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

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

It offers chances to black,

nah, slav is really great, it's solid, i used to play that, now trying to move into indian game because of flexibility.

Cramped? Interesting... I switched from QGD to Slave because it allowed me to play less cramped positions with more "breathing space".

A nice video on the topic (I only found it after I made the switch myself for similar reasons):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEeQpf0A5jU

@mkubecek said in #4:

Cramped? Interesting... I switched from QGD to Slave because it allowed me to play less cramped positions with more "breathing space".

A nice video on the topic (I only found it after I made the switch myself for similar reasons):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEeQpf0A5jU

there's a similar video by yt channel ' the chess clinic' , which helps me switch to slav .

@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

If people were guaranteed of reaching this position, everyone would become a slave to the Slav! The antidote was worked out before you were born, black plays b4 and prepares c5 after Bb7, Nbd7, Rc8. Look at the classic Reshevsky vs Smyslov game in the 1945 USA v USSR match.

i get cramped positions in this line:
5. e3 b5
6. a4 b4
7. Na2 e6
8. Bxc4 Be7
9. O-O O-O
10. Qe2 Bb7
11. Rd1 a5
12. Bd2 Nd7

e.g. after
13. Nc1 Qb6
14. Nb3 c5
15. Rac1 cd
16. cd

i tried:
16... Bd5
17. Ne5 Bxc4?
18. Nxc4 Qd8
19.. Nc5 Nxc5
20. dc Qc7
21. Nb6

and i am just fighting on the backranks with no counterplay.
Ofcourse Bxc4 was dumb but i mean it quickly turns against you. Often i also have very little space for my Q on b6 esp. when white puts a bishop on e3.

probably i'm not understanding the opening... i'll have a look at the vids but right now i'm not liking how active white is on the queenside with a lot of space controlled.

i'm not liking how active white is on the queenside with a lot of space controlled.

so attack the kingside then, you ever heard about counterplay? or just sit there and do nothing like in your game?

@g6firste6second said in #8:

i'm not liking how active white is on the queenside with a lot of space controlled.

so attack the kingside then, you ever heard about counterplay? or just sit there and do nothing like in your game?

thanks for your constructive and insightful comment.
how about you show me how that is done?
take my starting position and play it against computer level 8.

very interested to see you demonstrate how you'd go about it. i'd surely learn something!

is'nt it go in to lichess database - for example other exist - and look how master level player do it. Also in QGD black quite often needs to attack king side. But there is loads of variations.