Chess openings - Slav Defence

Welcome back to Chessopenings.com. Today's video is all about the Slav opening, which is Black's most popular reply to the Queen's Gambit. It begins with the moves pawn to d4, pawn to d5, pawn to c4, and pawn to c6. And during today, we're going to get a chance to take a look at this ultra- solid reply to the Queen's Gambit. Let's take a look. The Slav is a reply to the Queen's Gambit. To play for the Queen's Gambit white begins with pawn to d4, and then after the move pawn to d5 he replies with a powerful move pawn to c4; offering a temporary pawn sacrifice to gain control over the center or force black to make some concessions and holding onto the pawn on d5. In the late 1800s and early 1900s when the Queen's Gambit first became popular players handling the black pieces defended against the Queen's gambit either by immediately capturing on c4, and this would be known as the Queen's gambit accepted, and then the idea was to play pawn to c5 as quickly as black has an opportunity to do so. Or, the other main alternative back in those days used to be pawn to e6, and both of these are still play today. But the other main idea used to be pawn to e6 holding ground in the center for as long as possible, and then only later figuring out how to achieve this c5 advance, usually once again after capturing on c4. During those days, nobody really bothered with this little move pawn to c6, and this is because from a classical point of view, this move actually seems a little unattractive. The major downside of the move c6 is that sooner or later black generally wants to play that critical move pawn, to c5 in order to break up the center, and in this case in the Slav black when he does play c5 he'll have wasted a tempo. Also, he'll be temporarily depriving the knight on b8 of its logical square on c6. So, why is it that these days the situation has completely reversed with the Slav now being hands down the most popular response to the Queen's Gambit? Well, to find out we have to learn to think about the unique benefits of the move pawn to c6 in a unique way. In fact, there are two major reasons why the Slav has eventually emerged to the forefront as most popular reaction to the Queen's Gambit. The first reason is that unlike the Queen's Gambit Declined, which would've began with the move e7 to e6, black retains the option of developing the bishop outside of the pawn chain. Quite often in the Slav, the bishop ends up either on the f5 square or the g4 square, and it can either exert real influence over the center, or it can simply exchange itself off. Now it would be a mistake to say that this is the only main reason why black plays the Slav, because there are times when black chooses in the Slav not to deploy that bishop outside of the pawn chain. The other hidden benefit in this position, is that the move c7 to c6 increases blacks control over the b5 square, and this comes in handy because black will often capture on c4 in the Slav. And now in the Slav Defense, because of this threat of b7 to b5, white needs to be much more careful about how he goes about recovering the pawn. Let's take a look at some variations to illustrate these main points. The main line of the Slav begins with the standard developing move knight f3, knight f6, and then simply knight c3 for white. From here, black has a few major options and each of them are very interesting. But the first thing to know about this position is that black doesn't want to play the move bishop f5 just yet, even though that might appear natural. And the reason for this is that the b7 pawn is temporarily made vulnerable so white has a very strong surprise prepared with the moves pawn takes d5, and now queen to b3, attacking the b7 point and also exerting extra influence over d5. Surprisingly, the defense of the b7 pawn is very uncomfortable for black in this position. He not only needs to defend the b7 pawn, but he also needs to do so in a way that doesn't allow him to lose control over the d5 pawn. For example, if he would simply play moves like queen c7 or queen c8 in both cases white would simply play knight takes d5 winning a free pawn. Also, the move queen b6 is not an answer, because white would simply once again play knight takes d5, if black tries Queen takes b3 we would throw in the intermediate move knight takes f6 check. And, if black simply captures on d5, white captures on d5, and black does not have adequate compensation for the pond. So backing up to the position after queen b3, black would actually need to make a serious concession here either by playing bishop to c8 when after any move, perhaps, Bishop f4 for example there's no question that white has a tremendous lead in development. Or, another reaction would be the move pawn to b6, which is probably the most sensible reaction but leaves black seriously weakened on the queen side. Simply, bishop f4 once again. Now, black need to worry about all kinds of threats to the queen side such as a knight or bishop eventually appearing on the b5 square. Ordinarily, black would simply play a6 in this kind of structure sooner or later, but because white has induced the weakening move b7 to b6, black will have serious problems defending his queenside. So, backing up to the position after knight c3. If black cannot play bishop f5 just yet he needs to find something else to do first. And one of the most popular ideas here is pawn takes pawn on c4, which is known as the Slav Proper. And now here comes the secret to the Slav Defense. As we talked about earlier, black's inclusion of the move c7 to c6 in the Slav makes his threats more strong after he captures on d takes c4. In this position, he's actually ready to play the move b7 to b5. So if white simply continues with the standard looking move pawn to e4 he finds himself running into a little bit of trouble after the move b7 to b5. For example, if white were to try to take a crack at these pawns with a2 to a4 he'd quickly find that this simply doesn't work because after b4, the knight is destabilized on c3, and in this situation he even loses control over the e4 pawn. But even if white were to play it safe, even if instead of playing e4, he simply played e3 so that this pawn will not be hanging, black would still continue with the move b5. And after a4, he would still continue with the move b4. And yes it's true that after knight a2 we no longer have a pawn hanging on e4, and we're attacking both the b4 pawns and c4 pawns. So white will recover his pawn in this situation. But theory still says that black has a fine game after the moves e6, and bishop takes c4, and this is because even though white has recovered his pawn, he's done so at the cost of a very poorly placed piece on e2. So what these subtleties show us is that black's threat to play b7 to b5 is in fact quite serious in this position, and is one of the main features of the Slav defense. To avoid this problem, white universally plays the outstanding move a2 to a4 here, preventing the b7 to b5 move outright, and aiming to recover the pawn next move perhaps by pawn to e3. This is a solid plan, and leads to a slight initiative for white, but black can claim a couple little more victories in this position. First of all he is now fully justified in playing the move bishop to f5 which is exactly what he does, activating that white-squared bishop before playing e6, and now we see one of the ideas that black had in mind here. He has deprived white of the opportunity to play queen b3 by first of all playing this move of d takes c4. Black's second idea is that by calling out the move a2 to a4, black hopes to prove that the b4 square has been weakened. And this will work nicely for black since he'll station a bishop here and that bishop will no longer be able to be pushed away by the typical move a2 to a3, which white would normally have in such situations. Thus, black is setting his sights now on playing the moves e7 to e6, let's just show these on the board, and bishop to b4. And if you really think about it, there's an important strategic justification to this idea as well. Since by placing the bishop on b4, black is also indirectly influencing the critical e4 square, and making it harder for white to achieve the move e2 to e4. Now we get a chance to see all of this in action most easily if white plays the typical move pawn to e3. However, I do briefly want to mention that white has another modern move here which is knight to e5. And this leads to fascinating play for white, since white aims not only to capture on c4 in a different way, but more importantly he's aiming to try to solve this problem of achieving the move e2 to e4 by first making it possible for him to play f2 to f3. But today, I simply want to show the classical moves e2 to e3, e6, bishop takes c4, and now that move bishop to b4. And here we illustrate one of black's main ideas. Black will argue that getting white to play a2 to a4 has worked in his favor since this b4 square is now very difficult to dislodge the bishop from, just as we said. And thus, black has achieved active placement for both of his bishops, in exchange for a slight space disadvantage in the center. White will work very hard over the next several moves to organize the move e3 to e4 and build a mobile center while black will both aim to avoid this and organize his own counter play. The position here is highly interesting with chances for both sides, and is well regarded as being very solid for black. I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of the Slav defense. Even though we've just touched the surface I hope you see how rich and fascinating this opening is, and I hope you've begun to get some insight into why modern players have begun to prefer the Slav defense over the Queens Gambit Declined or Queens Gambit Accepted. Black has tremendous opportunities of getting active counter play in this opening, and with a little bit of homework these opening are very instr...