Warning: the following post is incomplete, I stopped thinking about the QGA and only made it halfway through. Still, I like the work I did and thought it better to do a partial post then none at all!
Some years ago every GM course or recommendation I came across against 1.d4 opened with “I am recommending [insert variation here] because it is the best combination of sound and unknown, except the QGA of course.” Hear this a few times and you start thinking you should be playing the QGA. At around the same time FM Nate Solon showed me a few games of his in the QGA where he was equalizing or better out of the opening, with regularity, against IMs in classical games. I thought, I could do that! And tried to repeat the lines he played. In the exact lines he showed I did fairly well, elsewhere where I had to try my own preparation, not so well. This emerged a few times we prepared together actually; in the QGD Janowski with …a6 we independently did some prep and then checked it together. His lines were more concise and to the point, focusing on the key ideas and standard development schemes, they far more useful to preparation than my scattered lines. It’s not that my lines were wrong, but they were far less useful than his narrower presentation. His understood and showed the ideas and goals clearly; mine were mostly what the computer said, with inconsistent and difficult to learn move orders.
This is all to say I briefly tried the QGA out. More recently two short & sweets came out on chessable on the QGA and then a course for white that mentioned the difficulty of finding lines against the QGA, so we’re back looking at the QGA. Specifically I’d like to put together a quick starter repertoire that’s consistent enough to be quickly employable, and then, if some of the lines aren’t so strong, they can be subbed out. White has four main tries vs the QGA after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4:
a) 3.Nc3 the normal looking and inaccurate reply
b) 3.e4 the ambitious move I always struggled against
c) 3.e3 the standard move that allows …e5
d) 3.Nf3 the standard move that denies …e5
For consistencies’ sake I’d like to start by giving a quick plan for 3…a6 against all moves other than 3.e4. This post, which I’m writing first but publishing second, explores variations, while the first post will hone down to the easiest lines to learn with the most comprehensible ideas. Read that post! That’s the one where I do proper opening prep, this is the one where I get down a lot of variations but haven’t figured them out yet, much like the difference in my prep from an FM’s.
a) Against 3.Nc3 a6!= is best and scores well at all levels. White has two main replies:
4.a4 and we have two main ideas, one is to play for …e5 possibly supported by …Nc6, and the other is that we can play …Nc6-a5 and it’s quite annoying for white to try and regain the c4 pawn. Note our knight may invade on b3 as well! And the knight on a5 breaks a file pins so we are closer to achieving …b5 further solidifying the pawn than we usually would be.
I’m going to give three lines here, the most ambitious one is the first, the most straightforward to learn is the second and the third is an interesting combo of the two. All are at least equal for black in all lines. If you’re looking for proper quick and dirty just skip to “4…Nc6 with the idea of Na5”
4…e5 and we have
5.dxe5 Qxd1+ 6.Kxd1 Be6 7.e4 Nc6 8.f4 0-0-0+ 9.Kc2 and many moves give advantage but I think most useful to know is that 9…Nge7 is not losing but rather crushing after 10.f5? Nxf5 11.exf5 Bxf5+
5.d5 Bb4 6.e4 Qh4! and e4 is very awkward to defend for instance 7.Qc2 Nf6 black is going to win at least a pawn 8.Bd2 Bxc3 9.Bxc3 Nbd7! 10.Bxc4 Qxe4+
5.e3 exd4 6.exd4 Nc6 7.Nf3 Na5! 8.Ne5 Nf6 no need to be fancy, white will have an isolated pawn and will wish their a pawn was on a2 or a3, for instance 9.Nxc4 Qe7+! 10.Be3 Bg4! 11.Qc2 Nc6! we trade for the bishop if it takes on c4 but usually not the knight. Black has obvious pressure here. The check on e7 was also possible and strong on move for instance 7…Qe7+ 8.Be3 Na5 9.Be2 Nf6 10.0-0 Be6 11.Ne5 0-0-0 and white deeply regrets a4 which limits their queenside possibilities.
All in all black is very happy there, but if that’s not to your taste there’s also:
4…Nc6 with the idea of Na5
5.e3 Na5 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.Be2 Bxf3 8.Bxf3 c6 9.0-0 e6 with …Nf6, …Bb4, …0-0 coming, we can play …b5 if we need to and white must be careful not to get hit by e4 …Nb3 as seen in the next line.
5.Nf3 Na5 6.e4 Bg4 preventing Ne5 and removing a defender of d4 7.Be2 Bxf3 8.Bxf3 Nb3 winning a1 or d4
or 4…Nc6 with the idea of …e5
5.e3 e5 6.d5? the most popular move is terrible 6…Na5! 7.e4 Bb4 8.Nf3 Nf6 9.Qc2 (9.Nxe5?! Qe7) 9…Nb3 10.Rb1 Nd4 the line just gets worse the farther we look into it 11.Qd1 Nxe4 0-1
Better is 6.Nf3 but after 6…exd4 we transpose to 4…e5 5.e3 and if you look up you can see 7.exd4 and after 7…Qe7+ or 7…Na5 black is better.
5.Nf3 e5 and 6.d5 Na5 7.Nxe5 Bd6 8.Nf3 Nf6 9.e4 0-0 and …Re8’s coming, white’s in serious trouble the center will not hold. Our pawn on c4 really restricts them! There’s also 6.Nxe5 Nxe5 7.dxe5 Qxd1+ 8.Kxd1 Be6 which is good for black like in prior lines.
So black has many paths to a good position vs 3.Nc3 and 4.a4, but how about 4.e4?
4.e4 b5 5.a4 otherwise black will just play …Bb7 which defends a8 and thus weakens threats of a4 and axb5 5…b4
3.e4 is the one move we don’t play 3…a6 but rather the surprising 3…b5!? which has been recommended in a number of recent publications. There are two ways of playing it in the mainline, both involving fun exchange sacrifices. If white does nothing to interfere we will solidify with …a6 then play …Bb7 protecting a8 and develop our kingside (…e6, …Nf6, …Bb4/e7, …0-0) and be up a pawn. One general point I want to make is we virtually always move our e pawn (whether to …e6 or with …e5 breaks) before developing the g8 knight, and that we may also develop our dark square bishop first. Both need to develop before castling and if the bishop has some immediate use (…Bb4 pinning something, …Bc5 controlling weakened dark squares) it’s fine to do that first.
4.a4 c6 and there are three approaches for white exist:
5.Nc3 is the one time white will oblige us to advance 5…b4 if Nge2 then …e6 and …c5 can be played fast cause no pressure on c4 but do play Ba6 when they move the knight. If other knight moves then Ba6
5.b3
5.axb5 cxb5 6.b3 e5! we threaten the uncomfortable …Bb4+, for instance 7.dxe5?! Bb4+ 8.Bd2 Qd4! 9.Bxb4 Qxa1, and if 7.d5 Nf6 has usual pressure against their center 8.f3 Bc5 9.bxc4 b4! is a standard motif, white’s pawns are blockaded and leave dark square holes, black’s queenside pawns are quite strong, similarly 7.Nf3 exd4 8.bxc4 b4! gives black a nice game, endgames are very promising. So 6.Nc3 is the main move and black has two fun continuations:
6…a6!? 7.Nxb5 axb5 8.Rxa8 Bb7, black has a lot of compensation here. Here’s a Nakamura win, here a nice attack by Heberla, and here another. One thing you notice is endgames do not have to be avoided, black has compensation in many ways. That last game is probably the most useful to consider as 10.f3 will be played a lot. In general if we win the e4 pawn we likely have adequate compensation and if they defend it with f3 we have …f5 opening up the game for our minor pieces. Guramashvili has a course that covers this on chessable (which I don’t have) if you’re interested in details.
Another way to play is 6…Qb6 which is my recommendation. I think 6…a6!? is more fun but this is likely both a tiny bit better and easier to learn. Still, a6 does look very fun… You can get a more detailed look in Gledura’s chessable course (which I also don’t have) but there are four key ways to continue:
a) if white plays a normal developing move (Be2, Nf3) we play …e6 and get our kingside out. White has some comp but we are up a pawn.
b) 7.Be3 tries to highlight the bad queen, but we are in time with 7…e6 (e pawn before knight!) 8.d5 Bc5.
c) 7.b3 undermines our pawn chain and we don’t have …b4 with tempo and then …c3 saving the pawns because of Na4! but we can play the usual 7…e6 though not with an 8.bxc4 b4 sequence, rather we need 8…Bb4 9.Bd2 (9.Qb3?! bxc4! 10.Bxc4 Nc6 11.Nf3 Na5) 9…bxc4 10.Bxc4 Ne7 11.Nf3 no need fear Rb1 we always have …a5 11…0-0 12.0-0 a5 and there’s only been draws from here in high level play. Not a bad try by white but black should only be slightly worse and with room to play.
d) 7.Nd5 is most popular and most fun for us, let’s start with the funny trap:
7…Qb7 8.Bf4 e5! 9.Bxe5 Nd7 (9.dxe5?! Be6 and our extra queenside pawn is better than white’s doubled e pawn) we’ve lured the bishop to a square where the knight can attack it, sure, but the key is we opened up our dark square bishop and leading to 10.Nc7+?! Kd8 11.Nxa8?? Bb4+ 12.Ke2 Qxe4#. Better is 10.Bf4 Ngf6 11.Nc7+ (11.Nxf6+ Nxf6 12.f3 Bb4+ 13.Bd2 a5 black is better, our pieces have much more scope) 11…Kd8 12.Nxa8 (12.f3 Bb4+ though 12…g5!? is also strong 13.Kf2 Nh5 14.Nd5 Nxf4 with a complex position.
And that’s the most common variations. Complicated but nothing too out there, and lively to play.
3.Nf3 a6 4.e3 b5 when possible we’re just going to keep the pawn and cramp white with it. 5.a4 to quote Ben Finegold, “vut else?” 5…Bb7 6.b3 (6.axb5 axb5 7.Rxa8 Bxa8 8.b3 e6 9.bxc4 bxc4 10.Bxc4 Nf6 is equal) 6…e6 7.bxc4 bxc4 8.Bxc4 Nf6 9.0-0 Nbd7 10.Nbd2/Nc3 c5. White’s a bit better here and this doesn’t look particularly fun to play though it’s not bad by any means. I’d like to find something else though. I’ve been considering early c5 lines.
raskerino chess 