Slav Defence, 6.Ne5 e6, Bishop Sac

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ilikewindmills

This line of the Slav really annoys me:

Obviously this is fine, but what should I be doing now? Black is going to centralise their rooks quickly with Na6 and probably a queenside castle, while I'm not looking too good... Any advice in this line, or in 6.Ne5 in general would be good.

ilikewindmills

Should have probably specified that I'm white, but advice for both sides helps, I need to know what they'll be trying to do as well.

Destiny

Black pretty much has to play Qd5. You move your king to move your c2 and take the pawn on c4 and try to trade queens


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ilikewindmills
i probably just need some practice in that position. should I be trying to trade rooks then? obviously most pawn trades are bad.
LionVanHalen

Ouch... that game is whacky baccy?!

Best idea is not to get in that sort of mess... the prevention is better than the cure?

Many say best idea against Slav... is just develop quick and simple, castle, go from there.

JamesColeman

You have to make a fairly deep study of the line, it's a main line, you can't expect to know what to do with just a few general guidelines. Kramnik played a lot of nice games in this line when he was young - there was a very good explanation of the ideas of this system for both colours in Sadler's "Slav" book, which is well worth getting hold of if you're playing lines such as this for either colour. 

 

If you don't like this line then you aren't forced to play it, for example the strange looking 8.Nxc4 0-0 9.Kf2 (unpinning and preparing e4 without allowing a sac) was played for a time, if you really get caught out then you can always wimp out with 10.Qf3 which is messy but leads to a forced draw as far as I know. You're also not of course forced to go Ne5 etc.

ilikewindmills
@James Coleman Thanks for the book suggestion, I'll definitely look for it! I play Slav for both colours, so it's probably really helpful. Last time I did any opening study was when I was 1200 or so here, and that's not so great for me anymore.

I don't dislike the line; I think it's a really interesting way to play and I want to try it and begin to love it. Just currently, I'm struggling to find main ideas of it because I'm still trapped in my usual passive mindset.

Do you know where I can find those Kramnik games?

@Lion Von Halen Wacky? Yeah, it's great