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Players from my generation were brought up to believe that in the traditional main line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted (1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6) White got nothing if he now played 7.Nc3. This was a big thing because Black can also try to con White into this innocuous line in many other defences such as the Semi-Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 a6 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bb3 c5) and Semi-Tarrasch (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 c5 5.e3 dxc4 6.Bxc4 a6). Discovering that this might not be innocuous came as quite a revelation, had I been misled for the last half century?
This month’s update also features Ivan Sokolov’s line of the Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6) in which have been some recent high level games and slightly different ways for the players to clomp around. I don’t think anything changes the overall view that White’s extra space tends to make his life more comfortable.

Download PGN of September ’25 1 d4 d5 2 c4 games

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Queen’s Gambit Accepted with 7.Nc3 [D27]

It came as quite a shock to me that 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 and now 7.Nc3 is a dangerous line, but I couldn’t help but notice that Alexey Sarana and Ivan Ivanisevic had been wielding it very effectively. The point is that after 7...b5 8.Bb3 Bb7, White can just play 9.e4!:

when it’s not at all healthy for Black to take the e4 pawn (see Ivanisevic, I - Kaufman, L).

Black’s most principled approach is to play 9...cxd4 10.Nxd4 Nbd7:

when White can choose between 11.Re1 (Sarana, A - Nihal, S) and 11.Be3 (Korobov, A - Poetsch, H). Black should be OK if he defends himself accurately, but in practice it’s easy to go wrong.

A solid way to play it is with 10...Nc6, as in Indjic, A - Neiksans, A. White should have a slight pull, but with accurate defence Black should eventually equalize.

The transpositional possibilities make 7.Nc3 an interesting line to have in your repertoire, especially because many players will still underestimate it.



Main Slav Defence 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4, Sokolov’s 7...Nb6 [D17]

Ivan Sokolov’s line of the Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6) has a reputation for being rock solid, and it has also been taking over from the sharper 7...Qc7. I noticed that in Harikrishna, P - Maghsoodloo, P, Black played the rare 9...g6:

and then 13...e6 was the official ‘new move’. To me it just looks like another way to sit there and hope that White can’t do much to use his space advantage.

There was another instance of an early ...g6 in Wojtaszek, R - Korobov, A, this time after 8.e3 (instead of 8.Ne5.)

In this game Black’s 11...e5 break looked interesting, but the position looks difficult for Black after 13.e6 instead of 13.f4. In fact, it all seemed rather scrappy until Korobov’s beautiful final attack, starting with 32...Nxg2!!.

Samadov, R - Mamedov, R and Makarian, R - Kokarev, D were more traditional examples of the unusual 8.e3, Samadov abandoned any winning efforts quite early whilst Makarian ground on for 97 moves! This is a good illustration of how to win against Sokolov’s line, you need persistence and energy.



See you next month! Nigel

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