Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
NickFaulks
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:09 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 9:34 pm
whilst 10. .. Qxe5 allows White enough for equality.
That doesn't sound like a good enough reason for the line to have been completely abandoned by Black.
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:13 pm

Maybe that it is tricky and any slip by Black can see them go splat?

Whereas, as stated, an alternative line is considered to be close to a refutation.
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MJMcCready
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:10 am

Nick Ivell wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 6:21 pm
To answer the question more directly, Black always gets a lot of play in the advance.

Just play 3. PxP, and aim to bore Black into submission.
I suspect you are right. It's always been the variation I have wanted to play against.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:15 am

If I go for the King's Indian Attack and fianchetto my king's bishop, generally speaking does white try to play on the kingside or queenside. I don't ask which is best but at club level where does white usually direct play? I'm assuming a steady build up on the kingside but I used to play that about 10 years ago and didn't like it. Is queenside play an option here?

Nick Ivell
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Nick Ivell » Mon Aug 31, 2020 8:57 am

You play on the K-side. Your model game should be Fischer v Miagmasuren, Sousse 1967.

Checkmate ends the game.

Mike Gunn
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Mike Gunn » Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:00 am

Most of the time white goes for the kingside attack with the KIA. Black usually sets up in the usual French way but lacks one of his normal targets (the white pawn on d4).

Nick Ivell
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Nick Ivell » Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:49 am

If you establish a pawn on e5, your natural field of operations is the K-side.

With White against the KID, you often get a space advantage on the Q-side. So the natural field of operations is the Q-side.

The late, great John Littlewood used to tell me how he preferred playing for mate. Often accompanied by sweeping away the pieces that he didn't care about on the other side of the board. I remember that gesture from 45 years ago.

In practice, of course, things are rarely so simple. We need to be holistic in our approach, playing over the whole of the board.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:12 am

Nick Ivell wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 8:57 am
You play on the K-side. Your model game should be Fischer v Miagmasuren, Sousse 1967.
It's also worth checking some more recent games. Top GMs, Svidler coming to mind, have been trying to make other plans work.




The old move was 9. e5 followed by h4, Nd2-f1-h2, Bf4 etc

Nick Ivell
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Nick Ivell » Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:44 am

I'm not remotely recommending 3. Bd3, but it does contain hidden venom, as Richard Lee found out against me in 4NCL in 2018:

1. e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3 ed 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bf3 c5 6. Ne2 Nc6 7. Be3 Nd5 8. Bxd5 Qxd5 9. Nbc3 Qxg2 10. Rg1 Qf3 11. Nb5 cd 12. Nc7+ Ke7 13. Bxd4 Rb8 14. Bc5+ Kf6 15. Ne8+ Ke5 16. Rg5+ f5 17. Bd6+ 1-0

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JustinHorton
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by JustinHorton » Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:15 pm

3 ... de I think.

I've never met it, but I think it can be quite awkward to organise play against: the bishop's not bad at all on f3.
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Nick Ivell
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Nick Ivell » Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:25 pm

Sorry, dxe4, yes. White has nothing, so long as Black doesn't fall in to the above trap.

I'm showing my tricks here! This will catch out a lot of unwary people, albeit only the once.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:26 pm

Thanks for the contributions, I will spend a few days more mulling over this. I've noticed that the WInawer is a lot broader than I thought with many positional side-lines. I once saw one of my friends beat an IM with this 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5. Bd2, which he described as the old line and quite good to play because many people have forgotten it, drawing attention to the fact that Alekhine used to play it. I had a look at it and it seems quite alright to me.
Capture1.PNG
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MJMcCready
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:37 pm

Nick Ivell wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 8:57 am
You play on the K-side. Your model game should be Fischer v Miagmasuren, Sousse 1967.

Checkmate ends the game.
One of my favourite Fischer games. As soon as I can put another 1000 points on my elo rating I'll give some IM a good thrashing with it too.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by MJMcCready » Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:39 pm

Generally speaking, those who play the Winawer, are they easily taken out of book? Or should I ask how main line orientated are they? The fact that my friend played an IM, and in the diagram above he did not know what to do tells me that they half expect 4.a3.

Nick Ivell
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Re: Some Q's concerning the French Defence.

Post by Nick Ivell » Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:44 pm

An idea that's well worth considering against the Winawer is 4. exd5. A kind of delayed Exchange.

I've never played it. Why, as I was recommending the Exchange upthread?

Because, in playing 3.Nc3, I need to be prepared for ...Nf6 and indeed dxe4, as well as the Winawer.

And that's too much work.

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