Chess Openings: Part V:Beating Queen's gambit refused lines

Welcome to my 5th opening discussion.This time I decided to look at my most favourite opening in chess. That's Queen's gambit. I play it with both white and black. As white I play Queen's gambit in all games where the game opens symmetrically(1.d4 d5 2.c4...)

So Queen's gambit is very strong opening and like Ruy Lopez white can get advantage against many lines, no matter how black plays.

So there are 3 main lines of Queen's gambit.

1st is Queen's gambit accepted(QGA) ,the 2nd-Queen's gambit declined(QGD) and the 3rd is Queen's gambit refused.

In this article I'll show how to get advantage against QG refused lines. In this variations black begin his own counterplay from the very start.

1.Symmetrical(Austrian) defense

The best move for white is 3.cxd5. The other moves can transpose into other variations ,like 3.Nc3 e6(Tarrasch defense).

Black shoudn't play 3....Qxd5 as after 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Nc3 Qa5 6.Nxd4 or 5...Qd8 6.Qxd4 Qxd4 7.Nxd4 black can lose hopes even for draw.

Instead black must attack the pawn with the move 3....Nf6 and white will defend it 4.Nf3 and 4.e4. So the game will continue 4...cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nxd5 6.e4 Nc7 or 4.e4 Nxe4 5.dxc5 Nxc5 6.Nc3 e6. with advantage of whites.

2.Baltic defense

In Ortodox lines of QGD black has difficulty of developing the light-squared bishop , so this defense solves this problem but also takes black to difficult positions.

White has 4 main choices -3.Nf3, 3.Qb3, 3.cxd5, and 3.Nc3. In my opinion the bests of these are 3.Qb3 and 3.cxd5.The main is actually 3.cxd5 Bxb1 4.Qa4+ Qd7 5.Qxd7+ Nxd7 6.Rxb1 Ngf6 7.Nf3 and the position is slightly advantageous for white. And in case of 3.Qb3 e4 4.Qxb7 Nd7 5.Nf3 Rb8 6.Qxa7 the position is less favourable for white but white can still fight for advantage.

3.Marshall defense

The idea of this defense is to recapture the d5 pawn with a knight. But the knight can be easily kicked away from d5 square.

There are 2 main moves for white. 4.e4 and 4.Nf3. The later is considered the best move by experts. 

After 4...Bf5, White gains a large advantage with 5.Qb3 e6 (5...Nc6 6.Nbd2 Nb6 7.e4 Bg6 8.d5 is very strong) 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.e4 Nxc3 8.exf5 Nd5 9.a3.

And also 4.e4 is good for white as it will give white full control of the center. After Black retreats the knight with 4...Nf6, White can go on with 5.e5 attacking the knight, or he can get a clear advantage with 5.f3, or a small advantage with 5.Nc3 e5 6.Nf3 (6.dxe5 Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1 Ng4!) 6...exd4 7.Qxd4.

The other Albin countergambit and Chigorin defense aren't so easy to beat, but they can result in disaster in case that black does a mistake.