"This little move has several ideas. Most obviously, B prepares ...b5 which grabs some space and also forces W to act on the queenside, which often stabilizes that part of the board, or else gives B counterplay. B also prepares to develop his queen's bishop since after ...a6 (and possibly ...b5), W's attack on b7 (by Qb3) has less sting. Note that B also has the idea of ...Ra7 in reply to Qb3, so he is not committed to the possible loosening ...b5. Of course, ...Ra7 looks completely absurd, but then again Qb3 isn't so useful in itself. The R often just returns to a8, once its job is done on a7. Also, by waiting for a move, B makes it easier to determine where to put his Q bishop: if W plays e3 then ...Bg4 is a natural reply, as it now pins the f3-knight. One further point is that B's idea of ...dxc4 is now slightly more of a threat, although there are only a few lines where he actually carries this out.".

I used to always play on the next board to a guy named David Mander. If his opponent played 1.d4 he couldn't think of anything alse to play except 1...d5.

So what could his opponent play then except 2.c4, either before or after ♘f3?

His game would go down that incredibly dull positional route - pressure on the c-file, ♕ on d5, massive exchange of all the pieces... YAAAWN.

Meanwhile, I was playing the Grunfeld, and having a lot of fun whether I won or lost.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6
Slav; which takes away the c6 post for the b8 knight

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6
Swiss; which closes in the KS bishop.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4
Exchange; allows white to dominate the center and regain the pawn.

For example, 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 a6 5. c5 Nbd7 6. Bf4 Nh5 7. Bd2! doesn't seem to impress White all that much as can be seen in the total rout Lautier vs V Malakhov, 2004. It seems like the plan with g6 is too slow and White can't be prevented from playing the break e4 liberating his game. In some cases Black's development lags so behind that White can just O-O-O and start a kingside pawn rush. Very nasty.

Erenburg tried an interesting gambit in B Avrukh vs S Erenburg, 2005. It doesn't seem too menacing though.

"The Geller Gambit has become enormously popular and now has a vast body of theory supporting it. As with many variations of the Slav, White gives up the c-pawn for control of the center. This opening can also be reached via the Queen's Gambit Accepted (cf. 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 c6) and is equally popular there. Actually, the main ideas of the gambit were worked out by Tolush in 1947, but it is Geller who worked to establish the gambit as a respectable opening by playing it consistently and finding many improvements for White."

The main line runs 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. ♘f3 ♘f6 4. ♘c3 dxc4 5. e4 b5 6. e5 ♘d5 7. a4 e6 8. axb5 ♘xc3 9. bxc3 cxb5 10. ♘g5 ♗b7 11. ♕h5 g6 12. ♕g4 ♗e7 13. ♗e2 ♘d7.

click for larger view

Now, the old continuation was 14. h4?! h5 15. ♕g3 ♘b6 16. 0-0 a5! and White is probably worse. Now, 14. ♗f3 is most common, a move with which Fritz 9 agrees. Fritz evaluates the position after 14...♗xf3 15. ♕xf3 0-0 as (-0.30), but computers aren't as great at evaluating positional compensation.

Slav, w/ 4...a6
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.♘f3 ♘f6 4.♘c3 a6

click for larger view