There was a time when such games would see Black respond with 1...d5 and 2...Nf6, or the other way around.
That is still common today, but increasingly blacks are trying other responses, including the so-called Liberated Bishop, ie 1...d5 and 2...Bf5.
I write "so-called" because the name was coined for grandmaster Alexey Bezgodov's 2014 New In Chess book The Liberated Bishop Defence.
I have a friend who bought the book and is keen on the analysis presented in it, although he has come to only play the system against d4 and Nf3 rather than against 1.d4 d5 2.c4.
My round-five game at Mariánské Lázně saw me employ a simple-to-learn but, I believe, effective set-up against the Liberated Bishop.
The full game can be seen at ML 5 but here I will concentrate on the opening.
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Bf5
This position goes back to 1854 in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database. White's most-popular response is 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3, while also popular is 4.Qb3. Both white fourth-moves can be met by the sharp 4...Nc6!?, and you can expect a Liberated Bishop player to be well-prepared for these lines.
3.e3!?
This takes the game into the realm of the Colle, and was the usual reply in the early days of 2...Bf5.
3...Nf6
The game has transposed to a main line of the Colle, normally reached via the move-order 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 Bf5. Magus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov and Levon Aronian are three strong players who have tried this system as Black, with Aronian having won from this position with both black and white.
4.Bd3!?
The second-most popular move in the position, behind 4.c4. The idea is simply to challenge Black's active bishop.
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| How should Black respond? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
4...Bxd3
This is by far the commonest response in Mega22, but other moves have been tried by strong players.
Second-most popular is 4...Bg6, when Edgard Colle - Savielly Tartakower, Bled (Yugoslavia) 1931, continued 5.Ne5 e6 6.Nxg6!? hxg6 7.Nd2 c5 8.c3 Nc6 9.Qe2 Qc7 with a slight edge for Black, according to Stockfish14.1 and Komodo12.1.1 (0-1, 43 moves).
Winning the bishop-pair but half-opening the h file is a controversial procedure, especially when the white king is likely to end up on the kingside (as happened in the game). However the position was arguably handled rather better by White in Priyadharshan Kannappan* (2525) - Jayaram Ashwin* (2468), St Louis SPICE Cup 2016, when White played to open lines for his bishops, viz 7.c4 Bb4+ 8.Nc3 c5 9.dxc5 Qc7 10.cxd5 Nxd5 11.Bd2 Nxc3 12.Bxc3 (12.Qb3!?) Bxc3+ 13.bxc3 Qxc5 14.Rb1!? Qxc3+ 15.Qd2 Qc7 (after 15...Qxd2+ 16.Kxd2 Black cannot prevent Rxb7) 16.Qb2 Nc6 17.Qxb7 with maybe a slight edge for White (1-0, 47 moves).
Another reasonably popular choice is 4...e6!?, when Alexander Alekhine - Boris Kostić, Bled (Yugoslavia) 1931, continued 5.Bxf5 exf5 6.Qd3 Qc8 7.0-0 Bd6 8.b3 0-0 9.c4 c6 10.Nc3 (10.Ba3!?) b6 11.cxd5 Nxd5 12.Nxd5 cxd5 13.Bb2 g6 14.Rfc1 Qa6 15.Qc3 Rd8 16.Ne5 Nd7 with an equal game, according to the engines (but 1-0, 47 moves).
5.cxd3!?
More popular is playing for development with 5.Qxd3, but playing for the centre with the text is an interesting alternative.
5...c6
Commoner, but scoring eight percentage points fewer in Mega22, is 5...e6, when the engines like 6.Qc2!?, delaying ...c5.
6.Nc3 e6 7.0-0
The thematic Colle move e4 is already good for White, according to the engines, which give White an advantage, especially after the most-popular response 7...dxe4.
7...Be7
The active-looking 7...Bd6?! is suspect because it sets up a white pawn-fork at e5.
8.Qe2
Again the engines prefer e4.
8...0-0
Here I played 9.Rd1!?, which is not bad, but almost certainly better is 9.e4, when White has an edge, albeit a small one. Tibor Dencsi (2338) - Balázs Csonka (2287), Hungarian Team Championship 2012, continued 9...Na6 10.Be3 Rc8 11.Rac1 Qa5 12.a3, when White is better, according to the engines (1-0, 47 moves).
*The grandmaster's name also appears as Kannappan Priyadharshan while his opponent also appears as Ashwin Jayaram.
CONCLUSION: playing to swop off Black's active light-square bishop is a valid plan against the Liberated Bishop, although Black should be fine with accurate play.
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