5.Qa4 in the Queen's Indian is harmless. There's a chapter on it in Andrew Greet's Play the Queen's Indian where the author suggests the solid 5...Bb7. After 6.Bg2 c5 Black has lost a half-tempo but benefitted greatly from this sequence: he has acheived the ..c5 break at a moment where it is not feasible for White to meet it with d4-d5.
5.Qa4 against Grunfeld and Queen's Indian defence.
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Yes 5 QA4+ is a line in he grunfeld, it is called the flohr variation.... Also, I dont really care that Qa4 against QID is harmless, the whole point of the move is it's surprise value.... I am just looking for sources.
5. Qa4 has no surprise value. It doesn't change the nature of the position.
Black can even follow the standard plan Be7 0-0 c6 and d5 and be perfectly fine.
Jul 1, 2015
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#6
What is sharp for either side in the Queen's Indian though? Can think think of Aronian's Qc2 pawn sac against Ba6, and the older d5 pawn sac against bb7, both these in the g3 lines. 1.d4 club players usually don't like these possibilites. Other lines are various form's of snooze feast which Qa4 doesn't seem much different.
Jul 1, 2015
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#7
There's another thread on this opening which argues that 5.Qa4 is a mistake. If it's a mistake, it's one that top players repeatedly make. Rather than look for a book, try to find some well-annotated games in the opening. Korchnoi and Gelfand have both used it as a repertoire, and many of their games are well annotated.
5.Qa4+ is a respectable way to get the Grunfeld early out of the book. I do not think it's particularly threatening, but since white has in any case a hard time to demonstrate an advantage in the Grunfeld, I say "why not?".
The main idea is provoking Bd7, and then dropping back to b3, like in the Russian variation, when Black's extra move Bd7 makes more harm than good.
Same goes for 5.Qa4 in the QID: I do not think it's any worse than the sharp 5.Qc2, or the timid 5.Qb3.
In short, both ideas are very playable.
Sources? Hmmm... nothing concrete. Just pick top games featuring both these lines (quite a few of them recently) and start working on them.
I tried recently 5.Qa4 in a correspondence game. White got a little "something", but in the complications the position simplified too much and I could not do something good in the end...
In a real OTB game, without plenty of time and engine aid, this could well be a serious advantage.
Is anyone aware of any books dvd's or anything of the sort that reccomends 5.Qa4 against the Queen's Indian, and/or 5.Qa4+ against the Grunfeld (this is the Flohr Variation)