Stats on the Slav

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your advice on my previous post about a positional repertoire. Many of you agreed that the Slav was a sound choice against d4, and I like it because it can be played against the Reti and the English, whereas the Nimzo/QID requires learning two defenses for d4 and then something else for the English and Reti.

However, I used a couple of databases to look up Slav stats, and they were dismal. Generally, I don't worry too much if one opening is a couple of points better than another, figuring that there are too many variables to consider to choose an opening based on a slight statistical superiority. However, the stats I looked at showed a -16% score for black in the Slav as opposed to a -3% for the Nimzo and a - 9% for the QID. In fact, the only major opening to d4 that scored worse than the Slav was the QGD. Could someone let me know if these stats are reasonably accurate? Have recent Slav games shown better results for Black? This seems like such a large performance difference that it makes me leery of taking up the defense.

Thanks,
Scott

Originally posted by smrex13
Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your advice on my previous post about a positional repertoire. Many of you agreed that the Slav was a sound choice against d4, and I like it because it can be played against the Reti and the English, whereas the Nimzo/QID requires learning two defenses for d4 and then something else for the English and Reti.

However, I used a ...[text shortened]... large performance difference that it makes me leery of taking up the defense.

Thanks,
Scott

Originally posted by smrex13
Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your advice on my previous post about a positional repertoire. Many of you agreed that the Slav was a sound choice against d4, and I like it because it can be played against the Reti and the English, whereas the Nimzo/QID requires learning two defenses for d4 and then something else for the English and Reti.

However, I used a ...[text shortened]... large performance difference that it makes me leery of taking up the defense.

Thanks,
Scott

Originally posted by wib
Where are the stats from? If they're professional/titled player stats then they don't mean anything for amateur players. ALL openings are playable at this level. Well maybe not at the 2000 and up level even here.

Originally posted by smrex13
The stats were taken from both chessgames.com and chesslab's position search. In each case, the games were restricted to fairly advanced players. I was just very surprised to see such poor stats, especially when compared with other d4 openings.

Scott

I get a 43% on c3 in the Fritz database. I get a 43% on Bb4 in nimzo. Are you sure your stats are right? On game colony, Slav got 39% white wins, 23 black, 38% draws. On Nimzo white got 33%, black 30%, and draws 37%. Pretty equal, I'd say. Also, as someone said, you can't base your repertoire solely on stats, all mainstream openings are ok at our level.

I got 42% when using a really big database. That still isn't great, but not terrible as the previous statistics suggested.

Originally posted by buddy2
I get a 43% on c3 in the Fritz database. I get a 43% on Bb4 in nimzo. Are you sure your stats are right? On game colony, Slav got 39% white wins, 23 black, 38% draws. On Nimzo white got 33%, black 30%, and draws 37%. Pretty equal, I'd say. Also, as someone said, you can't base your repertoire solely on stats, all mainstream openings are ok at our level.