Download PGN of November ’25 1 d4 d5 2 c4 games
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Queen’s Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation with 5...c6 and 6...Bd6 [D35]
It seems anti-intuitive to play 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 and now 6...Bd6, is Black OK with the pin on his knight? This is where powerful engines come in, waving aside our human objections and just crunching variations until they show our fears are unjustified. The main line runs 7.Bd3 0-0 8.Qc2 h6 9.Bh4 Re8 10.Nge2 a5, when Black intends 11...Na6 next to threaten 12...Nb4. One important thing to note is that White cannot now castle kingside because 11.0-0? is met by 11...Bxh2+. So 11.h3 is standard and then 11...Na6 12.a3 Nc7 13.0-0 Ne6. White usually plays 14.Rad1 here, to prepare e3-e4, and then 14...Bd7:
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counters this to prepare ...Rc8 and ...c6-c5 or maybe ...b7-b5. This reaches a critical position in which White has tried a variety of different moves.
15.Ng3 featured in the game Iturrizaga Bonelli, E - Laurent Paoli, P, the point being that 15...g5 is met by 16.Nf5. This is far from clear because Black can play 16...Nxd4!, but Black’s 15...Bf8 was also fine. In fact he was OK for most of the game until he blundered with 31...Bf6?.
15.Qc1 (Shengelia, D - Sumets, A) is a mysterious looking move, the point of which is to protect e3. Black was fine after the standard 15...Ng5 16.f4 Ngh7 and after White’s ‘expansive’ 17.g4 had a great position. The closing stages of the game bore the hallmarks of time trouble.
15.Bg3 (Moradiabadi, E - Stefansson, V) is a sensible looking move, just exchanging the dark square bishops. It doesn’t give White much but the position remained rather simple and rational. Black was doing fine until his 34...Nxc5?? blunder.
15.e4 (Ernst, R - Girel, J) is probably White’s most direct approach. Black is doing fine after 15...dxe4 16.Nxe4 Be7 17.Bxf6 Bxf6 18.Nd6 Rf8, there’s no need to taunt White with a repetition via 18...Re7 19.Nf5 Re8. I had to edit the score of this game because some of the later moves made no sense as they were recorded.
15.f3 (Ringoir, T - Korley, K) is White’s most consistent move, having played the Bd3 and Nge2 set-up, yet it’s here that one of the main points behind Black’s play becomes clear. After 15...Ng5! 16.e4 there is 16...Nfxe4! 17.fxe4 Nxh3+:
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and after this landed White did very well to save the game. This has caught people out in subsequent games, which suggests that this whole line is still not mainstream knowledge.
Going back a few moves, 13.g4 was tried in Dragun, K - Xiong, J as an attempt to exploit the ‘hook’ on h6. Yet after 13...Ne6 White faces the ongoing issue of where to put his king:
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pawns don’t move back and he later advanced them on both flanks and the centre as well.
Going still further back White can also play put his knight on f3 rather than e2 (8.Qc2 h6 9.Bh4 Re8 10.Nf3), but then 10...Be6 seems fine for Black after either 11.Ne5 (Peralta, F - Aravindh, C) or 11.0-0 intending a minority attack (Stearman, J - Narayanan, S).
In conclusion this seems like a very serious line for Black, and one which will assuage some fears about the dangers of the Bd3 and Nge2 plan. The positions it leads to are playable for both sides, but White needs to watch out that he doesn’t move too many pawns.
See you next time! Nigel
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