art of planning (French def.) part 9/25

Please note that all the info. in this post are taken from outside sources, they will be mentionned in the last section (special thanks and others sources section)..AND DON'T FORGET TO ALWAYS LOOK FOR COMMENTS UNDER EACH DIAGRAMS!!!

                                                        French defence

   The French often has a reputation of the solidity and resilience, though it can result in a somewhat cramped game for Black in the early stages. Largely, Black often gains counterattacking possibilities on the Queenside while White tends to concentrate their forces on the Kingside.

Zoom out section:

In this post, we will study about 8 differents variations of this defence.  They will be the Rubinstein variation, the Burn variation, the Tarrasch variation, the classical variation, the Winawer variation, the exchange variation, the Milner-Barry gambit and finally, exceptionaly in the to be avoided section, the Alekhine-Chatard attack.

Zoom in section:

1- Rubinstein variation section:

Now, let's just take a look at one of our favorite player: the World Champ. Vishy Anand lashing out at his opponent. Keep in mind, this is a Blindfold game!...

The next one will be a strong positional display from Grand Master Evgeny Alekseev outplaying the strong Azerbaijani Grand Master and former World Junior Champion Mamedyarov...

Now, let's examine a strange looking line where after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ Black plays the surreal 5...gxf6!? instead of the logical 5...Qxf6.  Why would Black damage his pawn structure on the King's side?  The answer is similar to the variation Tal used to play in his World Championship match vs. Botvinnik in 1960 (1.e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4. h3 Bxf3 5. gxf3!?) In both cases the damage to your pawn structure is the price you pay to open the 'g' file and bring the 'g' pawn to control important central squares. In our French line, Black hopes to attack the White King along the 'g' file if White castles 0-0, and also the f6 pawn controls the very important 'e5' square.  Will these ideas outweigh the permanent damage to your pawn structure?

Even if White castles Queen's side, away from the dangerous 'g' file, it is still not a guarantee against a possible attack against his King. See what happened in the following game:

 2- Burn variation section:

3- Tarrasch variation section:

We just saw in the Rubinstein section that the combined attack along the diagonal 'a8-h1' and the 'g' file is the main idea of Black's setup.  The following game played by two strong modern GMs reenforced this fact one more time.

4- Classical variation section:

5- Winawer variation section:

The Black plans is Winawer variation is to break up the White center and to gain the initiative at the expense of a broken pawn position on the Kingside..This defense gives Black slightly more initiative than other variations of the French., it was often played by Botvinnik.

6- Exchange variation section:

7- Milner-Barry gambit section:

 Youtube "excellent link" section:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGraEP2Clj8

To be avoided section:





 Personnal's games section:

     The next game is an online games, played here at chess.com..

 the second one is an LIVE game, again played here at chess.com...

 And this one is also a live chess game played here at chess.com

More about planning section:

French defense:(1.e4-e6 2.d4-d5)

For White: - Try to gain the control of e5 and indeed pressure against d5 and e6.

                - White plan will be of using his advanced centre to aid him in an attack on the King.  And here, he will also be helped by the fact that Black pawn skeleton shuts in Queen Bishop, thereby depriving it of any real future.

               - White cannot ignore d5

For Black:  - Try acounter-attack on d4

-         Black plan will be to strike at the base of white advanced center, wich may be a strike on the square d4 or c3 according to circumstances.

-         Black's primary strategy in large in French def. is to attack the base of the chain of pawns.

Quebecor's games section:

Nathalia Pogonina's games section:

Special thanks section:

I just wanna said a BIG SPECIAL THANKS at Borgqueen, thanks my friend for give me some good ideas for the structure of this post..

AND ALSO, a BIG THANKS at:  

thamizhan, Gserper, Arunabi, FM_Eric_Schiller, mircea_1956, ChessRenewal, Pogape and Oldbill !! Thank you all for make this topic possible!!! IMP!!!!! NOTE...The thamizhan, Gserper, Arunabi, FM_Eric_Schiller content's was a GREAT HELP!!! THANKS..

Others references:

-ChessMaster 10

-Fritz 10

-Chess books       - My system by Aron Nimzowitsch

                         - Chess Masteur vs Chess Amateur by Max Euwe

                         - My greats predecessors by Garry Kasparov

                         - website "federation quebecoise des échecs" database

- youtube                                                         

-www.pogonina.com 

-wikipedia

That's ALL for the French defence!.. I hope you had appreciated ;)

 C_H_E_S_STAR