Thank you Tony for the time and love you have spent analyzing these variations. Not every strong player is willing to share their independent analysis with others!
Really enjoyed this video. Have been struggling with understanding the QGD and its variations. Not only was the specific discussion on the h6 line great, but the overall discussion on the strategy for white was solid gold for me. Thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together and share it with us. Peace.
I love your opening analysis Tony! Well explained, and really clear why the ideas are good, but still with a ton of depth. The combo of showing essential lines and having others left for us to explore more in depth is perfect, thorough but without losing sense of the plot! Also just beautiful how a little idea like h6 can spring from so many moves ahead. The little nuances in chess are what make it so beautiful!
Thanks so much, I really appreciate it! I think I need to slow it down a bit and make sure the ideas are totally clear, as the analysis part is probably more my strong suit. They're a work in progress! This is a common and annoying line at all levels and I was excited to show a few ideas against it. I agree that if I was clear about why Bf4 can be so annoying that knowing to go ...h6 right away and WHY is very instructive overall!
I think the progress is very solid! Nice looking videos, good ideas, clear explanation. For an audience looking for some in depth analysis I think these are really good!
great insight! i would love to see you analyze the Budapest gambit, as i want someone to destroy my repertoire and make me learn more standard openings. ;)
Tony. Since now this idea is out in the open .... 😄The ...a5, ...Na6 idea has been known to me for some time now. Actually, I was privileged to speak about this position with my friend GM Lukasz Cyborowski of Poland (his game is in the database, and he even has many more games in the variation, but they are not in the database) ... He pointed out that: 1. the idea of playing .. c5 should be played only after White playes f2-f3 with tactical ideas of stopping or delaying White's e3-e4-e5, d4-d5 pawn storm. But his preference is to play the dark squared Bishop to ..d7 or.. b7 and place Rook on c8 (across from the White's Queens). This creates whole bunch of tactical ideas that appear to work good for White but turns out work better for Black. But that is just yet another approach. Alternative to the queenside storm for Black is to keep the b7 pawn in place and put the bishop on c6 with the idea to push c5 and d5-d4 later. Very good and a year later - still relatively Unkown idea... Good job. thanks
Very interesting Peter - I'll try and track down the game and take a look. He's right - ...c5 should generally wait until f3 from White. Glad you enjoyed the video, and THANKS for watching! ;)
regarding the f3 lines. in carlsen vs firouzja, he went for an immediate b5 without a5, but it's above my head. chessexplained is also creating a Keep It Simple black repertoire (ETA christmas) where he'll recommend h6-Be7-Re8-Nbd7-a5-b5 lines. i don't know all the details, but i'm looking forward to his analysis
Oh great - I knew Christof was coming out with a course but wasn't sure of the lines. That will be a great X-Mas present to myself I suppose! Also good to know I'm not stepping on his toes too much - at least I plumped for ...Na6 to ...c7 instead of his ...Nbd7 first. Both are probably good and nuanced in different ways. As I said, there is also Radjabov's line with ...g6 with similar ideas. It seems like in Radja's line, most of the time people are shooting for ...Bb7 and ...c5 instead of ...Ba6 and ...b4 however. I still need to look more, but felt like for an intro video to the lines my understanding now would suffice! :)
Great video! Seems like there are a lot of interesting little ideas in the QGD exchange at the moment. Another interesting line is to play 10...Nh5 Ntirlis style in your main line instead of 10...a5, intending to reach the solid position after 11.Bxe7 Qxe7 12. O-O Nd7. What do you think of this line? This is also a line that benefits from 6...h6, because the old way to reach the end position was through the main line move order 5...c6 6.e3 Be7 7.Bd3 Nbd7 8.Qc2 O-O 9.Nge2 Re8 10.O-O h6 11.Bh4 Nh5 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 but 11.Bf4 stops Black's plans as you showed.
Yeah, probably should be playable as well in my opinion, though I'm less of a fan of going ...Nh5 in general because I just think the knight kind of stinks there, which implies a further loss of time. In your line for instance, I would rather avoid the positions something like 13.Rab1 a5 14.Na4. That's the main draw for me to the plans with earlier ...a5/...b5 - there's just no minority attacks at all, and ...b5 fits in relatively well as an anti-central expansion counter as well, as in the video with either ...b4 or just ...Ba6, etc.
Glad you liked, thanks Cedric! Yes, between the Catalan vid, this one, and the London coverage, you're pretty close. At some point I'm sure I'll close the loop with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 and 4.Nf3. FWIW, I have always thought 4.Bg5 dxc4!? was sound and very tricky for White in a few spots.
What I decided to do is to play 3 Be7 and bypass all the shenanigans White has with the Botvinnik setup. I learned this from GM Alex Colovic and in many positions it is even possible to trade the light square bishops with a ...Bd6, ...Ne7, ...Bf5. I like the solutions you gave but they seen somewhat more theory heavy. Gonna try them in blitz later.
Hey Bruno! Yes, the Alatortsev is a great approach as well. I am less of a fan of having to deal with stuff like 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.e3 Bf5 7.g4!? and so on, but it's really up to your taste what you'd rather face. Now that I have a solution I'm fairly confident in against the Exchange, I don't mind the standard 3...Nf6. As I said in the video, I often answered the Exchange with the Semi-Tarrasch, which has gained popularity in the last 5-10 years or so once Kramnik started playing it again with ...Nd7 instead of ...Nc6. Cheers!
@@TonyRotella That g4 move is really an outlandish idea, hahaha! I play there 6...Bd6 and if 7 Bxd6 Qxd6 8 Bd3 Ne7 to play Bf5. And when the Queen goes to 6 Qc2 Bd6 7 Bxd6 Qxd6 8 e3 Ne7 9 Bd3 I play ...b6 to swap the bishops via a6. It is a little bit more tame. This is really nice to see, how we get comfy in some lines and make them our pet lines when to other people they don't seem as welcoming.
This is a great video and I really like all of your opening theory videos. In case they don't go for the exchange variation, could you do a video for the ragozin?
Thanks Simon, very much appreciate the kind words! I think to really do the Ragozin justice would take me many videos and sadly I'm not an expert. I do want to close up the series with something, I just need to find something economical and put some time and effort into it. Stay tuned!
Great video Tony, is there a source that covers all the nuances for white and black in the QGD Exchange? I play it with both colours and cannot find a comprehensive source. There are so many plans for black like h6 g5 nh5 etc that I never see covered anywhere
For both colors, that's tricky! Matthew Sadler has an old that is often recommended as essential reading for explanations and ideas even though it's quite old. There is also the Flores Rios book by Quality Chess - there is a bit of coverage on the Carlsbad Structure in there. Nowadays everything is so "repertoire" focused, to a certain extent you have to be good about piecing stuff together yourself, and checking out the newest games in the database and analyzing yourself to try and get to the bottom of things. It takes more time, but there's also a lot to be gained there. Good luck! ;)
Awesome video. I have avoided the exchange with 3...Be7 but I might have to experiment with these lines. My only question is, do the ideas change much if White does not play Qc2? For example, as White I myself play 9.Nge2 instead of 9.Qc2, and it's also a fairly popular move in the database.
Thanks, glad you dug it! It's an honor to talk to a man of such...wealth and taste. The ideas might change very slightly, but the overarching play is similar. I added some lines to the study, appreciate you pointing out that omission! Basically, I'd likely pursue the same plan with ...a5/...b5, but would likely play ...Nbd7 instead if I'm not gaining a tempo due to the "threat" of ...Nb4. Bluebaum has a few games in the DB from this year in this variation and drew Ding Liren - not too shabby!
Ntirlis is one of my favorite authors and someone I consider a friend (he was a regular on ChessPub before he got big and we talked quite a bit, even checked each other's analysis quite a bit) and I trust him wholeheartedly. His book is very good but just stylistically I'd prefer my line. It seems like less work and is a line where I think White poses less problems. I am less familiar with Korley's idea, but it's common in some other lines of the Exchange/Carlsbad to go ...Bd6 instead of ...Be7. I'll have to look into it further!
You have very good taste in board and piece themes. I use the blue board with the staunty pieces as well.
My man!
Staunty stans stand strong
@@rockinblues7491 Preach!
This h6 move makes for such a clear and concise repertoire that it took me only 1.5 hours to understand the variations. Thank you!!!
Thank you Tony for the time and love you have spent analyzing these variations. Not every strong player is willing to share their independent analysis with others!
My pleasure sir, I do what I can!
Really enjoyed this video. Have been struggling with understanding the QGD and its variations. Not only was the specific discussion on the h6 line great, but the overall discussion on the strategy for white was solid gold for me. Thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together and share it with us. Peace.
Glad you liked it, thanks so much!
I love your opening analysis Tony! Well explained, and really clear why the ideas are good, but still with a ton of depth. The combo of showing essential lines and having others left for us to explore more in depth is perfect, thorough but without losing sense of the plot!
Also just beautiful how a little idea like h6 can spring from so many moves ahead. The little nuances in chess are what make it so beautiful!
Thanks so much, I really appreciate it! I think I need to slow it down a bit and make sure the ideas are totally clear, as the analysis part is probably more my strong suit. They're a work in progress! This is a common and annoying line at all levels and I was excited to show a few ideas against it. I agree that if I was clear about why Bf4 can be so annoying that knowing to go ...h6 right away and WHY is very instructive overall!
I think the progress is very solid! Nice looking videos, good ideas, clear explanation. For an audience looking for some in depth analysis I think these are really good!
This was a great video. New fan here. Thanks!!
Thanks!
Thanks for the analysis
You're very welcome!
great insight! i would love to see you analyze the Budapest gambit, as i want someone to destroy my repertoire and make me learn more standard openings. ;)
Thanks Jimmy! And not a bad idea for a video, I like to take on the risky stuff! :D
Tony. Since now this idea is out in the open .... 😄The ...a5, ...Na6 idea has been known to me for some time now. Actually, I was privileged to speak about this position with my friend GM Lukasz Cyborowski of Poland (his game is in the database, and he even has many more games in the variation, but they are not in the database) ... He pointed out that: 1. the idea of playing .. c5 should be played only after White playes f2-f3 with tactical ideas of stopping or delaying White's e3-e4-e5, d4-d5 pawn storm. But his preference is to play the dark squared Bishop to ..d7 or.. b7 and place Rook on c8 (across from the White's Queens). This creates whole bunch of tactical ideas that appear to work good for White but turns out work better for Black. But that is just yet another approach. Alternative to the queenside storm for Black is to keep the b7 pawn in place and put the bishop on c6 with the idea to push c5 and d5-d4 later. Very good and a year later - still relatively Unkown idea... Good job. thanks
Very interesting Peter - I'll try and track down the game and take a look. He's right - ...c5 should generally wait until f3 from White. Glad you enjoyed the video, and THANKS for watching! ;)
regarding the f3 lines. in carlsen vs firouzja, he went for an immediate b5 without a5, but it's above my head. chessexplained is also creating a Keep It Simple black repertoire (ETA christmas) where he'll recommend h6-Be7-Re8-Nbd7-a5-b5 lines. i don't know all the details, but i'm looking forward to his analysis
Oh great - I knew Christof was coming out with a course but wasn't sure of the lines. That will be a great X-Mas present to myself I suppose! Also good to know I'm not stepping on his toes too much - at least I plumped for ...Na6 to ...c7 instead of his ...Nbd7 first. Both are probably good and nuanced in different ways. As I said, there is also Radjabov's line with ...g6 with similar ideas. It seems like in Radja's line, most of the time people are shooting for ...Bb7 and ...c5 instead of ...Ba6 and ...b4 however. I still need to look more, but felt like for an intro video to the lines my understanding now would suffice! :)
Very meticulously researched.
Great video! Seems like there are a lot of interesting little ideas in the QGD exchange at the moment. Another interesting line is to play 10...Nh5 Ntirlis style in your main line instead of 10...a5, intending to reach the solid position after 11.Bxe7 Qxe7 12. O-O Nd7. What do you think of this line?
This is also a line that benefits from 6...h6, because the old way to reach the end position was through the main line move order 5...c6 6.e3 Be7 7.Bd3 Nbd7 8.Qc2 O-O 9.Nge2 Re8 10.O-O h6 11.Bh4 Nh5 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 but 11.Bf4 stops Black's plans as you showed.
Yeah, probably should be playable as well in my opinion, though I'm less of a fan of going ...Nh5 in general because I just think the knight kind of stinks there, which implies a further loss of time. In your line for instance, I would rather avoid the positions something like 13.Rab1 a5 14.Na4. That's the main draw for me to the plans with earlier ...a5/...b5 - there's just no minority attacks at all, and ...b5 fits in relatively well as an anti-central expansion counter as well, as in the video with either ...b4 or just ...Ba6, etc.
Thanks
Awesome video. With your london system video, we almost have a full black repertoire against 1.d4. Just missing something against Bg5 lines 😉
Glad you liked, thanks Cedric! Yes, between the Catalan vid, this one, and the London coverage, you're pretty close. At some point I'm sure I'll close the loop with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 and 4.Nf3. FWIW, I have always thought 4.Bg5 dxc4!? was sound and very tricky for White in a few spots.
What I decided to do is to play 3 Be7 and bypass all the shenanigans White has with the Botvinnik setup. I learned this from GM Alex Colovic and in many positions it is even possible to trade the light square bishops with a ...Bd6, ...Ne7, ...Bf5. I like the solutions you gave but they seen somewhat more theory heavy. Gonna try them in blitz later.
Hey Bruno! Yes, the Alatortsev is a great approach as well. I am less of a fan of having to deal with stuff like 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.e3 Bf5 7.g4!? and so on, but it's really up to your taste what you'd rather face. Now that I have a solution I'm fairly confident in against the Exchange, I don't mind the standard 3...Nf6. As I said in the video, I often answered the Exchange with the Semi-Tarrasch, which has gained popularity in the last 5-10 years or so once Kramnik started playing it again with ...Nd7 instead of ...Nc6. Cheers!
@@TonyRotella That g4 move is really an outlandish idea, hahaha! I play there 6...Bd6 and if 7 Bxd6 Qxd6 8 Bd3 Ne7 to play Bf5. And when the Queen goes to 6 Qc2 Bd6 7 Bxd6 Qxd6 8 e3 Ne7 9 Bd3 I play ...b6 to swap the bishops via a6. It is a little bit more tame. This is really nice to see, how we get comfy in some lines and make them our pet lines when to other people they don't seem as welcoming.
Brilliant stuff as always
Very grateful you watched, as always!
This is a great video and I really like all of your opening theory videos. In case they don't go for the exchange variation, could you do a video for the ragozin?
Thanks Simon, very much appreciate the kind words! I think to really do the Ragozin justice would take me many videos and sadly I'm not an expert. I do want to close up the series with something, I just need to find something economical and put some time and effort into it. Stay tuned!
@@TonyRotella Cambridge Springs looks interesting. Excellent video BTW.
Great video Tony, is there a source that covers all the nuances for white and black in the QGD Exchange? I play it with both colours and cannot find a comprehensive source. There are so many plans for black like h6 g5 nh5 etc that I never see covered anywhere
For both colors, that's tricky! Matthew Sadler has an old that is often recommended as essential reading for explanations and ideas even though it's quite old. There is also the Flores Rios book by Quality Chess - there is a bit of coverage on the Carlsbad Structure in there. Nowadays everything is so "repertoire" focused, to a certain extent you have to be good about piecing stuff together yourself, and checking out the newest games in the database and analyzing yourself to try and get to the bottom of things. It takes more time, but there's also a lot to be gained there. Good luck! ;)
Awesome video. I have avoided the exchange with 3...Be7 but I might have to experiment with these lines. My only question is, do the ideas change much if White does not play Qc2? For example, as White I myself play 9.Nge2 instead of 9.Qc2, and it's also a fairly popular move in the database.
Thanks, glad you dug it! It's an honor to talk to a man of such...wealth and taste. The ideas might change very slightly, but the overarching play is similar. I added some lines to the study, appreciate you pointing out that omission! Basically, I'd likely pursue the same plan with ...a5/...b5, but would likely play ...Nbd7 instead if I'm not gaining a tempo due to the "threat" of ...Nb4. Bluebaum has a few games in the DB from this year in this variation and drew Ding Liren - not too shabby!
apologize if i missed it in your video. what are your thoughts of ntirlis's Nh5 (instead of Ne5) and kassa korley's Bd6 (instead of Be7)?
Ntirlis is one of my favorite authors and someone I consider a friend (he was a regular on ChessPub before he got big and we talked quite a bit, even checked each other's analysis quite a bit) and I trust him wholeheartedly. His book is very good but just stylistically I'd prefer my line. It seems like less work and is a line where I think White poses less problems.
I am less familiar with Korley's idea, but it's common in some other lines of the Exchange/Carlsbad to go ...Bd6 instead of ...Be7. I'll have to look into it further!
What about the lines with exchange and 5. Bf4? What do you recommend tony? Thanks!
I'll take a look at it and add some notes to the study soon - I'll reply back here when it's done.
@@TonyRotella thanks!! Great study
Subbed
Love watching but usually don't comment. Ask and you shall receive :D
YOU MY BOY NOAH! Thanks for watching!