I recommend the Orthodox.
It's one of my favorite defenses.
To avoid IQPs and such, you can develop your queen knight first, and wait to develop your queen bishop, once the pawn tension on c4 has been resolved. ...a6 is a universal move, in these positions, that can make this process relatively easy.
Here are three common lines that you might face:
There's a lot to learn in the QGD, but it gets easier to understand, the more you study it.
Thank you very much for your answer. The lines you gave are interesting, I will certainly try the Orthodox.
If you like the early Nb-d7 line suggested, a small tweak is to play it before h6. Then can answer BXN with NxB. Alekhine played this a6 idea in the world championship match against Capablanca. In the common structure after c4xd5 e6xd5, black is slightly worse than normal but it doesn't matter much.
Another Alekhine idea is after 8...c6 in the some called fight for tempo line 9a3 a6 10Qc2 Re8! white doesn't have better than 11Bd3 in the end 11...pxp 12Bxp b5 the idea is after white plays Ba2-b1 black isn't in danger of being mated.
„He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess.“ - Tarrasch
https://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/defending-against-1d4
He looks at 26 defenses, with example games (but some bug in the pgn parser around the h3/h4 squares, I had to fix a lot of typos to get the games to play through).
DrDave on 2009.09.27 wrote:
"My recommendations for junior and club players usually run to:"
Colle to QGD back to Colle. It pushes while defends the pieces. You can trade down to an end game without hanging pieces. There are some lines on how to work the queen and king pawns, but the engine says take. So you move your queen pawn up to squares, they push a pawn for you to take it, just take it for example.
QGD : Austrian Variation
QGD : Austrian Variation , extremely rare queen trap
QGD : Austrian Variation
one of the probably possible positions
„He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess.“ - Tarrasch
"The essential disadvantage of the isolated pawn ... lies not in the pawn itself, but in the square in front of the pawn." — Richard Reti
Granted, an isolated queen pawn can be quite dynamic, if you're able to advance it. But if you can't, and your opponent blockades it with a piece, they're likely to have a rather comfortable game.
My advice is to stop thinking about openings. Practically any opening is fine (as long as it is not some dumb troll opening like the bongcloud). Chess games are decided in the middlegame (or occasionally in the endgame), not in the opening. If you want to improve, improve your calculation skills by solving puzzles.
Additionally, watching instructive chess videos or reading books are also good.
My advice is to stop thinking about openings. Practically any opening is fine (as long as it is not some dumb troll opening like the bongcloud). Chess games are decided in the middlegame (or occasionally in the endgame), not in the opening. If you want to improve, improve your calculation skills by solving puzzles.
Additionally, watching instructive chess videos or reading books are also good.
Of course the opening is not the most important thing, but if I don't get a decent position after the opening I won't be able to play the middlegame as well as I could have with a better position. I don't see how I can improve if my position on move 10 is already clearly inferior because I played an opening without knowing the ideas behind it.
I'm not searching for a complete knowledge of all the lines of a variation of the QGD, I'm just looking for the basic strategic ideas and the thematic moves of a variation of the QGD. "Learning an opening" at my level of course doesn't have the same meaning it has for a player rated 1800 or more.
Hello,
I decided to stop playing the Dutch defense, which was my favorite and only defense against 1.d4 since I started to play chess, because it was not reliable enough for me. Instead I played the Nizmo-Indian (and the QID) but I didn't like it and didn't have great results with it.
I would like to play the QGD, as it seems to be a very sound opening, and is recommended by many experienced players to beginners as far as I could read in chess.com.
I read a lot of threads about why beginners should play the Tarrasch, but I don't like IQP structures, and I'm looking for a solid defense, not a risky one (even if undoubtedly the Tarrasch does provide attacking possibilities).
What variation of the QGD would you recommend me? The Lasker? The Orthodox? The Cambridge Springs?
Also, I know that the Tartakower often gives black hanging pawns, and I would like a sound pawn structure.
Thanks for your suggestions.