Changing my repertoire against d4 in one month ?

Hi all,

I am gonna play a tournament at the end of that month in slow time control.

I play the QGD with black and specifically the ragozine: 1 D4 d5 2 C4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Nf3 Bb4 !

That is the position and I go there with the nimzo move order 1 ... Nf6 e6 then d5 and Bb4

I like it as a sister of my belove nimzo but i must admit that i don't have a great score with it. 40 % victory with black.

So i would like to let that opening aside for a while and try a new opening. Perhaps I am wrong ?

But i think that switching from one opening to be prepared in one month is too short. Perhaps not essential to have a great result to that tournament. 5 rounds, at the maximum I will play 3 games with black and have let's say d4 1 or 2 times

What do you think ?

I tought of playing still the ragozine like ok let's see or switching to another one

I thought trying the KID which I study a lot from the white side or to play some other QGD opening. I thought of the semi slav which is very interesting but in one month it is too complex and impossible. For the long term why not ?

I like the semi tarrash. I used to play it 2 years ago so why not giving it a shot another time.

I have in my back pocket the Tartakover which I played for some months as well.

The benko is interesting as well.

I played the Queen'indian defence some years ago.

The thing is some openings that I played can be great because I had lots of experienes whith it but at some point I dropped it because I found the middle game hard. My resulsts were ok => I mean I am black so perhaps it is ok ?

You have a lot of good choices - both ones to play for a win as black and super solid ones to play to hold the position against stronger players. I dont think anyone here can give you better ideas than you have laid out yourself in your post-- unless you are looking for really 'out there' ideas to try.

If you want to change your opening repertoire against d4, just play a normal defense with a good reputation. I can suggest you 2 roads:
-If you're an east indian player (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6, I recommend to you some related openings like: the Queen's indian setup, the Nimzo-indian defense, the Ragozin defense. They're of the same family.
-If you're a west indian player (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6) I recommend to you some related openings like: the King's indian defense, the Grunfeld defense, the Schlecter Slav etc. Because all of these involve a fianchetto on the kingside.

You could also go for sidelines, like the Albin countergambit, the Budapest gambit, the Benoni...

Sam Shankland has lots of d4 studies

lichess.org/study/Ux3KtcFK

Maybe ask @wildtiger , pretty sure he can pinpoint to more studies like that

@swimmerBill said in #2:
<<You have a lot of good choices - both ones to play for a win as black and super solid ones to play to hold the position against stronger players. I dont think anyone here can give you better ideas than you have laid out yourself in your post-- unless you are looking for really 'out there' ideas to try. >>

SwimmerB, which are which ? I think the KID is supposed to be used to play for a win by generating tactics/attack, but it's never seemed too comfortable to me. Is the Tarrasch also in that category ? Seems like I read the Benko was more oriented to generating advantage from strategic play, but I'm not sure. And the Tartakower, it that one of the more "solid" ones ?

@LloydThompson said in #5:
> <<You have a lot of good choices - both ones to play for a win as black and super solid ones to play to hold the position against stronger players. I dont think anyone here can give you better ideas than you have laid out yourself in your post-- unless you are looking for really 'out there' ideas to try. >>
>
> SwimmerB, which are which ? I think the KID is supposed to be used to play for a win by generating tactics/attack, but it's never seemed to comfortable to me. Is the Tarrasch also in that category ? Seems like I read the Benko was more oriented to generating advantage from strategic play, but I'm not sure. And the Tartakower, it that one of the more "solid" ones ?

Semi-Tarrasch and Tartakover are both very solid. Spassky never lost a game as black with semi-T until the Fischer match and then he just forgot the key move in his prep.

KID & Benko are what I'd try from your list to go for a win. [Currently I'm experimenting with von Hennig-Schara if you want an 'out there' possibility.]

Truthfully I was asking mostly out of curiousity, as I don't want to work on anything new right now.

When I face 1. d4 my ideal situation is get to play the Nimzoindian. That seems to really suit me. If White avoids it, I try to play d5/c5 as soon as possible and play for activity/central control with either an Isolani or hanging pawns formation. Occasionally I'll play compact "hedgehog" formations --- moreso against the English (though d5/c5 can work well there too). The play I get can have a lot of similarities to my Sicilian games, since I tend to start out with e6/d6 formations.....scheveningen--Najdorf hybrids.

! I have enough to work on already with my current lines ! Especially with the Sicilian being by staple against 1. e4. But maybe down the road.... :-)

OK ty for your opinion.

I think back to my process. The thing is I played the ragozine because I wanted to spice things up. The Tartakover was great / solid and so on but sometimes I had problems to win.

So the ragozine is wilder and more difficult to play. So that is why perhaps I don't have great results with it yet.

I am gonna let the time pass with that defence and refocus on the Tartakover and the semi-Tarrash for now