When Black answers the Exchange Queen's Gambit with 5...Bb4, the intention is transparent: steer the game into the Ragozin, one of the most reliable three-results weapons in modern practice. The Carlsbad has anchored White's play here for a century, from club events to World Championship matches, and its pull has never depended on fashion.
What GMs Luca Moroni and Pier Luigi Basso propose is a quiet act of defiance. Instead of the automatic 6.Nf3, they hold the knight on g1 and answer 6.e3! — declining the standard Ragozin move order and handing Black a version of the position he would rather not have. That knight staying home is the whole idea, keeping White flexible and reaching a more comfortable middlegame than the one Black prepared for.
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