Nice piece thanks 
A Novelty for a Novelty?
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Ah right that should be isolated pawns (derp). :P
Nice
Honestly, I like the reasoning behind 4.c4!? - while I'm sure that it just cannot be white's best try for an advantage, it does have a concrete logic.
Does it have an "Achilles heel"? One has to think schematically, and find out that it weakens white's control over the d4 square. OK, but how Black can profit?
4...de4 5.Nxe4 Nf6 is perfectly good- Black is playing a French Rubinstein where the pawn at c4 does not help much.
4...c5 is also perfectly logical- Black liquidates white's central domination by natural means.
But... if you feel that the knight on d2 is "goofy" then... don't play it! My experience with both colors is that 3.Nd2 is the third best choice (3.Nc3! and 3.e5 are the main ones), but still, Black's road to equality in the mainlines is far from obvious.
pfren wrote:
4...de4 5.Nxe4 Nf6 is perfectly good- Black is playing a French Rubinstein where the pawn at c4 does not help much.
My experience with both colors is that 3.Nd2 is the third best choice (3.Nc3! and 3.e5 are the main ones), but still, Black's road to equality in the mainlines is far from obvious.
4...de4 is definitely the thematic way for Black to handle the position.
pfren, What do you think of the Greek camp who play the 3 Nd2 Tarrasch?
A novelty is a move that goes to the core of the opening strategy [control of the center (d4,e4,d5,e5)] that has been consdered correct for at least decades. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 (does not fit in the category of novelty). 3...Be7 contributes to development, but does not contribute to control of the center under either Classical or Hypermodern Theory. 3...c5 however does. It contrbutes to control of the central square d4 directly by the pawn at c5. And, indirectly to control of d4 by the DSB at f8.
Siegbert Tarrasch initiated and contributed to the opening which is named after him (THE T-R-A-S-H) with 3.Nd2. He started playing it because he got tired of being crushed like the proverbial grape after playing 3.Nc3 and Black responded with 3...Bb4 (THE WIN-A-WAR) Winawer.
I don't want to get too bogged down in semantics, but:
novelty
noun: novelty
1.
the quality of being new, original, or unusual.
Well, 3...Be7 is unusual, and 4.c4 is pretty darn new. Questions?
And prfen, what I said was - with this move Black is basically telling White "that Knight looks goofy on d2" - other moves which intend to prove that the knight is badly placed include 3...Ne7, and even 3...h6?! (Anand - Nakumara, Zurich 2014).
Hi HeyokaSmiles!
I would just like to say that Be7 in fact is not a novelty at all, and is considered by many european countries to be the best response to the tarrasch (which is safer than Nc3 and statistacally better than e5). Be7's popularity is slowly rising and whislt it will take many years for it to knock off ..c5 and ..Nf6, it will most likely get there as it is a really good move. Of course i have not seen c4 before but it was an interesting idea!
Feel free to post any new experiences with Be7 in future though!
Sep 21, 2015
0
#11
3...Be7 is the principal recommendation in The Flexible French (2008) and The Modern French (2012). 4.c4 is an interesting response.
Yep, 20 months later and I'm investing a lot in the Morozevich variation. :P
In this game, Black played Be7 in response to what I consider to be the dreaded Tarrasch (which is why I play it - an enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that). It's been explained to me that with this move Black is basically telling White "that Knight looks goofy on d2" (well, in essence) and simply developing a piece in response. I'd previously thought about the best comical (myself being a comedian above all else, of course) response to this somewhat truculent move, and decided to tell Black "well it's about to get goofier, Jack." - c4
The database records two games with c4, one draw and one win for Black, so I'm by no means recommending this move - but I do consider this to be a moral victory of sorts - obviously if I'd lost I'd probably be doing a topic on "the dangers of comedy in Chess". d: