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Best Games of a Chess Coach: Masterpiece in the French

Submitted by FM TigerLilov on Thu, 10/30/2008 at 2:10pm.

In the fifth article, part of the “Inside the Master Mind: The Best Games of a ChessCoach” Series I would like to present you one very good positional win of mine as played in French Defense. When a tournament player has to play a specific famous variation of a given opening system, which contains a great deal of theory, the most important thing they should do is not to try to memorize all the moves and continuations, but to grasp the ideas and plans behind the moves recommended in the theory. Therefore, I believe that this game is one of my best theoretical wins in a specific, widely analyzed and popular variation in the French Defense. This game was played in the second round of the strong Open tournament in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and my opponent was the very experienced and strong chess master Petar Arnaudov. In this game I played with white pieces and in my preparation for the game I decided to choose 1. e2-e4 as my first move, since in the open and semi-open games arise more sophisticated positions, where the well trained, young players like me have the opportunity to utilize their skills much more effectively than their opponent can benefit from their solid knowledge of chess theory. It was a surprise to me when my opponent played instead of the expected 1… c5 after 1. e4, - 1… e6 – French Defense. At this moment, I had no idea what he had prepared to play against me with black and therefore I decided to opt for an interesting variation, in which the understanding of ideas and composing of the plan were of greater importance than the theory itself.  Here is the game as played in the tournament:

 

» posted in Amazing Games
 

Comments:

by cnwlwzj - 3 years ago
tianjin China
Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 288

However the a6 is not a good position for a knight.

by aryavolkan - 3 years ago
Adana Turkey
Member Since: Nov 2008
Member Points: 11

22. b4 h3 23. g3 Nc7 24. Qd3 Rxe5 25. f3 O-O 26. Nf4 Bg5 27. Nxh3 Bxd2 28. Qxd2

with a lot of counter chances.

Playing 22 .. Nc7 ?

by domifrenchman - 3 years ago
TOULOUSE France
Member Since: Nov 2008
Member Points: 1

4...b6!? was played by world chess champion Tigran Petrossian. Offbeat variation prepared by Black since 4..c5 is main move. Idea is to play as Black a strategical game, dealing first with the main goal: exchange light square bishop (so called "bad" bishop,...,more precise is the "low activity" bishop").

5.Qg4 the logic continuation in many Winawer line: attacking the weak g7 pawn when Black is compelled to create positional weakness (Kf8: king will be unsafe in center, but can be tried; g6: clear weaknesses on dark (f6/h6) squares  hence Bf8 is the "normal" reply.

5...Bf8 6.Bg5 (yes "forcing" the queen going to d7...but in fact, common for Black to play system like Qd7,b6,Bb7,ooo ; Black kingside is not developped but Black doesn't care because no weakness means : "active" pieces for White Qg4 and Bg5 are'nt really attacking some point) Qd7 

7.Bb5 c6 (I don't like this move...best is to play 7...Nc6 when Black has really a playable game with 8.Nce2 a6 and now after 9.Ba4 follow plan 9...b5 10.Bb3 f5 11.exf6 Nxf6 12.Qh4 Ne7! 13.Bxf6 Ng6 14.Qg5 gxf6 15.Qxf6 Bh6! 16.Qf3 Qg7 17.Bb7 18.Nf3 ooo 19.oo Rhg8 20.c3 Qf6 21.Qh3 Bb8 22.Bc2 Bd6 23.Rae1 Kb8 24.Ng3 Nf4 25.Qh4 Qf8! 26.Ng5 Be7 27.Nxe6 Bxh4 28.Nxf8 Rdxf8 29.Bxh7 Rg7 30.Bc2 c5 31.Re3 cxd4 32.cxd4 Bd8 33.Re5 Bc8 34.Rd1 Bg4 35.f3 Bd7 36.Kf2 Rh8 37.Bf5 Rxh2 38.Bxd7 Rxd7 39.Ke3 Nxg2+ 40.Kd3 Shirov-Timman,Groningue 1996 game from which you get the idea: Black doesn't mind to give up a pawn to get activity ; if 9.Bd3 the simple 9...Nb4 will exchange good bishop for White)

by cnwlwzj - 3 years ago
tianjin China
Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 288

I wonder:why   white  don't take 20.Qd3   ?

Although black rook won't take e5 pawn,however Qe3 will be followed by Re4,it's underattacking.Besides white will move his queen to d3 sooner or later,so why not take it now?

Anyone want to answer this question? 

by dashkee94 - 3 years ago
Norwich, NY United States
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 732

Bf8 is an old line in the French, used on occasion by Petrosian, for example.  It has it's points, but I never use it--it's way too slow for my tastes.  Black invites White to over extend, to get too crazy with the attack.  It's a mistake to think that this line is without bite; but if White is careful not to get carried away and simply maintains the initiative (just like in most openings) he gets a good game.

by rushianikchyd - 3 years ago
California United States
Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 21

 8....Bf8 seems supremely passive especially since the c3 knight is still sitting there and there hasn't been an exchange of pieces yet to get a pawn to c3.  I think Nf3 or Ne2 are both theory after 8.Qg4 (at least they're what I've seen played).  The open h4-d8 diagonal kills black in the opening and allows white to pounce in my opinion.

by MBickley - 3 years ago
Canada
Member Since: Sep 2008
Member Points: 420

"I am confused in the opening!? If black is going to retreat 5. ... Bf8 then why play 3. ... Bb4 in the first place??? I think this is a waste of time and tempo isnt it???"

It forces white to do something about Bxc3 bxc3 dxe4 (the main point of Bb4).  Trying to defend the pawn further is quite awkward, so white invariably decides to give up the side by side pawn structure (which is a strong asset) with e5.  So the point of the move in this case is only to force white to give up the side by side pawn structure.  I dislike the variation as a whole, but Bb4 does have a point.

by mschosting - 3 years ago
Portugal Portugal
Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 1436

Black played like a real patzer there even I would be able to beat that master :) (Or so I say :))

 

For the ones asking here is the Fide link :)

http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=2901706

 

And no he was no master, there is another one with the same name:

 Arnaudov, G. Petar

But he seems to be 2344 and Fide Master

by yavuz1990 - 3 years ago
Istanbul Turkey
Member Since: May 2008
Member Points: 97

I am confused in the opening!? If black is going to retreat 5. ... Bf8 then why play 3. ... Bb4 in the first place??? I think this is a waste of time and tempo isnt it???

by Konstantyn - 3 years ago
United States
Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 612

May be 23. ... Nb5 is better than 23. ... b5.

by Mehdipiero - 3 years ago
Dubai, UAE Iraq
Member Since: Sep 2008
Member Points: 3152

Good game, did you say he was a master? what was his title exactly? wondering because his rating is 2197. thought couldn't be a GM, right?

by uritbon - 3 years ago
tel aviv Israel
Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 1007

you sure got a lot of "best games", love them!

by shamrock92 - 3 years ago
London United Kingdom
Member Since: May 2008
Member Points: 4

I think black threw it away at the start by not developing fast enough

 

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