recommendations due to ethical reasons.

On the other hand, the recommendation for the Noteboom isn't much at all - one game, just a few sidelines. There I wouldn't be against discussing it.

You would make me very happy with something against the Cambridge Spring. As I never have looked at it systematically it's a hole in my repertoire because of 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 Nbd7.