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Mucha returned to his homeland in to take up his mission. For this project he rented a studio and an apartment in Zbiroh Castle in Western Bohemia to benefit from the spacious studio enabling him to work on enormous canvases. In the series, he depicted twenty key episodes from the Slavic past, ancient to modern, ten of which depict episodes from Czech history and ten on historical episodes from other Slavonic regions.
The first canvas in the series, The Slavs in Their Original Homeland , was finished in and the entire series was completed in with the final canvas, The Apotheosis of the Slavs , which celebrates the triumphant victory of all the Slavs whose homelands in finally became their very own. With the Slav Epic Mucha wished to unite all the Slavs through their common history and their mutual reverence for peace and learning and eventually to inspire them to work for humanity using their experience and virtue. In , Mucha and Crane officially presented the complete series of the Slav Epic to the City of Prague as a gift to the nation, coinciding with the 10 th Anniversary of its independence.
We use cookies to help give you the best experience on our site. For details on how we use cookies, please refer to our Privacy Policy. This helps us to keep track of the jungle of variations. First of all, before we can start studying the lines in our opening system, we need to make sure that we actually reach our opening. After the moves 1.
He has three main options here:.
Nf3 Nf6 , White is again at a crossroad. He has no less than five main options here:. A short disclaimer needs to be made at this point about the Semi-Slav Defense which is not covered in this article but will be the focus of a future article. The reason for this is that the Semi-Slav Defense leads to quite different play, including the mainlines which need to be covered in huge detail and lead to sharp positions.
Moreover, with an early …e6 in the Semi-Slav, Black voluntarily boxes in his light-squared bishop which he later develops on the long diagonal with …b7-b5, …Bc8-b7, …a7-a6 and …c6-c5. This is perfectly playable, but deserves an independent article with some more in-depth coverage of the key lines and ideas.
Building a repertoire always implies deciding on certain variations and discarding others. The same applies to the repertoire presented in this article. You can study these variations separately and add them to your repertoire as you go along. The Slav Defense is an excellent opening which allows you to vary a lot within your own system.
In the mainlines after 1. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 , for example, you can play the Classical Variation with 4…dxc4 , the Chebanenko Slav with 4…a6 , the Schlechter Slav with 4…g6 , the Schallopp Variation with 4…Bf5 and, of course, the Semi-Slav with 4…e6. As a warning, however, it also needs to be said that there are quite a few variations, transpositions and move order tricks in the Slav Defense. Be careful not to miss the forest for the trees!
First of all, in the hands of a well-prepared White player, it looks harmless on the surface but there are many subtle opening traps that can lead to a dangerous White initiative on the queenside. There are some new and trendy ideas for White to put pressure on Black. The fact that the position is symmetrical and equal does not mean that it has to end in a draw. There are many games in the Exchange Variation where Black outplayed a White player who only wanted to draw with this line.
The key to win with Black is to meet the Exchange Variation with the right mindset. Black should not be angry to get a symmetrical and equal position out of the opening, but happy to get easy equality with the Black pieces. Equalizing with Black is the first step to later taking over the initiative.
If Black gets an equal position without having to make any tough decisions in the opening, he should feel comfortable. These lines are still frequently played as they feature the most logical moves White can make. In this video, FM Will Stewart covers two classical games to provide you with the key ideas for Black in this variation.
The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves: 1. d4 d5: 2. c4 c6. The Slav is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's Gambit. Although it. The Slav Defense is one of the most popular chess openings for Black in response to 1.d4 and enjoys a reputation of being one of the safest replies against the Queen’s Gambit. Vishy Anand used the Slav Defense in several World Championship Matches against Kramnik in , Topalov.
If White plays 3. Nc3 , play can easily transpose into one of the mainlines.
Yet, there is an independent system White can try by going for 4. Black needs to make a decision here. For many years, the logical move 4…Bf5 was considered to be bad for Black in view of 5. Qb3 , targeting the pawn on b7. Yet, in recent years it was discovered that Black can sacrifice a pawn in this line in order to obtain very active play. With 4. Nbd2 , White avoids a lot of the theory in the Slav Defense and plays more calmly. Of course, the knight on d2 is not as actively placed as it would be on c3.
Therefore, Black does not need to fear this line and does not need to know too much theory here. If you want to know a bit more about this system, you can watch the following video by GM Alex Ipatov. The variation with 4.
With 4. After 4. This helps us to keep track of the jungle of variations. Who knows. The earliest of them—the Visigoths — , the Huns end of the 4th century to , and the Germanic Gepidae — —had little impact…. In , Mucha and Crane officially presented the complete series of the Slav Epic to the City of Prague as a gift to the nation, coinciding with the 10 th Anniversary of its independence.
Qb3 is a very solid line for White. Both sides do not need to know too much theory but need to be familiar with some essential strategic and positional ideas.
Qc2 and 4. Qb3 usually lead to the same position after 4…dxc4 5. However, White has an additional option after 4. Qc2 as he does not need to immediately recapture the pawn on c4 after 4…dxc4. Yet, this is only a sideline and Black is fine if he knows a few precise moves. The move 4. It is usually played by Catalan or Reti players who do not want to enter the big theoretical mainlines. However, the setups with the bishop on g2 against the Slav Defense are only good for White if the Black light-squared bishop is boxed inside his own pawn chain the positions where Black played an early …e6 before bringing out the bishop.
After 4. With the move 4. Black players have tried several ideas against this setup. In the following video, FM Will Stewart covers the main ideas for Black in this variation and looks at four games where players like Magnus Carlsen, Alexei Shirov and Alexey Dreev show us how to approach the position with the Black pieces. Nc3 is the absolute main move White can play against the Slav Defense. It has been played in many World Chess Championship matches and remains popular today. First of all, against 4.
The move 4…Bf5 is also playable against 4. Nc3 Bf5 5. Qb3 which gives him a slightly better position.
The Schallopp Variation of the Slav Defense retains one major drawback — White can obtain a dangerous initiative by playing a flexible move order that exploits the fact that with an early …Bf5, Black is giving up protection of his b7-pawn. In these cases, Black gets a good game. There is a lot more theory here, but the good news is that, according to the current state of theory, White has not found a way to prove an advantage.
That means that your hard work on this line will definitely be rewarded. Nc3 dxc4 5. If you want to study the latter move more deeply, the following video should be of interest to you. With this game, GM Joel Benjamin not only shows the dangers of the 6.