Hi All,

I've been playing the Korchnoi gambit against the French defence as recommended in Starting Out: 1e4! by Neil McDonald.

This is:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.c3 c5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Ngf3
cxd4 8.cxd4 Qb6 9.O-O Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Qxd4 11.Nf3 Qb6 12.Qa4

Neil McDonald calls this the Universal system or something on ChessPub when he did the French defence section.

The stem game in the book is this:

13. ... Qxb2 makes the whole plan fall apart unless I am missing something simple?

To quote a good friend of mine it is saying you are royally boned...

After 13. ... Qxb2 the best you can hope for is an evaluation of -1.1 pawns. What I am confused about is that this line (excluding Qxb2) has appeared alot but few people seem to take the pawn. Which leads me to believe their is a deeper reason why this doesn't work that the computer can't evaluate.

Doesn't 14.a3 cause black some problems? For example, if black makes some neutral move, like 14...O-O, then 15.Bb5 Rd8 (the knight hangs....if instead 15...Nc5 16.Bxc5 Bxc5 17.Rfb1 Qc3 18.Rc1) 16.Rfb1 Qc3 17.Rc1 Qb2 18.Bd4! The point is, after 13...Qxb2, it seems like 14.a3 is a pretty good way to prepare to harass her majesty.

Well, you're playing a line called the "Korchnoi Gambit," so you shouldn't be too disturbed by the fact you're down some material. It seems to me you have a space advantage, a development edge, and real attacking chances. WHat more could you ask for?

For what it's worth, in the databases I looked at, White seems to score very well with both 13.Qg4 and 13.Be3.

Also for what it's worth, after 13.Be3 Qxb2 14.Rfc1 O-O 15.Rab1 Qa3 16.Qc2, after a long think, Houdini gives Black an edge of (-0,09) Which is totally insignificant. My feeling has always been that when you're two pawns down, and the computer calls it even, you're winning

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! lol

Look, I haven't played this line for Black since the early '90s, but it was my first line defense for nearly 20 years up until I switched to the C-K.  I always worried more about 7 Ne2, which most of the better players played.  When facing 7 Ngf3 and the gambit, I usually just played 7 ...cxd4  8 cxd4 Qb6  9 0-0 f6, as in the main line.  White must either allow me to take on d4 later or defend it, while after 10 exf6 Nxf6 he lacks some of the options available in the main line, like Nf4 or Bf4.

Even if I took the gambit, which I haven't but believe Black should be able to do somehow and emerge ahead with tedious and accurate defense, I would never take the second pawn.  It can't possibly be worth it, White just develops and Black has the awkward position of his Queen, his King potentially a target, and an undeveloped Queenside to untangle, which will take several moves.  It's just too much time to cede White, no matter how many buttons we eat.

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>14. a3 O-O 15. Bd4 Or am i missing something?

I am not an expert on this, but Stockfish comes up with 15.... Nc5 (attacking the undefended white Queen, and Bishop). The initial evalutation after that is +1.6 for black, but after 16.Bxc5 Bxc5 17.Rb1 the evaluation drops to 0.0 and Bishop sacfrices on f2 and h7 come into the picture. White threatens mate after the sac on h7, but it looks like black can just escape...

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 This is similar to what I pointed out in my post #4. Black gets some counterplay with the Nc5 idea, but after exchanges, his queen is still in the more risky position. Black has to spend precious time to extricate the endangered queen, while white's moves improve his attacking chances. 13...Qxb2 just doesn't seem worth a pawn.

a3 is not bad but after Qxb2 i will stick with Rfc1, that's just me though.

"if black makes some neutral move, like 14...O-O, then 15.Bb5 Rd8 (the knight hangs....if instead 15...Nc5 16.Bxc5 Bxc5 17.Rfb1 Qc3 18.Rc1)" - Also don't forget that against Rfb1 Black has Qxf2+.

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 What do you mean "don't forget" black has Qxf2+? I did forget it, or miss it, or whatever. This throws my whole line in the trash heap. I think mathot is right: after 14.a3 O-O 15.Bd4 looks best.

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What about 15 Bd4 Nc5  16 Bxc5 Bxc5  17 Bxh7+ instead of a Rook move? 

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If white doesn't play 17.Rab1, black can defend the mate threat on h7 (after Qh4+ and Ng5) by playing Qc2 (meanwhile keeping pressure on f2), and retreat the Queen to g6 if needed. And white seems to have not enough compensation for the sacfrifice.

If white Plays 17.Rab1 and Black responds with 17... Qxa3 (not sure about Qa2, but Sf gives 0,0 there), then  18.Bx7+ Kxh7 18.Qh4+ Kg8 20.Ng5 Qd3 (to prevent mate, also 20... Rd8 seems possible here). Black can now play 20.Rb3 Qg6 21 Rh3, threatening mate on h8. But black can simply respond with 21...Qg6, and according to Stockfish it's a draw.

(all with the help of Stockfish again, which might be wrong of course :-))

But in mathot's line in post #14, after 19...Qc2, doesn't white simply play 20.Rfc1 and at least get the piece back, as white's queen now covers f2?  In fact, black has no way to save the bishop on c5 as he has to cover the mating square h7......

@melvinbluestone: I think after 20.Rfc1 black can play 20...Qxf2+, then white can only respond with 21.Qxf2 and then after 21... Bxf2+ 22.Kxf2 black still has his extra pawns.

Like this:

Good line, mathot. In the 20.Rac1 line, I actually looked at 21.Kh1?! for about five minutes before the light bulb in my head went on.... Incredibly, after 19.Ng5, black can't play 19...Bxf2+ immediately, as after 20.Rxf2 Qxa1+ 21.Rf1, the queen can't get back to the diagonal to cover h7.