Weekly Opening Exploration: The Slav Defence
This is the Slav defence. One of the ways of playing Queens gambit declined. it protects the d5 pawn while not capturing the c4 pawn as that would lead to white having two pawns in the centre and a discovered attack on the pawn through e4.
The Slav defence has several key advantages over the queens gambit declined (d4 d5 c4 e6) in that it doesn't block in either bishop and the fact that the king is protected from any attack like this which might fork the king and another piece.
Here, I have provided some of the lines that the engine considers best against the Slav defence.
+0.63 1. cxd5 cxd5 2. Bf4 Nc6 3. Nc3 Bf5 4. e4 Bxe4 5. Nxe4 e5 6. dxe5 dxe4 7. Bc4 Bb4+ 8. Kf1 Qxd1+ 9. Rxd1 Nge7 10. e6 fxe6 11. Bxe6 Bc5 12. Ne2 Rd8 13. Rxd8+ Nxd8 14. Bb3 Rf8 15. h4 Kd7 16. g3 Ne6 17. Ba4+ Kc8 18. Kg2 Nxf4+ 19. Nxf4 Kb8 20. Bc2 Ng6 21. Bxe4 Nxf4+ 22. gxf4 Bd6 23. Rd1 Rxf4 24. f3
+0.28 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. e3 Bg4 3. Nc3 e6 4. Bd3 Nbd7 5. O-O Be7 6. h3 Bh5 7. Bd2 O-O 8. Rc1 Bd6 9. Qb3 Rb8 10. Qc2 Bxf3 11. gxf3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 Nd5 13. Ne4 Bc7 14. f4 f5 15. Ng5 Qe8 16. e4 fxe4 17. Qxe4 N7f6 18. Qxe6+ Kh8
+0.28 1. Nc3 e6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. cxd5 exd5 4. Bf4 Bd6 5. Bxd6 Qxd6 6. e3 Bf5 7. Nh4 Be4 8. Be2 O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Rc1 Rfe8 11. Qb3 Rab8 12. Nxe4 Nxe4 13. Nf3 g6 14. Qa4 Ra8 15. Qc2 Kg7 16. h3 Rec8 17. Bd3 Qe7 18. a3 Nd6
+0.15 1. Qc2 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Bf4 Bg7 6. e3 O-O 7. h3 Bf5 8. Qb3 Na5 9. Qa3 Ne4 10. Rc1 Rc8 11. Be2 Nxc3 12. Rxc3 Rxc3 13. Qxc3 Nc4 14. O-O Qb6 15. Bxc4 dxc4 16. Be5 f6 17. Bg3 Rc8 18. Nd2 Bd3 19. Rd1 Rc6 20. Rc1 Rc8 21. Kh1
+0.08 1. e3 Bf5 2. Bd3 Bxd3 3. Qxd3 dxc4 4. Qxc4 Qd5 5. Qb4 c5 6. Qb5+ Qc6 7. Nc3 cxd4 8. exd4 Nf6 9. Nge2 e6 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Qb3 Qb6 12. Be3 Qxb3 13. axb3 Bb4 14. d5 a6 15. dxe6 fxe6 16. Nf4 Kf7 17. Nd3 Be7 18. Rfe1 Rae8 19. Rac1 Bd6 20. Bd4
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