TonyRo wrote on 04/21/15 at 06:25:26:


would you point us a model game in this line to start to work on? 

I play Qc2 in Watson' style,  but would be nice to have another weapon in this annoying opening. 

thx!

I quite like 5.e3 - White frequently just tries to squash Black with moves like Nf3, a4, Ra3, etc.

What is a positional, stable choice against the Wolga Gambit, especially for 2300+? I have been playing the Awrukh-style Fianchetto main line with 10. Rb1, but I have never won against this in a tournament game, and my practise games in blitz are around 10% win. What often happens is that either my queenside overrun and penetrated by the rooks or the d5 pawn gets either lost or compromised. The main problem is that Black gets too much counterplay and this causes my position to collapse. Often my pieces are stuck in the second and third ranks, and then after a minor tactical slip, I end up with a big disadvantage.

So I was wondering what is a good positional stable line, that fights for the advantage but has the aim of controlling the counterplay and keeping a stable position? I was thinking of 5. f3 like Schandorff, but then this looks quite sharp and complicated. I have 5. b6 from the Gambits book by Chess Stars but I am not sure if the game turns sharp later. Then I think there was 4. Dc2 by Watson (or was it another line?) in his strategic book?

I guess what I ask is if you had to play the White side of the Wolga against a titled player and have been known to get destroyed in tactical problems because Black gets counterplay, which positional line would you choose?