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Does Queen's Gambit/Slav Defense generally immobilize half the board?

I don't generally initiate the QG but when faced with one I generally play the Slav. Thing is though is it generally, for me, seems to render half the board unplayable. Is this normal or am I missing some key tactic here?
Thats not really the case. In a QG there is typical play on both sides of the board.
I play okay - but like many patzers have a lot of trouble against the slow slav. End up losing and see no move I would have played differently. Maybe try that.
More than okay maybe for CC - I'm an old guy and need my time - suck at any real-time control - and still mostly lose against the slow slav - and never can figure out why
It depends on what you are playing. That shouldnt be the case.
Do you have examples?
Slav and Caro Kann are simply rock solid structures for black.

If you want to have some more fun against Slav Setups, try to delay d4, then sometimes you have the extra option to play d3 and e4 (and after a4 b4 you have a nice Knight Square on c4 and the e4 pawn blocks the Bb7) or to not play d4 at all and instead play g4 and/or f4. However black can also equalize against these openings, but the lines are not so well known.

We also see this Trend in Caro Kann where white delays d4 and develops his Knights first. In the critical Bg4 h3 Bh5 line white has found some good setups, eg the quick advance of the h-pawn.
Ever noticed that the old wise men called 1.e4 "(half) Open games" and 1.d4 d5 "Closed games"? Sometimes rules of thumbs can turn out to be true indeed.

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