Why no 7...g6 in the Winawer Retreat Line?

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Avatar of Derived

In the

http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/C18_French_Defense_Winawer_Variation_Retreat__Variation_Armenian_Line

If White plays Qg4, why doesn't Black respond with g6? Kf8 would lose the ability to castle and Ne7 loses two pawns, so why isn't g6 played?

Avatar of Dutchday

It's unclear what you mean, you might want to use the poster functions next time. Fact is g6 leaves black with the horrid weaknesses on the dark squares. You keep the pawns, but the position isn't any safer. After the common Ne7 Qxg7 Rg8 black is active, so the weak squares just matter a lot less. That's all I can say without knowing the details. In general it's just an unpleasant and passive position.