I recently discovered this line called the Queen's Indian Accelerated for black against the queen's pawn, it goes 1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 b6, planning to fianchetto the light squared bishop and control the center early on. Is it worth it to study it and use it in my repertoire for the black side or does it seem too bland and weak?
Look at master game statistics, then ye'll find yer answer.
You'd be allowing White to continue 3.Nc3 and force e4 (if 3...Bb7 4.Qc2) with a big centre. The fianchetto of the light-squared bishop to b7, to which you have prematurely committed yourself, is then not very effective against this massive centre. The point about playing the normal 2...e6 first is that you can counter 3.Nc3 with 3...d5 or 3...Bb4 preventing White from doing that.
15-20 years ago I was thinking about, too. It‘s hardly refutable and should be ok in the majority of cases.
@Sarg0n said in #4:
> [...] It‘s hardly refutable and should be ok in the majority of cases.
I agree that it's playable in the same way that a lot of off-beat openings are.
One thing it will not do however, @IntuitiveTactics , is let you "control the center early on" which was your stated aim in #1. Quite the reverse. You will have to play vigorously against White's centre to avoid being crushed.
> [...] It‘s hardly refutable and should be ok in the majority of cases.
I agree that it's playable in the same way that a lot of off-beat openings are.
One thing it will not do however, @IntuitiveTactics , is let you "control the center early on" which was your stated aim in #1. Quite the reverse. You will have to play vigorously against White's centre to avoid being crushed.
I don't know of any benefits of playing ...b6 before ...e6, and there are downsides as @Brian-E stated in #3. Is there a specific reason you want to play an early ...b6? If not, you should probably stick to the regular ...e6 first and then ...b6. The Queen's Indian is a pretty solid opening, and one of the most annoying to face as White (for me at least).