ChessPublishing Feb 2021 contains the game fragment:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dc4!? 5. e3 a6 6. Bc4 c5 7. Nf3 b5 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Qe2 cd4 11. ed4 Be7 12. Rad1 O-O 13. Ne5 Nb6 from the game Benjamin - Nabatny. Glenn Flear writes "with a sequence that 'mixed and matched' several openings, finally settling on a classical-looking IQP scenario."

As Kylemeister noted, the game transposed at one point to the game Reshevsky-Lasker which started out as a Queen's Gambit Accepted. My research showed that transpositions are possible to the Orthodox (D60-D69) variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.

I have looked at the Orthodox variation of the QGD from time to time and have never been sold on it. However Nigel Davies covers it in a book that I have, and Ntiflis in a book that I do not have. Davies goes over Capablanca's freeing maneuver, ...dxc Bxc4 ...Nd5, and also the Meran-esque ... dxc Bxc4 b5, which he describes as suitable if you are playing for more than the half point. There are more nuances of moves and more orders than I realized. Perhaps one improvement can make all the difference.

By way of contrast with the Orthodox QGD, Benjamin-Nabatny defers ...Be7 and ...0-0, pursuing queen-side play. Personally, I am programmed to castle. However, I realize that if black can steal a tempo or two to establish his chances on the queen side, it can pay off. It is not entirely novel as there are lines in Open Catalan where black does the same thing.

Here's another transposition.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxc4!? 5. e3 a6 6. Bxc4 c5 7. Nf3 b5 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Qe2 Be7 (instead of 10...cxd, as chosen by Nabaty)

and

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Be7 7. Bd3 (generally considered inexact with 7Rc1 or 7Qc2 being preferred) dc4 8. Bc4 b5 9. Bd3 a6 10. O-O c5 11. Qe2 Bb7 

I note that the position in Benjamin-Nabaty after 9. 0-0 Nbd7 10. Qe2 cd 11. ed Be7 12. Rad1 0-0 was known a long time ago from the QGA line 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bxc4 c5 6. 0-0 a6 7. Qe2 b5 8. Bd3 cd 9. ed.  For example after 13. Ne5 as played by Benjamin, 13...Nd5 (instead of Nabaty's 13...Nb6) was played e.g. by Reshevsky against Emanuel Lasker and was given by Polugaevsky (in the 1970s) and Rizzitano (in the 2000s) as leading to an edge for Black.

The Benjamin-Nabaty game covered by ChessPublishing with 5e3 went in the direction of the queen's gambit accepted:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxc4!? 5. e3 a6 6. Bc4 c5 7. Nf3 b5 8. Bd3 Bb7

What distinguishes this from the normal QGA is the early Bg5. I don't know if it helps, hurts, or is neutral. I In any case, this would be a way to get QGA lines that look like the old main lines, while avoiding several options for white.

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 01/14/22 at 22:10:54:


Thanks for the response. Yes, I was thinking somewhat along those lines. I guess $39 for ECO A00-E99 is too good to be true!

TonyRo wrote on 01/14/22 at 17:40:17:

Korchnoi - Karpov, m(9) 1981: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068264

In other move orders, ...h7-h6 might be answered by retreating the g5-Bishop along the c1-h6 diagonal.

One game that kind of IQP line reminds me of is Korchnoi-Karpov, Merano (m/9) 1981 -- a perhaps well-known anti-isolani game.  (I noticed that Neil McDonald makes reference to it in his latest book, incidentally.)