| # | Player | Country | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen | ๐ณ๐ด | 2839 |
| 2 | Fabiano Caruana | ๐บ๐ธ | 2786 |
| 3 | Hikaru Nakamura | ๐บ๐ธ | 2780 |
| 4 | Ding Liren ๐ | ๐จ๐ณ | 2780 |
| 5 | Alireza Firouzja | ๐ซ๐ท | 2777 |
| 6 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | ๐ท๐บ | 2771 |
| 7 | Anish Giri | ๐ณ๐ฑ | 2760 |
| 8 | Gukesh D | ๐ฎ๐ณ | 2758 |
| 9 | Viswanathan Anand | ๐ฎ๐ณ | 2754 |
| 10 | Wesley So | ๐บ๐ธ | 2753 |
September 4 - September 22
For black, between QGD and Slav/Semi-slav, which do you prefer and why? I am trying to understand what is appealing on both sides and why you make the tradeoff of potentially blocking in the your light square bishop. Personally, I respond with the Nimzo Indian as black, and when playing as white I hope for QGA or Catalan.
I play the Semi-slav with black, but just thats just by Chance. However, I agree with this comment, and also the fact that far fewer play the Semi-slav, might help you.
Semi-slav is a good tradeoff between solid and dynamic. Not as dynamic as the Grรผnfeld, but can still give interesting positions.
Do you ever see tactical opportunities in a typical semi Slav game? From the white side it seems to remain positional the entire time in my experience. I guess that's subject to change upon hanging pieces or blunders.
In my case only if they play the Bg5 line, then you can have a wild game. If they play the Meeran (usually 5.e3) it ends up being more positional,but keeping all pieces and pawns on the board.