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A few weeks ago, Alex Colovic, whose work I admire, put up a YouTube video entitled Queen's Gambit with Bxf6: SOLVED!. You will see that Colovic demonstrated the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.e3 and now 7...dxc4. He suggested that this was an improvement over the line given in his Chessable course, which included another solid line for Black in 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.e3 dxc4. If these lines just kill the game, it will imply that the venerable 5.Bg5 is out of business!
In this month’s update I will look at these lines and present my conclusions.

Download PGN of March ’26 1 d4 d5 2 c4 games

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Queen’s Gambit Declined: 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 [D53]

In the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.e3 dxc4, White has tried for a small edge with 8.Bxc4 c5 and now 9.Ne4:

but he got nowhere in Abasov, N - Giri, A.

This means that 9.d5 is White’s only real try:

with 9...Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 exd5 11.Bxd5 featuring in Yuffa, D - Ivanchuk, V and 11.Qxd5 in Dimitrov, R - Zubov, A.

Black can also play 9...exd5 first, which was the move order that Zubov chose, though then White has an extra possibility in 10.Nxd5:

This was tried in Akbas, U - Mijatovic, D where White got an edge after this mistaken 15...Be6. He should have played 15...Qb6 instead, or maybe just 11...Nc6.


Queen’s Gambit Declined: 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 [D53]

This line was covered here by Milos Pavlovic, who presented the games Van Wely, L - Anand, V and Wang Hao - Anand, V. Since this time there have been some developments as many top players have taken this line up as Black. Bu Xiangzhi - So, W featured Van Wely’s treatment of 7.e3 c5 8.Bxc4 cxd4 9.Nxd4:

and showed a minor difference in that Black played 13...Qb6 instead of Anand’s 13...Qa5. Black seems fine either way, and in fact So came very close to winning.

In Narayanan, S - Erdogmus, Y, the young Turkish star varied with 10...Nc6, which some believe may be Black’s most precise move order. I’m not sure it matters very much but Ergogmus equalized with considerable ease.

One of the points of this line is that after of 7.e3 c5 8.Bxc4 cxd4 9.exd4:

Black can exchange White’s dark square bishop with a timely ...Nf6-h5, effectively taking the sting out of the IQP position. Whilst Narayanan, S - Vitiugov, N suggests that this seems broadly true it does seem that White can maintain marginally the more pleasant game with 12.Re4 (instead of Narayanan’s 12.Bxe7) 12...Nf6 13.Re2 Nh5 14.Bg3.

The final game, Fedoseev, V - Nepomniachtchi, I, features the line from Wang Hao - Anand, V with 8.dxc5:

After 8...Qxd1+ 9.Rxd1 Nbd7 Fedoseev kept it simple with 10.Bxc4, and after some imperfect play by Black might have won the game had he played 34.e5+. Admittedly this was a rapid game, but it does show that White can at least play these positions. Also please note that 11.Be2 also contains a drop of poison.

In conclusion I’d say that these lines are tough, and White is struggling to get anything against them. Yet there are a couple of ways he can pose some practical problems.



See you next month! Nigel Davies

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