So close and yet... so far

Hello all - my latest attempt to eek my way up the USCF rating ladder to 2200 hit a roadblock last night when I botched a winning position at the local club against an underrated A-player.  In a misguided attempt to exorcise the angst of this latest debacle I will now annotate the game for the schadenfreudian amusement of chess.com.

John Chernoff (2144) vs. Steve Jenkins (1930), Arcata Chess Club 2/6/12

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5

I sometimes get the feeling that the Advance French is one of those openings where both sides are losing.

4. c3 Nc6
5. Nf3 Bd7

Slightly irregular, perhaps - 5...Qb6 is the most common move.  However, since I was going to play 6. Be2 against that, I played it against this, which might be less to the "point" since d4 is under less immediate pressure now.

6. Be2 cxd4
7. cxd4 Bb4+

OK, this is definitely odd.  In the "main" line, this check occurs in a position where White has little choice but to move his K to f1, but here it's hardly so clear.  After waaaaaay too much thought I decided that since I had prepared to play Kf1 is the "normal" lines that I would stick to a familiar strategic idea and play it here as well.  Also, 8. Nc3 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Na5! wasn't entirely clear to me, for Black's queenside play organizes itself rather rapidly and my Bishops aren't particularly "swoopy".

8. Kf1 Nge7

In retrospect this leads to awkwardness, so perhaps just 8...Be7 is a better approach to the position.

9. h4! Qa5?!

I very much liked the ideas behind 9.h4, of which there were at least two: 1) To deny Black a foothold on f5 with h4-h5 and an eventual g2-g4, and 2) to possibly activate the R on h1 on h3.  In response Black should have secured f5 for his Kt with 9...h5, after which there might follow 10. a3! Qa5! (10...Ba5?! 11.Bg5! is awkward) 11.Nbd2 and White has a minuscule advantage.

10. h5! h6

In contrast to the above, Black no longer has a secure outpost for his e7 Knight, and in fact is experiencing difficulties developing any of his pieces to useful squares.  On the other hand, this  paradoxically limits White's development as well, since there's no simple was to bring out his QN (and thus his QR as well) without allowing Black to exchange off his most awkward bishop on b4.

11. a3 f6!

Perhaps Black's only reasonable bid for play.

12. exf6 gxf6 13. Bf4!

White denies Black's Bishop a retreat on d6.

13... Nf5?

Useless, since White immediately drives this piece off, and "provoking" g4 only serves to create a tactical chance which I, alas, miss completely.

14. g4 Nfe7
15. Qb3!

This move, threatening both 16.Ra2! and/or 16.axb4! should for all intents and purposes win the Bishop on b4. Unfortunately, I failed to notice that 14.g4 allows my King to "castle", thus creating a trap for the Black Q. 

15... Nc8?

This should lose.  15... Rg8 was forced, when Black has some murky compensation for the lost Bishop after 16. Ra2 Rxg4 17. axb4 Qxb4 18. Qe3 Nf5 19. Qc1 Rc8 20. Nc3 Na5 etc.

16. Qe3?

Augh. I had spent so much time in previous positions trying to make axb4 "work" that when it actually does I was moving too quickly to notice anymore.  Anyhow,  16. axb4! Qxa1 17. Kg2 Rg8 18. Nc3 Rxg4+ 19. Bg3 Nxd4 20. Nxd4 Qxh1+ 21. Kxh1 Rxd4 22. Qc2! was completely and utterly winning.  Now, however, the game devolves back into a quagmired glop of uncoordinated pieces and tactical mirages.

16... Nd6!?

I didn't expect this idea of gambiting the h-pawn to create central play with ...Ne4, and with minutes left on my clock I really didn't know how to react.  As it turns out, the complications after 17. Bxh6 favor White, but who could rapidly calculate such lines as 17. Bxh6 Rg8 18. Nfd2 Bxd2 19. Nxd2 Qb6 20. Nb3 Nc4 21. Qc3 e5! 22.dxe5 N6xe5 23. f3 f5 24. Bxc4 Nxc4 25.Re1+ Kd8 26. Be3 Qb5 27. h6!! and so forth?

17. Nbd2?!

Instead I make a pragmatic decision to deny Black an outpost on e4 and hope for the best.

17... Bxd2 18. Nxd2

18... Nf7?!

More obnoxious would have been 18... e5!, e.g. 19. dxe5 d4 20. Qd3 fxe5 21. Qg6+ Nf7 22. Bc4 O-O-O 23. b4 Qc7 24.Bxf7 Ne7 25. Bxe5 Qxe5 26. Rc1+ Kb8 27. Qe4 Qg5 etc.

19. Bd3?!

There are much more urgent matters to attend to than pointing the B towards g6.

19...O-O-O 20. Rc1 e5!

My opponent accompanied this excellent move with a draw offer that I, with under five minutes on my clock, was more or less bound to accept. Play might have continued 21.Bg3 Rhg8 22. f3 Qb6 23. b4 Kb8 24. Nb3 Ka8 25. Rc5 Ng5 26. Kg2 Nxf3 27. Rb5 Qa6 28. Ra5 Qb6 29. Rb5 Qa6 with a draw in any event.

1/2-1/2

***

So, what to conclude from this game?  First, I simply cannot philosophize about the merits of, say, 8.Nc3 vs. 8.Kf1 for an hour in a 90 minute game.  I realize that such early decisions are often at crucial strategic moments, but there are times you simply have to trust your instincts and move.  Second, panicking when time pressure starts to manifest itself makes it much harder to think clearly and rapidly when really needing to.  Finally, I should never play the first move that springs to mind to "catch up" on time unless under 2-3 minutes, for the chess Gods will always, always, ALWAYS, see to it that I, in doing so, overlook some brilliantly winning move.

Bah.

***

Entire replayable game follows:

That Steve Jenkins is pretty formidable! I know from personal experience!

I don't think you should fart during a serious game though - it's a little unfair on the opponent. At least leave the table for a minute (unless you're in time trouble of course - which of course is just the time when the bowels will be at their shakiest).

I think I farted sort of metaphorically in this game.

Hey, who changed the title of my post?

OK, I assume chess.com did because it had the word "fart" in it.  But that's completely unacceptable - what I write is for me to edit, not them.  If they have a problem with a word I use, they can tell me, but it's completely wrong on a basic level to change it without notice, especially since it transforms the entire tone of the subject from mildly humorous to trite.

And makes a nonsense of my post! :)

Is it silly for me to be irritated by this?  I feel like words have been put in my mouth without anyone telling me.

I dont think its right either. I could understand editing out a swear word beacuse it might cause offence but nobody is going to be offended by the word fart. you could complain to staff.

I dunno.  On one hand, it's obviously not an earth shattering event to turn "fart" to "far", though it does alter the entire tone of my headline.  Anyhow, what I'm most annoyed about is that I wasn't in any way informed of the change.

I can not understand at all at least half the moves played after 8.Kf1, but then I do not understand why you preferred it over 8.Nc3, either.

Well, it's hard to explain, but the general gist is that, after 8.Nc3, play might continue like so:

And I wasn't sure how White generates a real attack while also tending to the sickly c3 pawn.  I mean, yes, optically the B on a3 looks good, but how long can it remain on that diagonal with ...Nc4 looming on the horizon?

Anyhow, in retrospect, yes, 8.Nc3 was probably (OK, almost certainly) better than 8.Kf1, but at the time the decision wasn't easy for me to make, perhaps due to my inexperience with this opening (it was the first time I had played the advance variation OTB).  Well, that and my general insanity.

This plan is positional suicide for Black. After 9.Ba3! he is already in trouble (weak dark squares). It can also be applied as you suggest, but I can't find some useful function for a rook on b1.

Yes, I agree and would play 8.Nc3 in the future, but, again, at the time it wasn't entirely clear I could maintain the a3 Bishop with ...Nc4 coming (in hindsight it appears I can via Nd2 and so forth) and decided to avoid the awkward c3 pawn.  Still dumb, I suppose, but that's the best explanation I can manage for it.

P.S. -> Actually, the more I look at the position at the end of the variation I gave after 8.Nc3 the better White appears to be, so, yes, 8.Kf1 was pretty silly.

If you find the pawn on c3 "dumb" then you probably should avoid playing the French advance alltogether.

Really?  How often does White have a pawn like that in the French advance?  Usually White has an excellent pawn structure in that opening - it's one of the main (perhaps only!) selling points of it, I think.  King structure, well, that's another story...

Also, FWIW, I never said I found the c3 pawn "dumb".  In fact, what I called "dumb" was my decision to avoid it!

It's much preferrable to have a pawn on c3 (the open c-file) which can be easily protected, than having that pawn on b2 and having to watch Black piling on the d4 poawn with nc6/Qb6/Nh6-f5. Usually the weak point of white's is the base of the central pawn chain, and in most circumstances d4 can prove being weaker than c3 is here.

That pawn structure is common in both the advance French, and some variations of the Alapin and Rossolimo Sicilians. The pawn should not be considered as a weakness as long as white has active piece play.

What can I say - in hindsight, I completely agree.  At the time, however, the position felt distressingly unfamiliar to me since a typical Advance French almost never seems to feature a backward pawn on the c file (at least not early on) and I lacked the experience to estimate how much compensation my piece activity might provide. 

Anyhow, thanks for your helpful comments - they're much appreciated.

P.S. -> I don't know if this clarifies much, but my impression of an ideal "French Advance" sort of pawn structure would be something along the lines of this:

OK, I was just re-reading this, and am now actually a bit confused by it.  First off, as the game went, White's d4 was never seriously undermined nor was there any obvious (to me at any rate) way for Black to do so.  Of course there are other lines of this opening where White has to endure a lot of pressure there, but if the issue here is simply which pawn structure is more secure after move eight of this specific game, I'd have to say the one after 8.Kf1 (which isn't of course to say it's the better move).

Also, I could be wrong, but my impression is still that a backwards pawn on c3, while again not necessarily disadvantageous for W, is hardly common in the Advance French.  Can anyone show a line indicating otherwise?

The question is which of these pawn structures is more favorable for white. In the red diagram there is a weak pawn on c3, in the green diagram there is a weak pawn on d4. Whereas the weak pawn on c3 is easy to defend, e.g. by Qc2, Bd2/Bb2, Rfc1 and White's pieces are still fairly active, with a weak pawn on d4 it is not so simple. Of course white does not want to play Be3, so he may have to play b3 and Bb2. Black will try to attack the d-pawn with Qb6, Ne7-f5. He may also get his rooks on the c-file, and white's kingside attack should not be very dangerous.

On the other hand in the red diagram Black will still be trying to put his rooks on the c-file and control c4, but White will then have play on the b-file and he can play Ba3. The bishop on a3 may assist in a future kingside attack.

Hmm.  While the above is absolutely true in many circumstances, I have to say that in my specific game it isn't - White's "isolated" d4 in the first instance was never in danger due to Black's mixed up development, and in the second instance c3 was in fact very difficult to defend, though as has been pointed out several times now, that issue is probably trumped by White's beautiful dark squared Bishop.