It seemed like an early Bg4 was the idea. It might of course lead to IQP positions, and transpositions, but I thought that depends on White. Anyway, I totally agree, after 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 c5, I would be happy playing Black.

Girkassa wrote on 08/13/12 at 05:26:26:


This is a good point. It is ok for sure for Black, but not the same character of play as the variations OP is seeking to play I think.

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 is insipid.

It allows Black virtually instant equality because there's no pressure on Black at this point. Black can resolve the problems with his light-squared B on move 3. If white insists on transposing into Queen's gambit lines, Black has numerous ways to decline it that give Black equality. he can play 3...Bf5, followed by c6 or even e6.  He can also play 3...Bg4 and gain equality. If he wants a theoretical discussion, he can play 3...c6 or 3...e6.

But perhaps the most thematic way for Black to play when White doesn't play c4 is to play 3...c5! White hasn't made a losing mistake, but white has absolutely no advantage in the resulting positions. The only GM to routinely play these positions as white was Artur Yusupov (Jussupow in Chessbase databases). White scores only ~40% in these lines.

So Black has numerous ways to play against white's third move error that lead to at least an equal game.

I would like to play the QGA with the following variations:

1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 Nf3 (3 e4 Nf6 or Nc6; 3 e3 e5) Nf6 4 e3 Bg4

The question is: what if white delays c4? In particular:

1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 (so far a no-brainer) 3 e3 and
1 d4 d5 2 e3

I guess I can just play c5 and take it from there? The trick is not to be move-ordered into a mainline QGA (based on the bishop on b7 and not g4). I guess most of the time when white plays like this will not even play c4 at all, but I have someone in my club who plays 2 e3 to 'make sure c4 is defended'; granted, not a very strong player.