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Themes in the Exchange Slav: Part 1

Several years ago I spent a bunch of time trying to master the Exchange Slav. I wanted to document here some of the key themes with example lines. Today I'm going to look at black attempts to go after the b2 pawn with Qb6.

After the normal opening sequence 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bf4, the b2 pawn is left unprotected, and black might get the idea to play ...Qb6 going after it. White can obviously defend with moves like Rb1 or Qc1, but it turns out the best response is almost always the pawn move a3 (which takes away the b4 square from the queen after a capture on b2).

6. ...Qb6


6. ...Bf5 7. e3 Qb6:


6. ...e6 7. e3 Qb6


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