Best move for black to play for win after 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3?

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Avatar of seasideman

As the title says:

What's the best move for black to play for a win after 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3?

Classical time controls.

I always used to play the Queen's Indian (3 ... b6) but I'm wondering if perhaps d5 or a6 might be better, or evn Bb4+, Nc6 or Be7.

Thoughts?

Avatar of seasideman
emchel wrote:

I would play 3... d5, but you have to chose a line after 4. Nc3. After 4. Nc3 you can play

 

Thanks for your thoughts, I must admit I do rather like the look of that Vienna variation and also the Ragozin. Perhaps I could try d5 for a while and see how I get on.

Avatar of seasideman
Pepega500 wrote:

There's also 3...c5 (Benoni)

Thanks, yeah I have been looking at the Benoni too. It's quite intriguing but I read that it's less popular these days because white can play the Taimanov Attack.

And in regards to your other post, I don't like the look of the position after 4 cxd5 exd5, although I know objectively that it is perfectly playable for both sides. That does rather put me off the QGD.

I think I might have to have a good look at 3 ... a6

Avatar of seasideman
emchel wrote:

In the nimzo move order of the carlsbad white should get nothing since you can go for an early Bf5. That is the advantage of the nimzo move order over the classical QGD.

That's very helpful indeed, thank you for going to the trouble of laying it all out so clearly. I guess I really should try out the QGD and see how I get on. There's good reasons why it has been played solidly for hundreds of years by the top echelon players after all!

Avatar of neveraskmeforadraw

3..Nc6!

Avatar of FizzyBand

d5 is probably objectively the best move. The other playable moves are b6, Bb4+, and c5. All have minor issues but are playable certainly. Anything else like Nc6 or a6 just looks inferior and frankly bad

Avatar of FizzyBand

c6 and Be7 are probably objectively fine too but make no sense with this move order

Avatar of rpkgs

ragozin has a lot of similar ideas compared to the nimzo. I allow the transposition sometimes if white goes 4 Nf3.