The Meran Variation is an extremely dynamic opening, and its no coincidence that it belongs to the opening repertoire of geniusses such as Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand and Shirov. The lines arising after 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Nf3 e6 5 e3 Nbd7 6 Bd3 dxc4 7 Bxc4 b5 often are of a very sharp nature, and Black's good possibilities for active counterplay make this choice a popular weapon on all chess levels. With Alexey Dreev, now for the first time an absolute world class player and specialist has taken on this opening for ChessBase.