Noteboom Variation, Anti-Noteboom Variation

The Anti-Noteboom Variation, 5. Bg5, puts off recovering the c4-pawn and develops with tempo instead, the bishop hitting the queen on d8 along the cleared diagonal. Black most often answers 5...Be7, inviting an exchange of dark-squared bishops. The alternatives are 5...f6, the Belyavsky Line, and 5...Nf6, which transposes to the Semi-Slav Defense Accepted. White scores well in practice, although the engine judges the position roughly balanced.