I have to admit personally find such lines really lame for white, and amazed at how potent club players think the minority attack is. The Shankland game is similar. The commentors thought Shankland was expecting the Be7 exchange, and wasn't prepared for the sharp lines after 8...h5, which seems to be the improved way of playing line mentioned. (Not sure if that is true 9Qb3 seems quite testing). They thought black had the easier game to play in the actual game continuation. White could have transposed to a well-know Ragozin with Nf3, but tried something different but not very terrifying with ne2-f4. (I think it is very similar to your second line. White tries to make something of Nc6, but Qa4 is a bit misplaced too.)

What about the simple 9...c6 10. e3 Bf5, aiming to exchange off the light-squared bishop?

According to Stockfish White's best is probably 11. Ne2 O-O 12. Ng3 Nd7 13. Qf3, but the endgame after 13...Bh7 14. Qxf6 Nxf6 looks fine for Black.

Hello everybody,

I was playing a lot of Catalan and 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 a couple years ago simply because I like the control that White has and seemingly very little counterplay from the Black side. That's also one of the reasons I stopped playing 1...d5 from the Black side because those positions feel like torture.

Some years ago this line popped up in high GM games which seems to bring some fresh air into the position although the computers still seem to be slightly on the White side:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Bb4 6. e3 h6 7. Bh4 g5 8. Bg3 Ne4 9. Qc2 h5 10. f3 Nxg3 11. hxg3

Because of this variation I dropped 1.d4 for a while and thought Black is maybe fine again. However, some days ago I discovered this line:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Bb4 6. Rc1 h6 7. Bxf6 Qxf6 8. a3 Bxc3+ 9. Rxc3
It seems like Black has the same problems... The Bc8 is just worse than the Bf1 in the long run and the White pawn structure is easier to play because of how simple a minority attack is to execute against similar rated opponents. It also doesn't seem like Black has many reasonable options to deviate from this line.

Of couse Black can play something like 6... c5 7. e3 c4 8. Ne2 Nbd7 9. Qa4 Qa5 10. Qxa5 Bxa5 if he really wants to imbalance the game but it seems like that's just making the pawn d5 weak.

There is also this line where again Black seems stranded with the slightly worse bishop and pawn structure: 6...Bf5 7. Qa4+ Nc6 8. e3 h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Ne2 O-O (10... Qd6 11. Ng3 Bd7 12. Bb5 a6 13. a3 Bxc3+ 14. Rxc3 O-O 15. Bd3) 11. Ng3 Bh7 (11... Bd7 12. a3 Bxc3+ 13. Rxc3) 12. a3 Bxc3+ 13. Rxc3

Of course, 5...Bb4 seems like a nice modern test of the QGD Exchange but I fail to see how this is an improvement of the classical lines if the White side starts playing 6.Rc1. What do you think?