French defence Korchnoi gambit

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?

I would analyze 13...Qxb2 with an engine - what does it tell you?

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.

! lol

>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...

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+.

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 :-))

Like this:

I was doing some research on the Korchnoi Gambit and I immediately saw that 13...Qxb2 has some potential problems for Blk. he doesn't know what to play.  It clear on Fritz that the only blk. move that gives =/+ after 14.Rab1 or 14.Rfb1, is 14...Qa3 and after 15.Qc2, a6 16.Rfc1, b5 17.Rb3, Qa4 18.Nd4, 0-0 19.Bxh7+ = equal.  The question is whether you want this kind of position.

14. a3 is a draw, but the move you give of 14. Rab1 is definitely the move to fight on with. It looks like black has to find some pretty accurate moves and whites pieces become extremely active.

oldenglish80024oz wrote:

I was doing some research on the Korchnoi Gambit and I immediately saw that 13...Qxb2 has some potential problems for Blk. he doesn't know what to play.  It clear on Fritz that the only blk. move that gives =/+ after 14.Rab1 or 14.Rfb1, is 14...Qa3 and after 15.Qc2, a6 16.Rfc1, b5 17.Rb3, Qa4 18.Nd4, 0-0 19.Bxh7+ = equal.  The question is whether you want this kind of position.

eat shit, im killing you fuckers

7... g5! Anyone has a good reply against this move?

8.h3 and I'm not sure what's next since it doesn't seem like 8...h5 will work. Or will it?

I guess the most optimal result for White is a draw...

After your 17. ...Qa2?? Black loses after 18.Qd1!