How do I learn the Queen's Gambit as white?

Hi everybody. I very much want to play the Queen's Gambit as White; the problem is that there are a lot of variations and theory. However, I am willing to undertake the Herculean task of learning them - to some extent.

I have researched the books Play 1. d4! by John Cox, Dealing with d4 variations by John Cox, and GM Repertoire volumes 1 and 2 by Boris Avrukh (Which are all focused on the Queen's Gambit), and they look great... except after reading the reviews on Silman's website, he said they were geared towards 2000-2200s. The problem is that my ELO rating is only 1820ish. So where does that leave me? Should I look into buying an amateur book on the Queen's Gambit? The problem is that there isn't one.

Also, those books are all heavy theory, especially Cox's Play 1. d4! book. One website that reviewed the Avrukh books even went so far as to claim that they were geared towards players of ELO 2200 and up. Besides being mainsteam theory, I heard some of the lines in it were outdated. I don't know which and I don't want to take that risk.

I used to play the Ruy Lopez as an amateur and then switched to the London System. I've been playing the London System for about 2 and a half years now, but I still don't understand the individual plans against the different responses. And I don't particularly like the London System - I'm trying to be a more aggressive player. 

So which books should I use to study the Queen's Gambit? Is there a better one that I should buy? Or should I just not use books and use something else instead?

I also don't know if I should be studying openings at only ELO 1820. The problem is that I don't know the London System well and I have no idea of my plans against the different variations - I also find it quite a passive opening. And I plan to stick with chess - when I get better, I'm going to have to switch to a more aggressive opening, so why not start now?

Thank you.

Keep in mind that you only need to know as much theory as your opponent. If your opponents are < 2000, you really don't need to learn a ton of theory.

An approach I see recommended often is that every time you play a game, look up the opening line in a database or book, see where play deviated from the mainline, and see where it deviated from any book line. Then try to figure out why the deviation is not typical or may be bad -- what plans, squares, etc. does it abandon, does it lose material.

With that approach you add to your opening over time from your own experience and it naturally answers the question "where do I start?" when you're staring at a book with a thousand variations.

With an opening like the QG, the best thing to do would be to play some games with it, since it is not especially theoretical, and you can to an extent make it up as you go along. Many of the themes in the QG crop up across the different lines, so your task isn't as big as it might seem.

Having said that, here are (in short) the main lines:

QG Declined, Main line - 1.d4 d5; 2.c4 e6; 3.Nc3 Nf6; 4.Bg5 Be7; 5.Nf3

There is then a choice - the Orthodox -5...Nbd7

                                 - the Lasker - 5...h6; 6.Bh4 0-0; 7.e3 Ne4 - which aims for simplifying exchanges (of the knight on c3, bishop on h4 etc)

                                 - the Tartakower - 5...h6; 6.Bh4 0-0; 7.e3 b6 - which aims to fianchetto the bishop, and prepare a pawn break with c5.

Before this, there are a few other options eg

the Tarrasch - 1.d4 d5; 2.c4 e6; 3.Nc3 c5 - is bit more dynamic, with black often receiving an isolated queen's pawn by exchanging the central pawns.

The more popular way of declining the gambit is the Slav:

1.d4 d5; 2.c4 c6 when 3.cxd5 cxd5 is symmetrical, and is usually drawish.

3.Nc3 Nf6; 4.Nf3 dxc4 when black will try to hang on to the c4 pawn, and prepare to attack the white centre (after say e4) with either c5 or e5.

However, the QG is an extremely safe gambit - in the accepted version (1.d4 d5; 2.c4 dxc4; 3.Nc3 e6; 4.e3/4 and the pawn will be recovered.

I don't know any books about the QG, but game anthologies of players such as Capablanca, Alekhine and Petrosian may help, as they all frequently used the opening. More recently there has been a lot of recent games involving the Slav, especially from Kramnik and Carlsen.

But as I say, the best thing to do would still be to play a few games with it yourself to try and get a feel for it. There aren't any special rules unique to the QG - normal opening principles should see you through, at least for a time.

You are making a great decision in switching to 2.c4 from the London System.

I wouldn't suggest the GM Rep books as they are quite advanced and also you said you would like to be a more aggressive player-The lines in both volumes of  Avrukh's 1.d4 GM Rep are quite positional and difficult to understand imo such as the Catalan. The Catalan is a great opening choice but it is difficult to play. Also, Volume 2 (Responses to 1...Nf6 and other than 1...d5) contains systems in which the g3/Bg2 fianchetto is used quite a lot and, someone who owns the book would have a better opinion on this, but I don't think they are that agressive and they are also quite positional.

Therefore, I think you should go with Starting Out:1.d4. Ive been playing 2.c4 for a while now but I got this book just recently a few weeks ago and its great, especially for an aggressive 1.d4 player. It contains main-line theory which GM's still use today-so its not that outdated imo. Plus, even if some lines are outdated a little bit, this really shouldn't affect anyone below 2200. If you are that concerned about it then you can download TWIC every week onto Chessbase just to see what kind of lines are being played and sure enough, a lot of these lines are being played still, with a few improvements/novelties in the late opening/early middlegame stage.

(Ex. against the Tarrasch, Cox briefly mentions the 9...c4 instead of cxd4 main line which is covered as well and supported with a game and just kinda throws a few lines out there and says "[9...c4] is a challenging move that stands quite well just now theoretically"- and sure enough, this line is being played quite a bit by Tarrasch players at the moment so you will need to keep up with some newly hatched theory-He supports this with a game that occured in 2000)

Let me warn you though, the repertoire presented here is pretty aggressive and Cox often suggests pawn sacrifice lines (against the Grunfeld and  QGD Cambridge Springs for example-not to mention the Anti-Moscow Gambit of the Semi-Slav) Oh and another thing is that he advocates the QGD Exchange Variation which also requires that you go into a Nimzo Indian if 1...Nf6 2.c4 e6. But you can pretty much pick and choose what lines you will take up against X,Y, and Z. In other words, you don't need to adopt the whole repertoire presented in the book, but if you don't, then you will just have to learn the lines you want to take up from a database.

A fun article for people starting out. Gets you all fired up and tail-waggy to see a USCF master call it a virtual "point machine" for White.

http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/hard/h000331.htm

Loomis: Thanks. I will search the opening lines after each of my games. However, I'm not ready to play the Queen's Gambit without any prior knowledge of the lines - I'm not willing to risk losing my games (and rating) to learn the opening. Thanks for the suggestion though - it's very much appreciated.

Nickf001: Thank you for the suggestion and list of main lines. I very much appreciate it.

LavaRook: WOW. THANK YOU!!! Thankyouthankyouthankyou. I have already ordered Cox's d4 books. I will probably not play the gambits, because gambits aren't my style, so I'll borrow my friend's Avrukh's book and see what lines they recommend. Thanks so much for the help!!!

Shivsky: Thanks for the article - it's very encouraging to hear such positive reviews of the Queen's Gambit.

Reccomendations

#1 Play through a ton of old master games - Pillsbury, Alekhine, Capablanca, Botvinnik,Spasskyk,Kasparov/Karpov, Kramnik.

#2 Pick up a copy of Leininger's Middle Game Strategy - It deals directly with pawn structures in the QGD and covers the minority attack and Botvinnik pawn structure

#3 buy or at least read Yermolinsky's chapter on Openings in the Road to Chess Improvement- it deals directly with the 4 major plans in the QGD and some of the issues in understanding them.

#4 Schandorff's Playing the Queen's Gambit - it is a Quality Chess GM rep book, but it focused solely on QGD. It uses the model game method along with some pretty good commentary.

additional stuff

Sadler's QGD and Slav books - more verbal and a little bit older but very usefull if you want more explanation.

Kasparov dvd on the QGD - watch it and take notes.. it will stick like a lecture. In particular are his comments on his karpov games in the 3... Be7 Alatortsev line

Chess publishing - you can subscribe to them and get monthly updates - GM Sherbakov has been doing the updates for at roughly 5 years now or so.

Avrukh - great book, but you have to want to play a lot of fianchetto variations and it is a complete d4 book.

If you're not just going to play the exchange variation then I agree that Sadlers QGD is an excellent choice. I like the question & answer method of prose. Very to the point and not so much waffle using this method.

Also a lot older (but equally good on explanations) is Play the QG (I think my Marovich). Though the theory may be a bit dated it is very insightful. Maybe coupled with a browse on an opening tree (eg: chessok.com) you should be well away.

im sorry , but why doesnt this have a game to show what you do in the queens gambit as white like strategies

the membership has to be pretty high but this stuff is good

so when you do the queens gambit white would use this strategy to have a winning game and people should try this as white not black