A Queen's Gambit Accepted

Subtitled: "The best Cambridge Springs Defence I never played."

    My opponent opened our game with 1d4  1.d5   2.c4  2.e6   3.a3 ? 

    This looked like it would be the usual Queen's Gambit Declined until White played 3.a3.  Now after d5xc4 Black can hold the extra pawn permanently.  After Black played ...d5xc4 he then followed up with b5 and Qb6.  White can't get the pawn back because 3.a3 lost him a tempo, as it is too late to strike back effectively with the move a4.  White is now down a pawn in return for Black's not being able to play his favorite Cambridge Springs Defense.

Is this game over?  Could you post the whole game?  I would really like to see it.

  The point of this is - White loses a pawn if he plays 3.a3

So why then continue with the Queen's Gambit Declined?  A pawn is a pawn, as they say.

You could call this a trap except that White trapped himself.

black can't play b5 because of Nxb5. Black can't play Qb6 because he has yet to move his c-pawn. 

This is assuming that I understood you correctly. You said 3. Nc3 3. Nf3. I understood this to possibly mean 3. Nc3 Nf6. 

BillyIdle,

So the entire point of this thread is that you were able to win a pawn in the QGA because your opponent blundered on Turn 4 . . . so helpful =/

  Sorry about that Bodiggity.  Another good reason for putting the game up, A_Protagonist.  He skipped 3.Nc3 and went straight to 3.a3.  My mother told me, "Look before you leap".  I should have listened to her. 

3. a3 is not a very dynamic move but it does not lose material because White can easily regain his pawn by playing 3. ... dxc4 4. e3. If you get stubborn by playing 4. ... b5 White can recover his pawn with moves like a4 and/or b3 smashing your pawn formation.

Assuming you play normally the game is likely to become a classical QGA with roughly equal chances. Compare with 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bxc4 c5 6. 0-0 a6 and now 7. a3 is sometimes played.

 DarkPhobos,

    White has a problem.  Black can hold the pawn.  He has already played a3, so that a4 will cost him another move.  You are right in part.  That is white is hesitent to play e4 straight away in QGA games. 

    See Winning Chess Traps, by Irving Chernev, 1946 (Tartan Books edition, page 206).

    *Footnote 1: "An important move in the theory of this opening..." 

BillyIdle,

I really don't follow your logic here.

First of all, no one plays 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 (QGD: Orthodox Defense) with the idea of transposing the game into a QGA!

Second, after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. a3 ...

If Black wants to shift the game into a QGA, White can easily recapture his pawn (this is why the Queen's Gambit is not a true gambit, as opposed to the King's Gambit or Evans Gambit, because White can always recapture the pawn with Qa4+):

 BrandonQDSH, 

   Well, then Q-a4 ch was what my opponent needed to play if he wanted his pawn back.  Was that it?  However, after 4...Nc6  5.Qxc4 then 5.Qxd4 and White is still down a pawn, and Black still has a pawn majority on the Queenside. Nobody turns the QGD into a QGA when they see an opportunity except me apparently.  Try as they might no one can turn 3.a3 into a good move.  That is why a3 to a4 won't work.  People should not want to waste tempos in the earliest moves of the game.  As said in my original post, I had not intended a Queen's Gambit Accepted.  Carpe diem.  This was an idea I found by Irving Chernev, only in a slightly different form.

    Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your input.

AnthonyCG,

    I would not have known about winning a pawn in the Slav Defense.  My son plays it.  I am not very familiar with it. So that's good to know.

    I am not much at posting games or analysis, nor do I really want to exhibit my games.  On the other hand, I have found all of these comments informative and fun.  I only thought that some people playing the QGD might like to know about this.  The reason it went up here is that I never saw the move 3.a3 before.  I have been away from the game for 25 years.  I commented somewhere else that an opponent had played a3 too soon against the Albin's Counter Gambit.  In the Albin's a3 must be played at some point, but it is far from manditory in the Queen's Gambit Declined.  An opponent's pawn move always seems to allow us a pawn move of our own without getting behind in development.  In a King's Gambit one of my opponents played a6 with Black on move 4 which lead to the bishop sacrifice on f7 and gave White a winning attack.  Being too conservative in the openings can backfire on us.  In the Sicilian Najdorf the early 5...a6 is a good move but it does allow White to keep developing his pieces without any worries. 

Jemptymethod,

   Yes, I agree.  The objection many players have about playing the QGA is that it gives up the control in the center, and Black's play can become passive and stall out.  Black's only chance, really, is to develop his pieces as fast as he possibly can (in my opinion), hoping for tactical play.

BillyIdle,

What's interesting is that if you look in the opening database, 3. a3 is an acceptable move in the master-level games here.

With 3. a3 dxc4 the winning percentages are as follows:

White 50% Draw 16.7% Black 33.3%

White wins/draws two-thirds of the time, which is pretty good. The popular response to 3. a3 is 3. Nf6 from Black. It does seem like an early wasted tempo from White, but two key factors need to be realized. First, White begins a tempo up, so even if he wastes the tempo, he is still ahead by like half a move. Second, White does diminish his early attacking chances, but he does gain some positional strengths from the move, taking away development space from Black's dark Bishop. Here Black won't be able to use the Bishop to pin White's Queen Knight, as in many popular openings revolving around the QGD.

I don't think 3. a3 is a move for novices, but it's these kind of wacky or strange TNs "theoretical novelties" in the openings that high-ranked players use to surprise each other in the openings and force the opponent into thinking about lines and variations that he or she may not have practiced for. Every tournament player has seen 3. Nf3/Nc3/e3 from White, but maybe not every player has seen 3. a3 or 3. h3 or 3. Qb3, and he or she may not be prepared for it.

Take 3. h3?! for example:

BrandonQDSH if Billyidle cant see how white gets his pawn back, i doudt he will understand what you are trying to tell him in the above post.

Brandon,

              Yes, I find a lot of emphasis here on what current grandmasters' are playing.  I have recently gone back to Bird, Marshall, Lasker and Bagirov - and gotten some surprises, and some surprising results.  I will say I have known only a little about Kasparov and Anand's careers, but did not keep up with them or the other current grandmasters while I have been out of chess (until I came on Chess.com).

     Yes, I see from the numbers White has faired well with the move in question.  Anthony believes White is still obligated to counter attack with the move a4.  Maybe that is what White has to do.  Then being down the 1/2 tempo (as per computer analysis) Black is at least closer to the draw.  Claiming a win for Black may be a little hasty, but seeing it prompted me to grab the pawn when all the while I wanted to play the Cambridge Springs.  We will have to call the champion, Mr. Anand, on the phone and convince him to play that move for awhile.  Then we will know for sure.  Meanwhile my worthy opponent may think twice before playing it again.

7.Qf3   7.Qd5

and Black still keeps the extra pawn.

You win what piece?  Black queen blocks your queen.

White has no pieces developed and his bishops are dead in the water.  They can't move!   Knights are standing on the first rank.  White's game is practically lost already.

Back to the drawing board.

446919

  White does not get his queenside pawn back!  That is what this post is all about. You are talking about the rest of the game?  White has no forced win of a pawn.  Black's win of the the c pawn is forced.

  In my game White was checkmated before I could even make my three passed pawns on the queenside count for anything.  That game is over and I won.  Anyone who believes 3. a3 is a good move can play it at their own peril. 

  Will look later when I have time.  I am admin for two groups.

446919

I appreciate your feedback.  Just haven't time right now.