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Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central variation, Modern defense, 4. Nf3
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 Nc6. I don't know why this variation is called Modern defense, butu it doesn't matter that much.

Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central variation, Modern defense, 4. Nf3

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cellen01
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This is the third most popular variation among masters according to Chess.com and Lichess.org's  database. I don't know much about this variation but I will try my best to explain it to you.

The basic idea is that you are attacking the d4 pawn, I guess. And here white can play 3 lines. They are 4. Nf3, 4. Be3 and 4. d5. And we will look through all of them.

First we are going to look at the most popular line, 4. Nf3.

You defend the d4 pawn which is under attack, and ask what the hell black is doing(don't do that when you are playing). And to continue putting pressure on white's position, 4...Bg4. Pinning the knight to the queen and removing the defender of the d4 pawn is the best move here.

After 4...Bg4, you have 3 options. First one, 5. d5. Second one, 5. Bxc4. Third one, Be3. 

The point of 5. d5 is that to not lose the d4 pawn, you push it to d5 where it is defended by the e4 pawn. 5. Bxc4 is just a normal move, you just recapture the c4 pawn. But black actually can't take your d4 pawn immediately in that line. I will show you why after wards. 5. Be3 is just the most natural move. You develop a piece and defend the d4 pawn.

5. d5

5. Bxc4

5. Be3

Now I will play against the 2200 hundred rated Chess.com engine with this line as white and black, to test if it's easy to play or not.

Too lazy to do commentary on this one because I got totally crushed as white.

I accidently played against this 3200 rated bot instead of 2200 rated bot. But this is still a good game to show even though I lost(obviously).

Quick review: In the "Modern defense variation" in the Queen's Gambit Accepted, the position is very unbalanced and can lead to some very tactical and complex middle game. e5 or e6 is a key move as black in the "Modern defense variation". Also I recommend the 5. d5 line instead of other lines because it's the most aggressive one.

This blog is over here. As usual, comment below if you want to or if I forgot anything.

We will be covering the 4. Be3 line in the next blog.

Have a nice day grin.png!