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At the European Senior Team Championships in Poland, I got to sit next to Glenn Flear in many of the games. This was quite interesting because Glenn works hard on chess and prepares thoroughly for his games, and he also plays 1.d4 d5 with both colours. I was particularly interested in his mini-match against Uwe Boensch, a renowned specialist in the Queen's Gambit Declined. The fact that there were only 8 teams in the 50+ section meant that the format was changed to a 7 team all-play-all, followed by a two game play-off featuring teams 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4 etc. So, Glenn played Boensch a total of 3 times.

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

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QGD, Exchange 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Bd3 Nbd7 9.Qc2 O-O 10.Nge2 Re8 11.f3 [D36]

The second game sparked some research by me, it went 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Bd3 Nbd7 9.Qc2 O-O 10.Nge2 Re8 and now 11.f3:

Black replied with 11...b5, which has become standard. I knew about this plan by Black but not in much detail, and it turned out that this entire line has not been covered here before. Glenn's 13.Rac1 was a theoretical novelty, see Flear, G - Boensch, U.

The usual move is 13.Rad1, and I cover this second move in the game Zukhova, N - Ling, E.

Black seems OK in these lines, but 11.f3 is quite forcing. If White plays just 11.0-0, Black has quite a wide choice.


QGD, Exchange 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Bd3 Nbd7 9.Qc2 O-O 10.Nge2 Re8 11.0-0 [D36]

If 11...b5 is a good answer to 11.f3, why doesn't White just play 11.0-0 instead?

The answer is that he often does, but Black has a range of possible replies. 11...Ne4 is the traditional response:

when after 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 White has several ways to treat the position.

Trying f2-f3 and e3-e4 is usually associated with this type of position, but Black seems to have very adequate resources (see Batsuren, D - Hardaway, B).

The plan of 13.Bxe4 dxe4 14.Ng3 and later f2-f3 proved successful in Predke, A - Kuzubov, Y, but it seems to be rather speculative.

I think it makes more sense to play on the queenside starting with 14.Rfd1, as in Khismatullin, D - Rychagov, A. Black is under some pressure here.

This explains with 11...Nh5 has been gaining traction:

and after 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 White has a choice between attempting a minority attack with 13.Rab1 (Nguyen, T - Sargissian, G) and playing for f2-f3 and e3-e4. The usual means of implementing this plan has been 13.Rae1, but I think it also makes sense to play 13.Rad1, as in Abdusattorov, N - Salem, A. White certainly didn't win this game because of his opening, but the placement of his rooks sparks some interesting questions.

Finally, there is 11...a5:

which Ding Lirin played in a rapid play game against Giri and then used it in his World Championship match against Nepomniachtchi. I quite like Niemann's 12.Bg3, which led to a rich and complex middle game in Niemann, H - L'Ami, E. I think that White is on the positive side of such positions but it's hard to prove anything.


My next update will follow shortly! Nigel

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