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Don't fear the Exchange Slav

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  mattattack99
  #1 Feb 12, 2012

  For players considering the Slav Defense, often what turns them away is the prospect of the exchange Slav, which is very drawish:

  Who wants to face this? Unless your playing Kramnik who wants to slowly milk his 0.06 advantage, white is content with a draw. I am nowhere near GM level yet, but until I am, I am fighting for the full point. As we continue down the main line; the symmetry continues:

  I have no intention of playing the above line, so my solution is to play ...e6 before developing my c8 bishop. I'm not saying I invented this "solution" but I adopted this line and I think it leaves more scope for both sides.

  So, why play this? Well, ...e6 has 2 appealing points

  1. It quickly breaks the symmetry!

  2. Black should be seeking play on the queenside, so the bishop on d7 could be better placed there influencing the queenside, rather than on f5.

  I played 2 recent games with this line, and scored 2/2:

  I really like this line for black, but I'm curious what other players who deal with the Exchange Slav think about this line as opposed to the main line.
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  mattattack99
  #2 Feb 12, 2012

  I checked my database, and some notable players who used this ...e6 system are Vassily Smyslov, Tigran Petrosian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexey Dreev, and Vladmir Malakhov.

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  Chemwong
  #3 Feb 15, 2012

  I avoid this by playing ...e6 first

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  IM pfren
  #4 Feb 15, 2012

  5...e6 is commital, but interesting.

  The ...a6 variations are equally interesting, and less commital.

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  Chemwong
  #5 Feb 16, 2012

  2. ...c3 slav has more variation, though interesting, to choose from.

  I prefer 2. ...e3 first, until someday I found ways to manage the sidelines or even wield them as weapon.

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  IM pfren
  #6 Feb 16, 2012

  With 2...e6 first Black can reach only the semi-slavs, not pure slavs. While the semi-slavs are OK, they have way too much theory to memorize, while the slave does not require so much theory as positional understanding.

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  Walter_von_Entferndt
  #7 Jun 24, 2015

  I'd like to point out 9...Be7 after 1. d4d52. c4c63. cxd5cxd54. Nf3Nf65. Nc3Nc66. Bf4Bf57. e3e68. Bd3Bxd39. Qxd3 (or transpositions) with no symmetry, too, and a very solid game for black.  It is GM Boris Avrukh suggestion it in his book "The Classical Slav".  The possible continuation shown here is from the game Ikonnikov - Dominguez (Havanna, 2004).
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  IM pfren
  #8 Jun 24, 2015
  Walter_von_Entferndt wrote:

  I'd like to point out 9...Be7 after 1. d4d52. c4c63. cxd5cxd54. Nf3Nf65. Nc3Nc66. Bf4Bf57. e3e68. Bd3Bxd39. Qxd3 (see above) with no symmetry, too, and a very solid game for black.  Doesn't GM Boris Avrukh suggests it in his "The Classical Slav"?

  The suggestion is a tad older, say 60 years ago, and comes from Botvinnik, who loved to play the white hand of the exchange Slav.

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  Walter_von_Entferndt
  #9 Jun 24, 2015
  pfren hat geschrieben:

  The suggestion is a tad older, say 60 years ago, and comes from Botyvinnik, who loved to play the white hand of the exchange Slav.

  Both the immortable Botvinnik and Avrukh are good sources to trust.