Semi-Slav, Bg5

I have been using this defense recently and enjoy it, do you guys have any opinions on it? And if they play the early Bg5 should I just stick with my Cambridge Springs- thanks 

Back in the day when I played the Semi-Slav, I always preferred the Botvinnik against 5.Bg5

how about the Moscow?

Botvinnik: theoretical minefield.

I avoid the moscow and botvinik cuz I prefer a clean game with a kingside castle perhaps I will look into the botvinik, the king seems pretty protected after the long castle

If you avoid both the Moscow and Botvinnik, then the only other mainline option is Cambridge Springs.

Interesting.  Statistically though, 6...Be7 plays poorly here according to chessgames.com.    

Positionally, I think it would be because after 7 Bxf6 Bxf6 8 e3, White has successfully gotten rid of his bad bishop while Black's bishop on f6 is blocked on its diagonal.

Both the Moscow and Botvinnik have good reputations. I think your reason to avoid the Moscow is unfounded. Check it out you might like it!

I mean, this is true. I could recommend the Grunfeld due to it's very good reputation currently, however, I wanted to recommend something simliar to what he is playing :). 

The Nimzo and Bogo/QID is always solid if you are interested in trying something new as well. 

In any case, don't worry too much about the theoretically reputation of current openings. Just play something you enjoy and learn the middlegame plans!

I'm looking into playing the semi-slav again (I used to play it in the past) but it seems there's a boatload of theory that black has to know.

Even using the Moscow against Bg5, there's still a lot to memorize in the Meran.

For some reason I think Nimzo and Bogo are more intuitive and you can get away with much less memorization. But then again, they are 2 openings to learn as opposed to 1.

I would also prefer to not play ...e6 as early as move two because if white goes into the colle I would really like to have by light-Bishop out.

Go_NightKnightt already said in the original post that he plays the Cambridge Springs.

Does this mean the temporary knight sac already has a name? =( I wanted to call it the whoopass variation.  I noticed that since the pawn was attacking the knight the sac would be temporary when I played it against Fritz (yes, a gimped mode in rated)

What does Quinn say?

...4BB4 the ragozin defense??

haha I respect quinns opinion and always take it into consideration Sami ..but barely anyone plays the exchange like him and even if white is playing for the draw so be it ..also quinn is on another level than us it doesnt matter if my opponent exchanges right now cuz it says they're afraid of me and I will probably crush them in the endgame

Of course, but it's always good.  Besides, as you know, he has a very strong sentiment against the Slav.

This has got to be a move order anomoly.  Because stronger players who come through this move order are mostly playing Semi-slavs, and players who want to play a QGD but get there this way are kind of playing "common sense" chess rather than being super high rated theory hogs.

White's not trading the bishop for the knight there.  Black is rock solid in the aftermath.

A couple moves down the road, I'll betcha 99% of games that start with that line end up in some variation of an Orthodox.