BeeCaves wrote on 05/22/19 at 17:31:37:

Incidentally that was a recommendation for White on a ChessBase DVD (by Jonas Lampert, in German) about six months ago.  (A few months before that, there were a few pages on it in Tibor Karolyi's book, for Black.)

edit:  the "few pages" I mentioned doesn't include the old major line which can arise via 8...0-0 9. Qc2 Re8 10. Nf3 Nf8 11. 0-0.  (In that case Karolyi has 11...g6, as did Illingworth in his recommendations for Black in Chess Publishing.)

Not sure if this is the reason Black players are avoiding this, but as someone studying the lines for Black based on Ntirlis' QGD book, I was a bit worried about the lines where White avoids trading dark squared Bishops:

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 cxd5 exd5 5 Bg5 c6 6 e3 Be7 7 Bd3 Nd7 8 h3!?

White plans to meet ...h6 with Bf4 to avoid Nh5 trading.  Nh5 right away hangs a piece ... if Black tries to castle before Nh5 then Qc2 and Black will still need to play h6 because h7 hangs.

If 8... Ne4 9 Bxe7 Qxe7 10 Bxe4 dxe4 11 Qg4 Nf6 12 Qxg7 Rg8 13 Qh6 Rxg2 14 Nge2 Rg6 15 Qh4 Ntirlis likes the position for White

His solution is 8... h6 9 Bf4 Nb6 10 Nf3 0-0 11 Qc2 Nc4 12 0-0 Re8 13 Rac1 Bd6 ... 

White has a lot of alternatives that aren't analyzed though ... he can play 11 Ne5 prior to ...Nc4, could play 13 Ne2 trying to disrupt the Nc4, he could play Qe2 instead of Qc2, etc.  Comp thinks its +/= ... 

Black's position seems sound enough that eventually he should be okay but maybe White is more pleased with the opening here than say, what White often gets in non-exchange QGD?

So many of those lines, it just feels like Black gets to trade lots of pieces/pawns and as long as he neutralizes slight White initiative, it's totally equal.

This 8 h3 line isn't very common (Ntirlis' line has hardly been played), but Wesley So, Wojtaszek, Eljanov have played it ... 

Leon_Trotsky wrote on 05/15/19 at 22:01:44:


They are, but personally I've given up on it. The cheapo tricks possible in a Kings Indian have more appeal. 

In top level games the vast majority of QGD games are arising via the Nimzo move order or 3...Be7, while in the rare cases 3...Nf6 is played, white players nearly exclusively play the Exchange Variation. However as I understood it black was doing perfectly well in the Exchange? It seems to me that most of the top players are angling for the Nf3 exchange variation rather than the traditional Nge2 stuff (otherwise they wouldn't allow the Nh5 setups? Although of course I can't see into the minds of the elite GMs )