This is from one of the thematic tournaments arranged by the forum "Opening skills". This puzzled me. Can you see a way out of this for black? HINT: It is not tactical, but positional. The point is not to win matererial, but to free up the game.

Visit http://blog.chess.com/view/french-defence---locked-position for my analysis. Please, feel free to comment.

Interesting one.

HIARCS gives 17 exf6 as the best option, although Bf4 doesn't seem to be much worse. The f6 move is certainly the thematic pawn break (although sometimes f5 is played, allowing en passant and grabbing a little bit of space back).

I would not have played 17 ... fxe5 - I don't like how it is opening up the black king with the dark bishop kicking about in the vicinity - it probably won't be a problem because of all the defenders, but it would make me feel uneasy. Anyway, I like to maintain the tension - it is better for black if white takes the f6 pawn, so you can just leave it there. I personally prefer either 17 ... f5 or Nf7. The Nf7 move piles on a little more pressure to the contested square and gets the knight back into the game and the f5 pawn push starts claiming a bit of space back and begins to make the h6 pawn look a little vulnerable.

Having said that, there is the possibility of an exchange sac if the f file is cleared for the rook - I love the exchange sac in the French! It is probably deeply unsound in this position because the doubled pawns would actually be fairly strong with f4 protecting e5 and strengthening the possibility of a pawn capture there, but it would make for a really fun tactical game! h6 would fall and if you could get a good kingside assault going all hell could break loose!