Can you post some of the moves from your games?
QGA Protecting C4 with the light square bishop
Sort:
1. d4 d5
2. c4 Nf6
3. Nc3 dxc4
4. e3 Be6
5. Qa4+ c6....
From here my pawn was lost. I couldn't recover it? I am planning on making the Queen's Gambit my main line for a year or so and the studying i have done so far says holding on to the pawn is bad for black but when black brings in the bishop i cant get it back.
In th move order you give it would be good for you to play 3-cxd5 and after Nxd5 you follow with 4-e4 and you just grabbed the centre for free. To answer your question, Black having played Be6 blocks the pawn on e7. It means that the Bishop on f8 will have to develop in g7 after g7-g6. It means that you can prepare to launch an attack on the kingside and that the Black pieces will be a bit poorly placed (the bishop on e6 could be attacked by pawns). I may add that if your opponent is ready to freeze his position for a pawn, he puts himself in a very passive attitude and you just have to be active.
I hope it will help you.
cxd5
of course! thanks!
So if i am understanding correcdtly, after cxd5 i have a lead in development and more central control and then the light square bishop becomes a non issue.
Placing the bishop on e3 damages the position more than the extra pawn helps. Here's a recent game of mine as an example (disclaimer: neither of us played perfectly).
I'm not recommending the following but if it is really important to you to recover the pawn this works. The position is about dead even after it though.
As others have pointed out the line creates special problems for Black. I just started looking at the QGA from the Black side and personally I wouldn't try to hold on to the pawn.
DamonevicSmithlov wrote:
When an opponent plays 2...Nf6 in that position you shouldn't hesitate to play 3. cd (c x d5) because no matter how he recaptures on d5 he loses time (gives you a better lead in development) by you playing e4 gobbling up more of the cherished central squares.
You do have to be careful to play 4. Nf3 (then 5. e4) rather than rushing to play e4 right away though - Black's idea is to allow e4 then return the knight to f6 and get e5 in, like so:
And I'd be more than happy to play the Black side of this. (I reckon the queenside majority will compensate for being a bit behind in development)
Apologies if you already knew this!
General-Mayhem wrote:
DamonevicSmithlov wrote:
When an opponent plays 2...Nf6 in that position you shouldn't hesitate to play 3. cd (c x d5) because no matter how he recaptures on d5 he loses time (gives you a better lead in development) by you playing e4 gobbling up more of the cherished central squares.
You do have to be careful to play 4. Nf3 (then 5. e4) rather than rushing to play e4 right away though - Black's idea is to allow e4 then return the knight to f6 and get e5 in, like so:
And I'd be more than happy to play the Black side of this. (I reckon the queenside majority will compensate for being a bit behind in development)
Apologies if you already knew this!
"Black's idea is..."
I'm pretty sure that 99% of the time this position is reached because black doesn't have anything resembling an idea. This position is often reached in amateur play because of the new trend in chess of mindless development (from the "I just stick to opening principles because theory is evil" type players).
You're right that Nf3 should be played before e4, but it's extremely unlikely that black will punish you either way. Also, the position after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cd Nxd5 4. e4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 is still good for white.
Succorance wrote:
General-Mayhem wrote:
"Black's idea is..."
I'm pretty sure that 99% of the time this position is reached because black doesn't have anything resembling an idea. This position is often reached in amateur play because of the new trend in chess of mindless development (from the "I just stick to opening principles because theory is evil" type players).
You're right that Nf3 should be played before e4, but it's extremely unlikely that black will punish you either way. Also, the position after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cd Nxd5 4. e4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 is still good for white.
Good point :P Although I imagine when Frank Marshall first played this move (and later admitted it was bad) there was some thought behind it, but he probably assumed white would play 4. e4 (instead of 4. Nf3, which practically refutes it).
Not sure I agree that that position is good for White though, 6. d5 allows c6 which seems to equalise immediately, and 6. Nf3 allows Black to trade down to a very playable endgame
Hello,
I have been told and shown that black can not hold on to the C4 pawn after accepting the gambit but i have been having zero success recovering that pawn when black fights for it using his light squared bishop. why?