I started playing Anand’s favorite defense against d4 by chance, simply because Matej had told me to play it in my first ever game with the black pieces. I fell in love with it immediately because it’s very logical, and learning it involved studying plans and patterns, rather than endless variations and engine lines.
The Semi-Slav remains my main defense to d4 even now. I need to work on middlegame planning and strategy of the Semi-Slav, as this game proves. But, better to have a bad game during training than OTB.
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