What's New- February '01
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Welcome to this month's update. In response to readers' requests I shall concentrate this month on the Advance with 5...Qb6 and next month analyse the Winawer with 5...Ba5. |
Advance
Judging from the recent voting on Chesspublishing.com everyone wants to look at the Advance 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 with 5...Qb6.
            
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Naturally the transpositional possibilities are enormous and many of the games already given on the site with the move order 5...Bd7 could easily transpose to 5...Qb6 lines. I have reminded you of some important game references in what follows.
Scenario One:
White aims for b2-b4 with 6 a3
Now Black has the choice between closing the position with 6...c4, keeping things fluid with 6...Nh6 or playing 6...a5!?
Option One: the blocking 6...c4.
After blocking the position in this way Black will no doubt wish that he had played 5...Bd7 rather than 5...Qb6. Then he could have left his queen on d8 and carried out the plan of Na5, Bc6, Qd7 and Ba4 that worked out so well in Nunn-King.
However, his chances are by no means bad. This month I have selected a typical battle in this line- have a look at Rytshagov-Socko, in which White's attacking aspirations are unable to breach Black's solid light square defences.
Option Two: the fluid 6...Nh6
Now 7 b4 cxd4 8 cxd4 Nf5 9 Bb2 Bd7 is Short-Lputian, while 9...Be7 by a long transposition would reach Rytshagov-Pedersen. Black only played Qb6 on move nine! Confusing isn't it? Don't worry though as besides these games you can find more explanation of the line on the Advance subpage entitled 'Mainline: White aims for b2-b4'.
Option Three: the restraining 6...a5!?
In this line Black isn't prepared to allow White to advance b2-b4 unchallenged but then neither does he want to block everything up. A couple of recent games involving Korchnoi and Anand have made this seem an interesting alternative for Black. In fact it's nice to see Anand on the Black side of the French again after all the damage he has done to our favourite opening over the last year! In his Tehran Match the new FIDE World Champion took a risk in grabbing White's d pawn in Milner-Barry style. Post game analysis indicated that Shirov missed the chance to keep a dangerous initiative. Have a look at Shirov-Anand.
Scenario Two:
White plays the quieter 6 Be2
After 6 Be2 cxd4 7 cxd4 Nh6 was given in Mastering the French by Andrew Harley and myself as perfectly OK for Black. The point is that 8 Bxh6? can be answered with with 8...Qxb2 and 8.Na3? with 8...Bxa3. Therefore in contrast to the line 5...Bd7 6 Be2 Nge7 White cannot consolidate his centre with 7 Na3 and 8 Nc2.
Unfortunately for Black this isn't the whole story. In Mastering after the alternative 8 Nc3!? we gave the long simplifying variation 8...Nf5 9.Na4 Qa5+ 10.Bd2 Bb4 11.Bc3 b5 12.a3 Bxc3+ 13.Nxc3 b4 14.axb4 Qxb4 15.Bb5 Bd7 as equal. However, examining this again it now looks to me less than comfortable for Black after 16.Bxc6 Bxc6 17 Qd2 Bb5 18.Nxb5 Qxb5 19.Ra5 Qb6 20.0-0 etc. Whilst it may be OK, it's not surprising that many players seek to avoid such a prospectless position. Have a look at what happens to Black in Nunn-Schmittdiel.
In any case, most Black players prefer to retain counterchances with 6...Bd7 when 7 Na3 cxd4 8 cxd4 Bxa3 is best avoided by White. So standard is 7 0-0, when for example 7...Nge7 8 Na3 [8 dxc5 is interesting] 8...cxd4 9 cxd4 Nf5 10 Nc2 has transposed to the first diagram on the 'Mainline: White keeps the tension' subpage. You can find further analysis on that page.
Scenario Three:
White plays 6 Bd3
The most popular anti-Milner-Barry sequence among titled players is 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Qb6 8.0-0 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Nc3 a6, when play usually continues 11.Qe2 Ne7 12.Kh1 Nc6 13.f4 Bc5. Black has to remember to play g7-g6 to prevent either f4-f5 or Qh5 and also to prepare to evacuate his queen from the centre with Ba7 and Qb6 at some stage. Assuming he takes both of these precautions I don't see any problems for him. In the game selected White- incidentally a GM rated 70 points above his opponent- never seems to have compensation for the pawn. Have a look at Golod-Barsov.
Scenario Four:
Black's sneaky move order delaying Nc6.
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Nf3 Bd7
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One minor plus point of this move order is that Black has ruled out the idea 4...Nc6 5 Be3 Qb6 6 Qd2.
If now 6 Be2 Black can play 6....Bb5 or just 6...Nc6. Then if 7 a3 the fact that White has committed his bishop to e2 already cuts down his options. For example if 7...c4 White doesn't have the plan of a fianchetto on g2 as after 6 a3 c4 7 g3 etc.
So White normally responds 6 a3 when very interesting is 6...a5!? to restrain 7 b4 whilst also preparing Bb5. This has been analysed via a transposition in Illijin-Vakhidov. It is similar in spirit to Anand's 6...a5 in Scenario One, Option Three above.
Finally in the Advance, we look at an instructive game from the recent Wijk aan Zee tournament. Van Wely doesn't normally play the French but was probably persuaded by his poor record versus Shirov as Black in the Sicilian to give it a go. Unfortunately for the Dutchman he makes a serious positional error that allows White to gain a winning attack. Have a look at Shirov-Van Wely.
Tarrasch 3...Nf6: 5 Bd3
When I play the 3...Nf6 as Black I usually adopt the move order with an early Qc7. This is designed to prevent White forcing the exchange of Black's dark squared bishop with Bf4 . However, in the mainline after 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.Nf3 Qc7 11.0-0 Bd6 White can still persevere with the plan of Bf4 with the preparatory 12.g3.
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This can lead to very dynamic play after 12...0-0 13 Bf4 Ng4. In some lines Black will sacrifice the exchange on f4. White is unlikely to be mated, but on the other hand his exposed king will hamper his efforts to coordinate his pieces. Alternatively Black will try to conquer the centre with e6-e5. This will leave him with an isolated pawn on d5, but analysis indicates that the weaknesses on White's kingside- on f3 and h3 in particular- will give Black more than ample counterplay. In the game here White suffers a quick disaster on f3. Have a look at the variations in Vink-Gurevich.
Tarrasch 3...Be7
Devotees of this line will know by now that the crux of the matter is the position reached after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.Bd3 c5 5.dxc5 Nf6 6.Qe2 Nc6 7.Ngf3. Now instead of the critical 7....Nb4 or the safe 7...Bxc5 we shall examine further 7...a5!?
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In Asrian-Lputian. given in an earlier update White responded 8 0-0 0-0 9 c4 but didn't achieve much. More testing is 8 a4! stopping Black's a-pawn in its tracks. Thereafter White should try to hold onto his extra pawn when the question is whether Black can achieve active play or has to be satisfied with a slightly passive position. In this month's example White ducks the most challenging continuation and the result is yet another nice win for Black. Have a look at Ripari-Drasko. which also analyses the critical line.
Classical
4 Bg5 dxe4 5 Nxe4 Be7 6 Bxf6 gxf6
Here we see the Russian prodigy Radjubov play an improvement on a game by Shirov and Topalov that was recommended on this site. The result is a very convincing win for Black that brings the whole variation back to life. Now the pressure is back on White to prove that he can gain the advantage here. Have a look at Belotti-Radjabov.
Thanks to Chris Sergel for sending me a very interesting commentary to one of his games which I shall include in a forthcoming update.
The Exchange
Some years ago I was anxious when weaker opponents played the French Exchange against me. At Tbilisi in 1986 a USSR Master played the Exchange against me as White. I felt disgusted and he seemed uninterested so I offered a draw straightaway. He politely declined and then told me after the game that the Exchange contained a lot of poison. Still, I did the right thing as David Bronstein once told me that a common Russian trick is to play a dull opening and try to look half asleep. Then when the opponent gets careless the 'sleepy' opponent suddenly pounces! In such cases he said you should always regain the psychological initiative by offering them a draw.
I stopped being afraid of the French Exchange when I realised that the games never just burnt out to a dull draw- something always happened at some point or other. The important thing is that Black shouldn't try to force anything. In the words just play good solid chess and turn down all draw offers!
I like Ian Rogers' play as Black in the game selected here. He plays in a calm, almost sleepy style himself, but when the moment is right he strikes very hard and scores a very quick victory. Have a look at Castaldo-Rogers.
So it's time to say goodbye for another month. I hope you found something interesting here and good luck in your chess!
Best Wishes,
Neil