Don't Fear the French!

It's been awhile since I've blogged. The reason is likely multifactorial. For one, obviously the more I post the more my opponents can scout my games. This isn't a big deal, unless you are trying to win the state championship! I don't think preparing for your opponents is a great advantage at the class level, like it might be at the highest levels. Just because someone can see how I destroyed the French here, doesn't mean he is going to beat me OTB if I play great chess. The goal is to play great chess, and the results should follow, especially in a small-town scene like Montana chess. The other reason I have been slow to post my games from the Winter Thaw, is that I analyze them in Chessbase. As I've gotten better with that program and all it's bells and whistles, I've realized that the upload is not as clean because chess.com doesn't recognize even basic symbols like +-. In the past, I've done my analysis to work for chess.com, but now I'm focused on doing it for what works in ChessBase. I will try to upload them and see how it looks.

I have often been frustrated playing the French, which is a real attacking defense; however, I am getting better and better at my lines and the nuances. Here is an example of how it can go wrong for Black with inaccurate play. The numbers after each move represents the remaining time in seconds. It was a 45 min game with 45s increment.