Question about the Veresov.

Can the Veresov be played regardless of whether black responds with Nf6 or d5? Thanks. 

Some sample lines would be great to look over and discuss. 

A black pawn has to be moved to the d5 square for the opening to be considered a Veresov Attack.

The veresov can be transposed into from a few lines but some combination of Nf6 and d5 is required at some point, since that's just its starting position. If you're looking for delayed transpositions the Trompowsky or Van Geet are probably the best places to look.

In the Trompowsky you can enter it immediately after 3... d5 -

It's possible to reach a Veresov from the Torre, though this isn't my favorite line since the knight is vulnerable to a pin here. If I played the mainline veresov I'd have transposed into the Paulsen french here instead -

If you're a Van Geet player the Veresov is a decent response to blacks most testing line, which is 1... d5 -

There are some others, like when you play some combination of Nf3 + Nc3 + d4 and black responds with Nf6 / d5 + somethign else, but those are the main ones I know of.

The main issue I have with transposing into a Veresov is... there's not much reason to have avoided playing it directly instead, since there's really no good counter to the chigorin setup (Nc3 + d4) otherwise. Except maybe if you just enjoy the richness of the Van Geet - which actually is a good reason. The delayed Trompowsky transposition I showed you can be good since it's just one Veresov line and one of the better ones, and otherwise you can transpose into a delayed QGD or similar position there too.

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Yes. 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 and 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 are both perfectly fine and will often transpose.

Thanks for the responses.

I would like to look at some of the Nbd7 responses if anyone is interested?

Also, are there any lines where white incorporates a king side fianchetto? Similar to a Catalan. Or are we getting into a problem with piece coordination since there's no pawn on c4?

There are basically two defenses where the Veresov can be totally avoided. The Benoni and the Modern. White has to play differently in both of those.