Yesterday i played a themactic tournament, Queensgambit after 2. c4. It is long ago i played it with white, never i played it with black (against pupils only). I thought 2... Nf6 is not a very good idea, but really everybody and his dog plaed 2... Nf6 against me. I got fine positions with white without any effort.
So my opponents didn't convinced me that Nf6 is a good choise. But because i faced it that often: Do i miss some "new" (20-30 vears ;-) ) insights regarding 2... Nf6 or is it really just crap like i ever thought and still do?
2... Nf6 seems terrible. In a Queen's pawn game if white ever plays cxd5 black needs to recapture with a pawn to control e4.
I guess there's not many people here who know better than an FM whether and how an opening is sound, but I'll try to guess why weaker players like myself could be tempted to play it. I always found the Marshall defense (I think this is the name of this opening) very bad and pleasant to face as white, although there's some traps that you would probably spot easily. I don't know whether it's due to youtube videos, but from time to time these unsound openings start getting played by more people, then go back to chess oblivion where they belong. In my experience, the Marshall defense is generally played by beginners who apply too strictly some abstract opening principle, so they see Nf6 as a way to develop the knight while defending the pawn, without considering that cxd5 followed by e4 simply leaves white with the full control of the center, forcing them to move the same piece three times and often setting them up for being greek-gifted. From time to time, however, I face someone who looks like they know what they're doing and probably play this to get white out of more common and well-known lines, as well as maybe to give him/her a false sense of security, as when you face this opening your first reaction is generally "great, that's gonna be an easy win", so you might get your guard down.
Well, what was your third move? After 3.cxd5 g6 4.Nc3 we have suddenly a Grundfeld exchange on the board. :-)
Kulio I think that after 3.g6 4.Qa4+ is quite annoying for black.
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its not great but if white replys 3.cxd5 Nxd5 4.e4 Nf6 5.NC3 e5 black has some decent play
@Dancing_Ulf : you may be right. Although Black can try to play in Gambit style with 4...c6. I think Zvjaginsev tried something like that.
