u/RollRepulsive6453

I am thinking of buying one of Boris Avrukh's courses on his website, The "QGD repertoire for Black". I was wondering if anyone has bought these repertoires from his website before.

I wanted to know if he is one of those authors that gives in-depth analysis and covers plans ideas etc with plenty of annotations, or is he one of those authors that just dumps a bunch of engine lines without little analysis? The course is quite expensive (40 dollars) so I'm interested to know that before I purchase it, as I don't think he offers refunds. There is also no way to really know what his exact repertoire recommendations are. I know he's a very famous theoretician, but knowing his writing style and depth of analysis is important to me before I purchase this.

Also, has anyone bought this actual course "QGD repertoire for black" and does anyone have a review of it, and can share what lines he gives against the mainlines of the exchange QGD?

thank you

I'm looking for newish sources (books or courses) that cover the Modern a5-b5 lines for Black against the Exchange QGD (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5) against the Nge2 f3-e4 Botvinnik plan in depth.

I am aware of the Keep it simple for Black course, but it's only covered in 10 lines which is light for a big line like this, so I was looking for a more comprehensive course or book that explores these lines with more breadth and depth.

Thank you

2000 FIDE

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 a6 11. Ng5

(I play 10. a6 because it's much less theoretical and sharp, yet sound)

11. Ng5 is the bane of my existence, it's well known that this is the critical line in this variation. I've been trying to find a satisfactory solution for a few days now, but I can't, maybe, I can get lucky and someone has experience with this line. 11. Ng5 is aiming to reposition the knight back to e4 which is a well known idea in the Semi-Slav, trying to make the c5 break much more difficult to pull off.

As far as I understand, assisted by the engine and looking at the database, there's only 2 viable moves here, 11. h6 and 11. Be7.

11. Be7 pre-emptively avoids the Nge4 idea since it hits air, but it allows 12. e4. Now Black has a choice of 3 moves, 12. Ne8 (played by Carlsen against Leko but the positions are obviously worse for Black and looks like a sad choice - happy to be proven wrong), 12. e5 which is very messy after White plays something like dxe5 Nxe5 Kh1...f4 ideas in the air, again happy to be proven wrong. 11. h6 was played by Ding, this one was the most enticing but I feel like the line is very difficult to play - I was hoping some others could tell me if I'm overestimating black's problems or not:

12. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 a6 11. Ng5 Be7 12. e4 h6 13. Nf3 b4 14. Na4 c5 15. Nxc5 Nxc5 16. dxc5 Bb7 17. e5 Nd7 18. Rd1 Qc7 19. Be3 - Here Black has 19. Nxc5 and 19. Bd5, after both of which, the positions are very scary.

The 11. h6 option goes as follows:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 a6 11. Ng5 h6 12. Nge4 Be7 13. a3 a5 * (White has so many playable moves on the 13th move like Rb1, Rd1 , a3, Nxf6, and against all of them following the engine lines, Black is not able to get c5 until very late in the game or not at all, which just feels like a massively improved anti-meran for White practically speaking, even if the objective evaluation isn't insane for White, basically somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2 if White is very precise, which is discouraging me from 11. h6, since I'm getting c5 in every single other line in the Anti-Meran.

I was hoping someone can assist with this, I'm hard stuck, this 11. Ng5 line is the only issue I'm facing with this 10. a6 line, which is otherwise great, and I don't want to abandon this line over this.

Thank you in advance.

Edit: There's another line I didn't mention which is 11. Qc7, which has been played in a bunch of high profile games but all of them are from around 2015ish: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 a6 11. Ng5 Qc7 12. e4 h6 13. e5 hxg5 14. exd6 Qxd6 15. Bxg5 Qxd4 (12. Bxh2 instead of h6 is also a possibility as well as 15. c5 instead of Qxd4) - I've seen multiple sources for White say that this line 11. Qc7 line isn't good for black, and despite the eval not being terrible (0.20), the statistics heavily favour White, with an over 30% win rate with no losses. The advantage of 11. Qc7 is that you can get can this line basically by force because White ends up worse if he doesn't, but I don't know whether to trust the authors on this one and avoid it or not.

I'm having trouble in the 10. Be2 Anti-Meran, the theory is just way too much and very sharp and messy in the mainlines with 10 Bb7.

I came across this line: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 a6, instead of 10. Bb7, which is objectively nearly as good and has been played by very strong players - Both Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren have always opted for 10. a6 when they faced 10. Be2. Some lines transpose to the 9. a6 Anti-merans but White has extra options like 11. Ng5 & 11. e4 without Rd1.

I know there are also other acceptable moves on move 10 for black, which I wouldn't mind if there's a source to study from.

I was wondering if there's any course or book to study this 10. Be2 a6 line from? I can't find any source at all to cover this?

Thank you

It was recommended to me by someone in this forum here https://www.reddit.com/r/TournamentChess/comments/1rkvdld/looking_for_a_source_that_covers_the_5_h6_6_bh4_6/ when I was looking for a book that covers the Modern QGD - Meran like lines against 5. Bg5 and someone commented on my post recommending this book (This book also covers the Moscow and Anti Moscow very thoroughly as well as his main line, covered in a separate chapter). I did use the Cambridge springs move-order to avoid the Moscow (6. Bxf6) entirely but still transpose to the modern QGD, but otherwise I used his book for most of my repertoire.

The book is actually phenomenal, I've been using it on ForwardChess to build my repertoire, and he gives alternatives in many systems like 11. a5 & 11. Rc8 in the 11. a3 Anti-Meran, which are covered to a lot of depth and breadth, unlike other sources which would just give a quick overview and expect you to do self study elsewhere to have a complete set of lines in the alternatives. Also the thing I liked a lot is that he covers a lot of moves that are popular on the Lichess database, which haven't featured that much in the Master database, but are still tricky and require precision. There is some overlap with Shankland's repertoire, but his analysis is more recent with stronger engines since Shankland's is 6 years old as he does improve on his lines in the Meran & Anti-Meran in some lines, and his book was released in 2025, so he definitely used much stronger engines.

I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a very solid resource for the Semi-Slav, especially if you want to play the Modern QGD lines against 5. Bg5 played heavily by many top players in recent years since this is the only resource I could find that covers these lines in depth.