FreeRepublic wrote on 12/04/23 at 15:01:44:

I played this line extensively when I was trying out the QGD, loved the positions I got, my favorite being 5.e4 c5 6.e5 cxd4 7.exf6 gxf6! 

kylemeister wrote on 12/02/23 at 23:55:04:

I'm guessing that kylemeister found his information about 4...dxc4 on the Chessable discussion page for Krishnater's course, where the author was asked how he handles 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5. His reply: "We take on c4 and challenge white's center with c5.(Chapter 27)." He goes on to provide his reasoning in selecting 4...dxc4: "We would have loved to play Bb4, but after e3 h6 Bh4 g5 Bg3 Nge2 h5 h4 we don't have the move Bg4, which we had in the Gukesh QGD with cxd5 included!" I believe Krishnater omitted a black move (...Ne4) between Bg3 and Nge2.  This would have then yielded the line that was played as Black by Koneru in her game earlier this year against Dinara Wagner (FIDE Women's GP Munich).

Evidently there's also a typo in Krishnater's reply since Chapter 27 of his course is devoted to the London System.

Having picked up Krishnater's course during Chessable's Black Friday Sale, I can confirm that 4...dxc4 is his recommendation after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5. He then covers White's two main moves, 5.e4 and 5.e3. Against the latter, he steers for an IQP position; e.g., 5...c5 6.Bxc4 cxd4 7.exd4 Be7 8.Nf3 0-0 9.0-0 Nc6 and then presents well over a dozen lines. 

Evidently 4...dxc4 has become popular recently. Indeed, it shows up as a "hot" variation in the Mega Database. Glenn Flear covered it in the November 2022 update to the 1.d4 d5 2.c4 section of ChessPublishing.  In his notes to the game Postny-Basnusz, he says of 4...dxc4, "This has always been considered as inferior and yet has seen an explosion of interest in the last few years. So there must be some point behind 'ceding the centre' so early in this manner."

To end on a curmudgeonly note, the contents of Krishnater's course that are presented to the general public by Chessable don't show much about how he meets 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5.  This lack of transparency is a recurring problem, although I'll admit that it can be tricky to balance giving away too many details with the consumer's desire to make an informed purchasing decision. At any rate, it turns out that the material is in Chapter 26, which is titled "QGD 3.Nc3 - 4th Move Sidelines".  As someone who learned theory from ancient tomes that stressed the importance of such subtleties in the Orthodox QGD as "the struggle for the tempo" and "Capablanca's freeing maneuver", it's rather disconcerting to see 4.Bg5 relegated to the realm of "sidelines".

CanadianClub wrote on 11/15/23 at 15:10:43:


https://www.chessable.com/1-d4-d5-krishnaters-killer-repertoire/course/177839/

I agree that it sounds interesting. I wonder how the author deals with the following move order:  1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3. I don't see how Black can get to the desired Manhattan variation as White has not played Nf3.

Another QGD repertoire can be found at:

https://www.modern-chess.com/queens-gambit-declined-repertoire-for-black-after-1...

Modern-chess has a BlackFriday sale. They do not specify the sale, that I can tell. However, I calculated it to be 70% off (30% on). The sample game, and some of the lines, reminded be somewhat of this thread.

Last year in Chess Publishing, Justin Tan wrote "I believe the most reliable defence is 12...Qa6 [instead of 12...g6], with the idea to follow up with ...h6, ...Qc6 and ...Nb6."

I would note that c5-c4 makes it a Panov structure, as Soltis termed it in Pawn Structure Chess.

FreeRepublic wrote on 11/20/23 at 14:23:33:

FreeRepublic - I've wondered about this terminology too. Comparing these numbers to Chessable courses I own, it appears that "27x19" means that there are 27 lines in Chapter 19.

FreeRepublic wrote on 11/20/23 at 14:23:33:

I was unfamiliar with this name too, but it apparently arises from Black playing ...Bb4 in response to the Exchange QGD; i.e., 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Bb4.

I was thinking of buying the course when I realized it wasn't part of Chessable's Black Friday sale.  And like you, I thought the information on the recommended lines was a bit sparse. I found a post on the Chessable forum to be helpful in this regard. It was also the place where the Gukesh QGD was defined. (Note the poster also referred to it as "the Accelerated Ragozin" as you did in Reply #24).

https://www.chessable.com/discussion/thread/899011/comment/899382/

And there even a chessable course on that (Manhattan + QGD exchange with Bb4 + plus other things) called "1.d4 d5: Krishnater's Killer Repertoire" by IM Kushager Krishnater. It seems very interesting.

FreeRepublic wrote on 10/16/22 at 20:11:55:


This is also analyzed by Glenn Flear in the Dangerous Weapons series. It is also included in the second part of Michael Roiz's work on the QGD Exchange variation for Modern-Chess. (I would wait for a sale before purchasing).