Up until now I have been slacking off in my Nimzo prep, mainly playing non-theoretically Ne4-f5-b6-Bb7-O-O in some move order against practically everything. I think that I outgrew these lines though .

I am thinking about copying Aronian's Nimzo repertoire, since he has quite some games in Ragozin/Vienna complex and frankly I like his play style. I think this includes your recommendation, so thank you.

To return a bit back to the topic I got a bit of, lets say academic (since I am not going to play it), interest into the soundness of the gambit idea in the original post. I will try to find some time for analysis of it tomorrow.

tony37 wrote on 07/23/19 at 17:42:13:


Yes, I meant 5. ... b5 and 5. ... d6, I miscounted a bit. And you are right, these e4 gambit ideas look scary. I saw b5 idea in some old thread and then just quickly checked scores in my db, not noticing that score was skewed by unreasonably high number of players playing 6. Bg2?!. Even if black is okay these lines look too fun for white for my taste.

Re: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 

Black has the option of 3...Bb4+ 4.Nd2 (4.Bd2 Be7 5.Bg2 d5) 4...c5!?

Also, 3...d5 4.Bg2 Bb4+ 5.Nd2 0-0 6.Ngf3 dxc4 7.Qc2 a5!? is an interesting line, which can be reached from the 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 move order. The only move order issue is if you want to play 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Nbd2 dxc4 6.Bg2 b5!?

Still, I like the idea of playing 3.g3 c5.

Life would be way easier without alternative move orders  . Especially 1. d4 is such a transpositional hell (if we ignore Reti and English, which are even worse in that regard).

Reaching Ragozin especially seems a bit awkward to me - 1. d4 d5 move order and you have to deal with Exchange, Nimzo move order and you have to deal with Catalan (and twice at that).

I want to keep at least a bit of Benoni in my repertoire, since I enjoy games in it a lot. I also want to learn some more position types, which is why I am changing my main answer to Nf3 to Ragozin. Additional benefit is that this would bring my OTB repertoire at least a bit closer to my ICCF repertoire (I don't dare play Benoni against decent correspondence players).

I am very glad that keeping 3. g3 c5 doesn't mean much extra work, due to my previous repertoire (even though I will probably switch from 6. ... d6 to 6. ... b5).

Edit: Funnily the only GM against GM game in my database in line:
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Bb4+ 5.Nd2 dxc4 6.Qa4+ Nc6 7.Bxc6,
ended with a draw. To be fair, it was a blitz game.

I guess you are right, I didn't realize that there is such a big difference between workload in these two lines.Thank you both for your help.

I think I am going to explore Bb4+ a bit.

I think we misunderstood each other about move order - after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 I am going to revert to Benoni, but my problem is that white can also reach the Catalan through 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3, where transposition to Benoni is of course impossible.

I face Catalan very rarely so I would prefer to have against it either something relatively non-theoretical, or something with which I am already at least a bit familiar. When I played Benoni I wasn't able to dodge Tarrasch anyway - to 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. e3 practically only okay answer is 4. ... d5 transposition to Tarrasch, so I have at least a passing familiarity with it.

Hello,

I am currently switching from Benoni to Ragozin (both with Nimzo move order). I will still be answering 3. g3 with c5, but I still have to choose a reply to 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3.

Currently I am looking at 4. ... c5, which at first glance maybe looks a bit dubious. I already glanced at:

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 c5 5. cxd5 exd5 transposes to Tarrasch without Nc3.

5. exc5 Bxc5 6. exd5 Qb6 (probably, in recent ICCF game 6. ... Qxd5 was tried) 7. e3 O-O looks like an interesting gambit.

I think the main move to check is 5. Bg2. 5. ... dxc4 now transposes to open Catalan, which I would like to dodge if possible, so probably 5. ... Nc6. Now 6. O-O (6. cxd5 exd5 is again Tarrasch without Nc3) Be7 (6. ... dxc4 is open Catalan again) 7. dxc5 (7. cxd5 transposes to Tarrasch without Nc3) or 7. Nc3.

What do you think? Do independent lines look sound enough for OTB play? Since I don't know much about Tarrasch yet, are these transpositions to it satisfactory? Did I miss any significant line?

I hope this is the right section, since even if positions aren't quite Catalanish, move order is.

Have a nice day!