Learning Ideas 1. d4 2. c4 Gruenfeld Pawn Structure Part 2
Hello and welcome to the second installment of this series where I try to learn 1.d4 2.c4 and associated ideas along the way. This post definitely ties in with Part one because I reached a position out of the opening that was very similar in terms of pawn structure and thus I attempted to use the ideas gained from that post. I was unsuccessful, I was rebuked, I blundered and I lost but now I want to learn. So let's get into it! Here is the game:
Gruenfeld Defense: Exchange Variation
So I reached this position with white to move:
Talking about piece placement. For the most part I would like to look at the queen maneuver to Qa4. In response to Bd7 the queen may move to b3 as in my game but I really want to look at Qa4 to a3.
The Queen:
Qa4 and Qb3 does not really threaten b7, in hindsight, but seems to be a playable idea:
Now that I see that I am not really threatening b7 I want to take a look at what I will try in the future, Qa4 to a3. Though Bd7 is not black's most popular reply it is interesting to see that white responds with Qa3 after Bd7 and scores quite well.
So why Qa3? Here are 2 games that saw the move. One sees white winning and the other black:
I would have to draw only superficial conclusions about this queen maneuver:
To be short I believe that the queen on the a file prevents black from playing Qa5, allows Rd1, stays out of a pin and puts pressure on blacks d pawn and looks at c5. As a side note another idea I noticed is that Bg5 was frequently played, who knows maybe to create pawn weaknesses and eye d7.
The Bishops:
I only want to mention:
Bc4 did not tie in well and Be2 was seen more often
Bg5 was seen a lot in the above games and could be an idea I should look at
