Panov Attack, Modern Defense, Czerniak Line

The Czerniak Line is Black's reply 6...Qa5 to 6. Bg5 in the Modern Defense of the Panov Attack, which is also called the Panov-Botvinnik Attack. Instead of shoring up d5 with 6...e6, Black puts the queen on the a5-e1 diagonal. There it pins the c3-knight to the white king, so the knight cannot capture on d5 while the pin lasts. The game turns on piece activity, with Black seeking counterplay with the queen while the d5-pawn still has no pawn support.