Berlin defence, curious improvement - Chess Forums

Hi all, When I was browsing an opening explorer to acquaint myself with the quiet variation of the Berlin defence, I encountered somewhat of a mystery to me. In this position black used to play b5 and have good stats, but for some reason recently the common move has become Ba7. To me these moves both

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Forty years ago nobody played the Berlin Defense. The move 3…a6 was practically mandatory. So why is playing 3…a6 before Nf6 bad now? - Quora

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