why do people play the slav? its painfully cramped for black

Here's my best effort so far:

One mistake & one one inaccuracy: soon i am down 2pts. i never got a serious attack rolling on the kingside.

If instead of my few errors i follow stockfish, then my pieces all remain on the 1st 3 ranks well into the middlegame.

This is what the i'm talking about: the character of the positions black gets...

Maybe playing against flesh and blood humans instead of the AI would help.

Why are you posting all these games of yours expecting free advice and comments?

You came here insulting Slav players and saying it's cramped - so clearly according to you you are the person with the knowledge, not us. So just stop, this isn't your personal training centre.

i play it myself and in this particular line i find positions to be closed and difficult to play, that despite its reputation as a good opening for beginners (see the nice video). That's why i started this thread: to see why and how others play it.

i was under the impression that the chess forum is for just this type of discussion. if you don't like it, why are you here?

@EmaciatedSpaniard said in #7:

i get cramped positions in this line:
5. e3 b5
6. a4 b4
7. Na2 e6
8. Bxc4 Be7 ...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I tried to learn about the Slav from GM Sadler's book and 5 e3 did not get much attention.
"... This was one of my favourites when I was little, but I am not quite sure why I decided to play it against Bareev! It is actually not a very promising continuation. ..."
With that introduction, this game was presented:
[Event "Hastings 1992/93"] [Date "1992.12.28"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [White "Matthew Sadler"] [Black "Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev"] [ECO "D15"] [WhiteElo "2515"] [BlackElo "2670"] 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 e3 b5 6 a4 b4 7 Nb1 ...
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1572053
And then it was on to something else.
Far more attention was given to 5 a4.
~28 years later, GM Martyn Kravtsiv wrote that "by far the main move is 5 a4", but it was added that the possibility of 5 e3 was "worth noting". 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 e3 b5 6 a4 b4 7 Na2 e6 8 Bxc4 was considered, but, apparently, GM Kravtsiv thought that, at that point, 8...a5 was better than 8...Be7.

From my very limited knowledge it's probably the line most under investigated . xxx

In Starting Out: Slav & Semi-Slav, 5. e3 is discussed among "gambit variations" (5. a4 being the mainline). Unlike in Geller Gambit (5. e4), white gets the pawn back quickly but it's at the expense of ending up with knight stranded on a2 which allows black to finish the development comfortably.

[Event "Atyrau Chess Masters IM"] [Site "Atyrau KAZ"] [Date "2025.09.14"] [White "Alan Petukhov"] [Black "Mihail Nikitenko"] [ECO "D15"] [WhiteElo "2330"] [BlackElo "2504"] 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Nf3 dxc4 5 e3 b5 6 a4 b4 7 Na2 e6 8 Bxc4 Nbd7 9 O-O a5 10 b3 Bd6 11 Bb2 O-O 12 Qe2 Qc7 13 Nc1 Bb7 14 Nd3 Ne4 15 Nde5 Bxe5 16 Nxe5 Nxe5 17 dxe5 Nc5 18 Rfd1 Nd7 19 Rd6 Nb6 20 Rad1 c5 21 e4 Rad8 22 Qd3 Nxc4 23 Qxc4 Rxd6 24 Rxd6 h6 25 f3 Rd8 26 Bd4 Rxd6 27 exd6 Qxd6 28 Qxc5 Qf4 29 Be3 Qh4 30 Bf2 Qd8 ½-½
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=4573225

yes, white can redeploy the knight after Nc1. i think thats why Na2 instead of Nb1

@EmaciatedSpaniard said in #1:

nasty cramped positions with many ways to blunder. why do people play it? masocism?

i mean:

1. d4 d5
2. c4 c6
3. Nf3 Nf6
4. Nc3 cd
5. e3 b5
6. a4

you are 1100. which is 600 on chess.com. you do not know anything about the slav, so don't post stuff like this.
do you think you know more about openings than a super GM?