Thanks for sharing that, pfren. 14.f5 is clearly stronger than 14.Ra2, which Watson gives. More to the point than the h2-h4-h5 plan. I am impressed with how white's initiative persists, even with diminished material. A lot for me to chew on here.
Old fox Hertneck has played a more viable line in a rapid game:
Black's position is not terribly pleasant, but at least it does not lose by force, which is the case for the other line after 14.f5.
I currently don't have an opponent
I lost the e5 game - @ThrillerFan is an ace at exploiting the open files:
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/daily/342877525?tab=analysis
Main problem was that I didn't see that I had to eject the bishop from d6 immediately. I was worried that if 14. ..Bc7?! 15. Ba6 was troublesome, so I went right on to the kingside pawn storm, which in this case wasn't nearly fast enough. I did see the exchange sac 15. Rxb6 and thought (incorrectly) that I could weather that by giving back the exchange later on d6.
The engine doesn't malign the queenside castle, but I seriously should have known better. Pretty much hopeless from move 14. Good example of how a "wrecked" pawn structure can provide excellent attacking lines. White's pawns are awful in this line of the Petroff, but the piece activity he gains is more than adequate compensation.
Putting up a much better fight in the French game. That will be fun to review when it's finished.
I lost the e5 game - @ThrillerFan is an ace at exploiting the open files:
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/daily/342877525?tab=analysis
Main problem was that I didn't see that I had to eject the bishop from d6 immediately. I was worried that if 14. ..Bc7?! 15. Ba6 was troublesome, so I went right on to the kingside pawn storm, which in this case wasn't nearly fast enough. I did see the exchange sac 15. Rxb6 and thought (incorrectly) that I could weather that by giving back the exchange later on d6.
The engine doesn't malign the queenside castle, but I seriously should have known better. Pretty much hopeless from move 14. Good example of how a "wrecked" pawn structure can provide excellent attacking lines. White's pawns are awful in this line of the Petroff, but the piece activity he gains is more than adequate compensation.
This line is covered in New In Chess Yearbook 134. The same author covers another article on 6.O-O in NICY 136. Both covered in 2020 (2020 was NICY 134-137).
I lost the e5 game - @ThrillerFan is an ace at exploiting the open files:
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/daily/342877525?tab=analysis
Main problem was that I didn't see that I had to eject the bishop from d6 immediately. I was worried that if 14. ..Bc7?! 15. Ba6 was troublesome, so I went right on to the kingside pawn storm, which in this case wasn't nearly fast enough. I did see the exchange sac 15. Rxb6 and thought (incorrectly) that I could weather that by giving back the exchange later on d6.
The engine doesn't malign the queenside castle, but I seriously should have known better. Pretty much hopeless from move 14. Good example of how a "wrecked" pawn structure can provide excellent attacking lines. White's pawns are awful in this line of the Petroff, but the piece activity he gains is more than adequate compensation.
This line is covered in New In Chess Yearbook 134. The same author covers another article on 6.O-O in NICY 136. Both covered in 2020 (2020 was NICY 134-137).
I don't have this issue of NICY, but I do know that Arno Nickel introduced this in ICCF practice some 15-16 years ago.
It does not promise an advantage, but it's quite tricky, I guess a good choice for OTB chess.
I was White in this game on ICCF last year against IM Jorge Eduardo Deforel (2244)
I was White in this game on ICCF last year against IM Jorge Eduardo Deforel (2244)
Nice game. 9...Be6 while natural may already be inaccurate.
Well, I feel better, knowing I have good company.
I was White in this game on ICCF last year against IM Jorge Eduardo Deforel (2244)
Nice game. 9...Be6 while natural may already be inaccurate.
Then maybe 9...0-0 is best. The strongest game I could find in the database in this line was a rapid game played by kramnik from the black side:
White just blundered with Ra6 at the end, but black's prospects didn't seem too bad.
Here's the French game with Guinea
I just love getting winning positions vs you and then squandering the advantage lmao
@ThrillerFan - looks like not exchanging rook on c1 was the major issue, I think you were slightly stronger until then:
https://www.chess.com/game/daily/342877497
Of course, 23. ..c5? was a disaster, but it's a natural-looking move. Not getting castled in time can ruin a game right quick (I know, I've had it happen to me plenty of times).
Another theme here is the key liability of the bishop pair - the inability to converge on key squares. Bishop & knight can support each other better than the bishops can. You can see how fast the e1 knight comes alive at the end here.
In any case, just happy to score a point, and extremely proud to win against your French Defense. Still got some useful ideas to employ when opponents use the Advance Variation against me, but this result does seem to support Nimzowitsch's suggestion that the Advance is white's best play for advantage against the French.
Mystifying that the engine recommends 17. Rxf4?! (which is an exchange sac because of 17. ..Bg5), I don't see the positional compensation on that line being adequate, even though it scores it as a solid plus for white. The engine is usually bad a positional analysis, but this one seems especially glaring to me.
g2 was a blunder as oponent could hv taken my pawn and then wtih knight canceling my whole idea of taking the free pawn then on move 21 oponent went for the bishop but by giving the check i had easily gotten away wit hit and then on the next move he blundered his knight move 41 oponent had to keep his rook there i would hv made a queen but it would not hv been discovered chack after that it was a simlpe mate pls help me analyse more of it ty
The French Hertneck is currently in grave trouble.
The nice move 14.f5!! which gives white a huge positional advantage was found by 3-times correspondence WC Aleksandr Dronov. Since his introduction back in 2015, the OTB score isn't very pleasant for Black: Zero wins, one draw, and 18 losses (5.2%).