FreeRepublic wrote on 11/30/25 at 23:49:00:

27 lines in chapter 19. It is covered in chapters 19 to 24.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I find the history of chess theory to be interesting.

1.d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cd5 ed5 5. Bg5 Bb4!?
I think the first time I saw this was in Hans Berliner's The System, published in serial form many decades ago. He was intent on refuting the line. Glenn Flear promoted this for black in Dangerous Weapons. Justin Tan and Glenn Flear published in Chess Publishing. Now of course it is very mainstream. It gets a chapter in Semkov's (ForwardChess) book on the Exchange variation.

Older lines are still interesting. In some Nf3 h3 (or vice versa) lines, I think black should react with ...Ne4.

Illingworth annotate Navarra-Berg 2015 for CP. Deep in the notes and hard to follow, one gets to the following position:


"White is better developed for the blowing open of the position." END

This position can be reached by a variety of move orders. Here is one:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cd5 ed5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 c6 7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. h3 O-O 9. Qc2 Re8 10. Nf3 Ne4!? 11. Bf4!? Ndf6 12. O-O Bd6!? 13. Ne5 Nc3!? 14. bc3 Qc7 15. c4 c5 16. Rac1

I won't claim this to be best play for either side. Still, I think it is fairly critical. Stockfish16 indicates that black is allright after 16...Be6 17. cd5 Bd5.

I've mentioned three alternatives to ...Bb4 lines and to the main lines.

A) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 h6 7. Bh4 Bg4
B) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 c6 6. e3 Bd6
C) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be6!? 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Bd3 c6
Semkov (ForwardChess) may have an answer for B, but A and C seem to be doing well.

FreeRepublic wrote on 11/24/25 at 22:31:28:

Is also presented by Rodi at ForwardChess.

I think white always did an outstanding propaganda job on how dangerous his position was. This year, in 2025, it has been played often in for example the men's and woman's US championship, plus the ongoing World cup. Almost as many wins as black as for white. Esipenko has just knocked out Shankland in the rapids, after returning to the Be7 exchange. (Much seen in Kasparov v Karpov matches, plus Soviet GM games in general). Earlier had comfortable draw in the more extreme 1d4 d5 2c4 e6 3Nc3 Nf6 4pxp pxp 5Bg5 Bb4 6e3 h6, when white went safe with 7BxN. In the same round  Yakubboev secured place in semi-final using the Short endgame line. I must admit that is one line in exchange var I am happy to leave to the professionals. Seems a very ugly prospect to play as black. Yakubboev was even winning at one point though... So there are currently many playable lines for black.

kylemeister wrote on 12/15/22 at 18:00:40:


After 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 c6 6. e3 Be7 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Qc2 Re8 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. O-O g6, I think 11.Rb1 going for the minority attack is an obvious continuation. However, 11.Rae1 and 11.h3 have been played also. What I like about 10...g6 is that Black has several ways to deploy his knights.

Guillermo Soppe tends to play 11...Nh5. Max Illingworth (analysis at ChessPublishing) tends towards 11...Ne4. After 11.Rb1, Black can consider 11...Nh5, 11...Ne4, 11...Nf8, or 11...Nb6. Here is a possible line with 11...Nb6:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 c6 6. e3 Be7 7.
Bd3 O-O 8. Qc2 Re8 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. O-O g6 11. Rab1 Nb6 12. b4 Nc4 (threatening ...Na3 winning the exchange). Now for example, 13. Bc4 dc4 14. e4 Bg4 15. Ne5 (15Rfd1? Nxe4!) Qxd4 16. Bf6 Bf6 17. Ng4 Qc3, which favors Black slightly.

Flear, ChessPublishing Dec 22, analyzed the exciting game Korobov, A - Jumabayev. Jumabayev played 10...Nf8. However, the game position could also have been reached with 10...g6 after:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 c6 6. e3 Be7 7.Bd3 O-O 8. Qc2 Re8 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. O-O g6 11. h3 Nh5 12. Bh6 Ng7 13. Rae1 Nf6 14. g4

Dink Heckler wrote on 12/15/22 at 18:01:20:


Sorry. That is just my shorthand for a Stockfish evaluation of 24, or a quarter of a pawn.

Maybe SF 32, was more like it anyway.

I've concluded that computer scoring is not absolute. Words like, "Black can deal with White's temporary initiative" and "White has the better pawn structure but Black should be able to defend" have different implications. The former is temporary, while the latter is not. This applies even if the two positions get the same numerical score from the computer engine.

Some old theory on 10...g6 from the last(?) edition of ECO-D (2004):

11. Rab1 (11. Rae1 Nh5 12. Bxe7 Rxe7 13. b4 Ndf6 14. Ne5 Ng7= Izeta-Andersson, Bilbao 1987) Nh5* 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. b4 a6 14. a4 Nb6! (Miniböck-G. Soppe, Istanbul ol 2000) 15. Nd2 Ng7 16. Rfc1 Bf5 17. b5 ab 18. ab c5 19. dc Qxc5 20. Nb3 Qe7 21. Nd4 Bxd3 22. Qxd3 Ne6= G. Llanos, G. Soppe

*The first edition (1976) gave only 11...Ne4 and 11...a5 12. a3 Ne4, and had both as leading to +=.