Slav Defense
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| Moves | 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ECO | D10–D19 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent | Queen's Gambit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Slav is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's Gambit. Although it was analyzed as early as 1590, it was not until the 1920s that it started to be explored extensively, although Steinitz played it in the 1886 World Championship. Many masters of Slavic descent helped develop the theory of the opening, including Semyon Alapin, Alexander Alekhine, Efim Bogoljubov, and Milan Vidmar.
The Slav received an exhaustive test during the two Alekhine–Euwe World Championship matches in 1935 and 1937. Played by 11 of the first 13 world champions, this defense was particularly favored by Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, and Vasily Smyslov. More recently, the Slav has been adopted by Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Joël Lautier, Nigel Short, and other top grandmasters, including use in six of the eight games that Vladimir Kramnik played as Black in the 2006 World Championship.
The theory of the Slav has become very extensive and well-developed. The Slav is often distinguished from the related Semi-Slav Defense by Black avoiding or delaying the move ...e6, which is instead played early on in the Semi-Slav, though transposition to the Semi-Slav from the Slav is common.