Queen's Indian Accelerated

The Queen's Indian Accelerated, also called the Accelerated Queen's Indian Defense, arises after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 b6. Black skips the customary 2...e6 and heads straight for ...Bb7, aiming the bishop at e4 in the hypermodern manner of the Indian systems. The intended position is the Queen's Indian, normally reached by 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6, but the early ...b6 gives White a move-order choice that the standard sequence denies.

The difficulty lies in 3. Nc3, by far the most frequent reply. With the king's bishop still undeveloped and ...e6 not yet played, Black has no ...Bb4 pin to restrain e2-e4, so White can aim to seize the full center at once. After 3. Nc3 Bb7 4. Qc2 the e4 advance is threatened, and Black is more or less obliged to answer 4...d5 to prevent it. Then 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nf3 leaves White comfortably placed, an assessment that goes back to Alekhine–König, Vienna 1922, where White emerged with the better game. James Plaskett and Raymond Keene examined the variation in their 1987 monograph devoted to the English Defense, a related ...b6 setup.

Other third moves are less testing. 3. Nf3, chosen in roughly a sixth of games, lets Black reach the regular Queen's Indian by playing ...e6, so the accelerated order loses nothing there. 3. e3 is a quiet alternative that rarely poses independent problems. Among engine preferences, 3. Qc2 and 3. f3 share the same idea as 3. Nc3: both prepare e2-e4 and try to exploit the absence of ...e6 and ...Bb4.

The engine regards the position as offering White a slight edge, in line with the theoretical view that the move order is sound but slightly inaccurate. Practical results in online play are close to even, with White scoring marginally better. The line ranks as a modest sideline among 1. d4 Nf6 openings, used mainly by players who want a fianchetto structure while sidestepping the Nimzo-Indian and Catalan routes that follow 2...e6.