Saturday, August 4, 2018

The French Connection: Volume 12

Hello and welcome to the twelfth edition of The French Connection. Those of you that have read Part Four of the French Repertoire back in the fall of 2017 will know that I heavily covered the McCutcheon Variation (Click Here to view that article). That said, we have yet to see this line in The French Connection series. That will all change now as we will be seeing it here as well as the following two editions of The French Connection, each featuring different lines and different attempts at attack by White, but we will also see that Black ends up successful every time, and so the near future will be a treat for McCutcheon fans.

In the current edition, we will see White following the absolute main line through the first 10 moves, but then try to play something unusual at move 11, and what we will be seeing in this edition is a display of just enough defense to survive an early sacrificial attack by White which will include the Black King going for a walk. Once the Black King is safe, we will see what Black needs to do when facing passed pawns along with the concept of multiple weaknesses and overworking of the White pieces, particularly the White Queen.

So without further ado, let's see what we have here.


Kansas Open, Round 4
W: Cub Rollin-Lloyd Noble (1752)
B: Patrick McCartney (2050)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.bxc3 Ne4 8.Qg4 g6 9.Bd3 Nxd2 10.Kxd2 c5



So what we have here is the absolute main line of the 8...g6 variation (Black could also have played 8...Kf8 = you can find this in many of Korchnoi's games) of the French McCutcheon. Note that Black's last move is absolutely necessary for two reasons. One is that the Black King will suffocate without it as White will sacrifice a piece, likely the Bishop, on g6 and the King will have nowhere to run. The other is that Black must immediately chip at White's center. With the White King on d2, Black would ideally like to get his King castled to the Queenside and have the center broken open. Obviously this isn't going to come easy to Black, but that's the idea.

11.Nh3

This move is extremely odd. Two other moves are far more common:
  1. 11.h4 Nc6 12.Nf3 (or 12.Qf4 cxd4 13.cxd4 Qa5+ 14.c3 b6 15.Qf6 Rg8 16.Ne2 Ba6 17.Bxa6 Qxa6 18.h5 Rc8 with a decent position for Black, Cespedes - Moskalenko, Catalunya 2008) and now Black has a choice between the same idea as after 12.Qf4, trading on d4 and playing for ...Qa5 and ...Ba6, or executing Korchnoi's idea and closing the center with 12...c4 13.Be2 Bd7 14.Qf4 Qe7 and now we see the main reason behind being willing to weaken the Kingside with 8...g6. Black plans to castle Queenside next, and in the game Panov - Korchnoi, Leningrad 1953, after 15.Qf6 O-O-O, Black went on to win.
  2. 11.Nf3 Qc7. (It should be noted that Black should alter course if White plays an early Nf3 and avoid 11...Nc6 because of 12.dxc5. White will set up a blockade with Qf4 and Nd4 and relying on play down the b-file.) Black's idea here is really sneaky. After the standard moves by White, 12.h4 cxd4 (Black should trade pawns here before putting the Knight on c6 for the same reason as the previous move) 13.cxd4 Nc6 14.Qf4, Black can take advantage of the pin on the e5-pawn and play 14...f5!, completely stopping White in his tracks.
  3. It should be noted that 11.dxc5 is no good for White. Black has not committed his Knight to c6 yet, and the move 11...Nd7! is very strong here with already a small advantage for Black and we are only 11 moves into the game!

So now when we encounter an unusual move, we need to think to ourselves what White might be after. We see in just about all the normal lines that White advances his h-pawn to build up an attack on Black's softened Kingside, and eventually, at a time when both ...g5 and ...gxh5 are not good for Black, White wants to play h5. Here, the h-pawn is blocked, and in order to advance it, White will have to move the Knight again. Playing for f2-f4-f5 does not appear to make much sense here, and so it is presumed that White will be moving his Knight to f4 in the near future, with possibly the idea of trying to sacrifice the Knight instead of the Bishop on either e6 or g6. Outside of this idea, 11.Nh3 makes no sense, and so Black's plan must incorporate this idea for White.

11...Nc6

White's last move does nothing to cover d4 or e5, and particularly the latter makes any fears of dxc5 a complete non-issue, and so Black can proceed with normal development and chip away at White's center.

12.Bb5

It is not usually a wise idea to trade away this Bishop for the Black Knight. Yes, it looks like a Good Knight vs Bad Bishop scenario, but that Bad Bishop sets up a very strong light-squared blockade, and with White's dark-squared Bishop gone, Black has little to worry about a dark-square attack. With this Knight gone, Black will shift his focus from attacking d4 to attacking the weak pawns on the c-file along with possibilities of getting the King out of dodge and expanding on the Kingside himself! It is not common for Black to execute play on that side of the board, but when White does something weird, sometimes it is best answered with something weird because that "weird" thing is not possible against the "norm", but White abandoned the "norm" and so other things become possible for Black!

Now we also know pretty much for certain that the Nf4 idea mentioned prior is White's goal with 11.Nh3.

Also note that 12.dxc5 is still no good here. After 12...Nxe5!, we do have to watch out for the pin with 13.Qd4, and realize that there is nothing to fear because after 13...f6, the move 14.Nf4 is ineffective as everything is easily covered, and in order to dislodge the Black Knight from e5, White must play 14.f4, occupying the square the Knight would like to go to, and after 14...Nxd3 15.cxd3, Black gets a slight advantage with 15...O-O! (Once again, we meet the odd with the odd - Black almost never castles Kingside, and I think in all the McCutcheon games that I have ever played, I have literally castled Kingside one time at Foxwoods back in 2004 - a game which I also won.)

12...Bd7 13.Bxc6 Bxc6 14.Nf4



Now we have a similar situation to that of Black's 12th move in The French Connection, Volume 10. We obviously must consider two glaring moves by White. 15.Nxg6 and 15.Nxe6. So here, let's pretend it is White to move. We can easily eliminate the first option as 15.Nxg6?? Rg8 immediately wins a piece for Black as there are no tricks here for White, such as counter-attacking the Black Queen with the Knight to be able to move the pinned piece. So this move can be ruled out. This leaves 15.Nxe6. The way things stand right now, this should not be a scare for Black. After 15.Nxe6 fxe6 16.Qxe6+, Black can safely interpose with 16...Qe7, and after 17.Qxg6+ Kd7, Black is perfectly safe, and to avoid the Queen trade next move, White would have to play 18.f4, but then 18...Rag8 19.Qf5+ Kc7 and Black is perfectly fine. Black can also answer 15.Nxe6 with 15...Qc8 with a fatal pin on the Knight. So as things stand right now, neither is a threat.

However, this is all fine and good if this was all White could do, and sitting back and doing nothing would solve all of Black's problems. That just isn't the case. White can advance the h-pawn to h4, lift the Rook to h3, and bring it into the attack as well. Also, Black must watch out for an eventual h5 by White, and also when the Rook comes into play to aid the Queen, many of these pins that we rely on just don't work. So Black can't sit back. So now we take the question a step further. What do we do as Black? Well, one possibility, and not a bad one, just not what was played in the game, is to continue to chip at White's center with 14...cxd4, because again, no threat by White is fatal to Black right now. After 15.cxd4, Black is looking at attacking down the c-file with moves like ...Rc8 and ...Ba4, in some order. If we can't find anything else for Black, this is likely what I would have played.

Let's take a look at a more adventurous possibility. In our lines of defense against 15.Nxg6 and 15.Nxe6, what did we need to do? Against 15.Nxg6, we had to make sure that either our Queen was covering the King, so a conservative move like 14...Qe7 should be ok as we just grab the Knight and go to d7 with the King. If the Queen is away not guarding the King or if the Queen is passive, like on d8, we have to make sure that a Knight from g6 is not attacking our Queen, and that it can't move to a square that would then attack our Queen or King, and in this case, our fatal pin with 15...Rg8 still works.

But what about 15.Nxe6? Let's say the Black Queen abandons the area. Should we fear 15.Nxe6? For this, let's just mentally assume the Black Queen wasn't there, but that we are not down material. Here, after 15.Nxe6, we can play the move 15...h5 if we want, which White can then play 16.Qh3 and force the same question, does 16...fxe6 17.Qxe6+ hurt us, or if the Queen were to go elsewhere, in which case after taking the Knight, we have to watch out for Qxg6+. Well, clearly we don't want to respond to either check with ...Kf8 as our King is too exposed. We also can never figure to go to d7 as ...Kd7 wouldn't even be legal against Qe6+ and against a Queen check on g6, going to d7 leads to a fatal fork with Qg7+, dropping the Rook on h8. Therefore, all Queen checks by White will result in us playing ...Kd8. From there, a check on d6 we can run to c8 with our King and our King is getting away. Instead, after Qf6, forking our King and Rook, we must lift our King up to c7 (again, Kd7 leads to the fatal Qg7+ fork), and now we see what our King is going to do. If we left the b6-square open for the King to run, we can hide on a6. If White answers Kc7 with a Rook to b1, we have time to get the a8-Rook out to e8, guarding the e6-pawn, and we see now why our Bishop on c6 is so strong, locking a dead bolt on any attacks against d5 or b7. Therefore, we do not need our Queen for defense provided that we do not put her on the b-file, prone to attack by a White Rook, and that we keep the c7 and b6 squares open. Therefore, we have now determined what our 14th move is.

14...Qa5!!

Making the absolute most out of our resources without getting our King killed!

15.Nxe6 h5 16.Qg5 fxe6 17.Qxg6+ Kd8

Once again, as mentioned prior, the only move as 17...Kf8 exposes the King too much and 17...Kd7?? loses on the spot to 18.Qg7+

18.Qf6+ Kc7 19.Qe7+ Kb6 20.Rab1+

Another idea that Black had to consider back on move 14 was 20.Rhb1+ Ka6 21.a4, with the idea that if Black did nothing, like 21...h4, that he would play 22.Rb5+ and Black can't play 22...Bxb5 because after 23.axb5+ Kxb5 (23...Kb6 24.Qxc5#) he is mated in 3 moves. That said, Black has 2 resources to get out of this. The first is that he doesn't have to take the Rook, and can play 21...h4 22.Rb5+ Qd8!. Stronger, however, is 21...Raf8 where now 22.Rb5 doesn't work because of 22...Rxf2+ 23.Ke3 (23.Kd3 c4+) Qxc3+ 24.Kxf2 Qxd4+ 25.Ke2 (25.Ke1 Qxa1+; 25.Kf1 Qxa1+; 25.Kf3 Rg8!) Qxe5+ 26.Kd2 Qd4+ 27.Ke2 Qxa1 and Black's winning.

20...Ka6



And on move 14, this was literally the position I envisioned (or possibly with the Rooks on a1 and b1 rather than b1 and h1). The hard part was figuring out whether or not White had anything better that made this position impossible to reach. We now see the importance of Black's supposed "Bad Bishop" on c6. It literally holds Black's position together. Now all Black really has to do is watch out for tricks on b5, and make sure b7 is amply covered. Otherwise, he can now do operations on the Kingside.

21.Rb3 Rhe8

The more adventurous 21...Rae8 also works, but the idea behind doing it with the h-Rook is that Black is ok with dropping the weak h-pawn, which would give White 3 pawns for the piece. That said, we still have every heavy piece on the board, and so advancing these passers will be very difficult to achieve. If this were an endgame, it would be much more of a problem for Black. Instead, Black wants to keep the other Rook to go to d8 if the White Queen tries to settle on d6, or if she tries to trade off on c5, which after the d-pawn is removed from d4, Black will put a Rook on d8 and advance the d-pawn, going after the White King.

22.Qh4

White goes after Black's h-pawn, but all pressure on b7 is gone. Hence Black's next move.

22...Ba4

This move serves many purposes. The first is to force the Rook to move elsewhere. Note that if the Rook tries to go to a3, then Black has 23...c4 and 24...b5 and the Queen is then free to move, and the Rook is permanently stuck on a3 and basically out of the game, and so going there is not an option. However, this excellent move serves two additional purposes. The first is that it prevents any ideas of pushing a4 by White, and if White can't advance the a-pawn, and Black can plug up the b-file with an eventual b5, White will never break through. Now this wouldn't be so hot, as Black has to use his Bishop to do this, if the Bishop didn't serve a second purpose, but here it does. It attacks the weak c2-pawn. This wouldn't be the end of the world for White to relinquish if it weren't for the fact that Black dominates the light squares with his pawns. Giving up the back pawn of a set of doubled pawns is not the end of the world if you can get a bunch of passed Kingside pawns rolling. However, it's not the pawn that is White's issue, it is the Bishop entering into the game with fatal effects. If Black can get that Bishop to a square like e4, or even d3, it's likely lights out for White. So White is going to have to constantly babysit c2 while trying to operate on the Kingside. With all of this, White doesn't even have time to attack down the b-file even if he could!

23.Rb2 c4 24.Qh5 Qc7!

Black stops all entry points to the 7th rank for the White Queen. The Black heavy pieces are all going to come to the Kingside as there is no need for the Black Queen to babysit the King any more given the blockade Black has built. Note that there is no reason for Black to rush the push of the pawn to b5. Black can always use this as a waiting move if he needs to waste a tempo, and also, if there is no pressure on the b-file, and no way to harass the Bishop on a4, why waste time making a protective move that isn't necessary? Get on with the attack on the Kingside!

25.f4

Now we absolutely cannot allow an f5-push by White without major consequences. Last thing Black wants to do is give White an advanced, protected passer on the e-file.

25...Qg7

But as you will see, prevention is often executed via counter-attack. White can't let the g-pawn fall just to get in f5.

26.Qf3 Rg8

Keep on hitting that g-pawn, forcing it to advance, and hence weakening the light squares.

27.g3 Raf8

Getting the last piece into the game. Now we start getting into the theme of overworked pieces. White wants to get his Kingside rolling, but let's not forget that c2-pawn that has to be babied.

28.Ke3

Trying to use the King as an additional aid to the rolling of the pawns.

28...Qh7

No sir! You get back there and guard that c-pawn!

29.Kc2 Qh3

Immobilizing the White pawns. None of them can advance.

30.Ke3

So once again, White tries to activate the King. Black's idea now will take two moves, giving White one free move, but there is nothing White can do here.

30...Rh8

The start of a tactical mission by Black, using the concept of overworked pieces.

31.a3

Pretty much a waiting move, seeing nothing else productive to play. White can try something like 31.Kf2 or 31.Qf1, but it's really hard to advise a move that actually does anything. Black has a dominating position here and is already winning. It's a matter of technique.

31...Rfg8



Now we see Black with a really nasty threat of 32...Rxg3, winning a pawn and virtually eliminating the only trump for White, which is the connected passers. White can't protect the h1-Rook with 32.Rbb1 as then the c2-pawn goes and the Bishop invades. His Rook can't leave h1 as after something like 32.Rhb1, there is no threat on the Black King, and giving up b7 is a non-issue because of 32...Qxh2 with the fatal threat of 33...Rxg3. Therefore, White tries to use the King to add cover to g3.

32.Kf2 Qf5

And now if it isn't one thing, it's something else. Back to c2 we go. The fact that White has two weaknesses far apart, c2 and g3, is causing his defense to be stretched thin, and the key thing is that with long range pieces, Black can often attack both at the same time. White is now pretty much forced to give up the c-pawn as what happens in the game, trying to cover c2, fails tactically. Here is where we see that the White Queen is over-worked and she can't cover two things at one time, and she needs to as the King doesn't do the job on g3.

33.Qe2?

Probably the best thing White can do is play 33.h4 (or Resign!), but Black's attack is just way too fast after 33...Bxc2.

33...Rxg3!!

This is the straw the broke the Camel's back!

34.Kxg3 Rg8+ 35.Kf2

Nothing works here. 35.Kh4 is mate in 3 after 35...Qxf4+ 36.Kh3 Qh6+ 37.Qh5 Qxh5 while 35.Kf3 fails to 35...Qh3+ 36.Kf2 Rg2+ and Black will take the Queen followed by the c3-pawn. With the move played, Black will tactically get his Rook back after having gained multiple pawns.

35...Qxf4+ 36.Qf3 Qd2+ 37.Kf1

Or 37.Qe2 Rg2+, getting the Queen with check and White's position will continue to fall apart.

37...Qc1+ 38.Kf2 Qxb2

White can safely resign here, but he played it out all the way to checkmate.

39.Re1 Qxc2+ 40.Re2 Qd1 41.Qf7

Black had threatened mate with 41...Qg1, but the move played leads to mate or else the Queen being lost. 41.Re1 might have been the least of the evils, but with the position being -13 according to artificial intelligence, there really is nothing White can do here.

41...Qg1+ 42.Kf3 Qf1+ 43.Rf2

White can prolong the game by four moves by giving up the Queen, but after 43.Ke3 Qxf7 44.Rf2, Black has mate in 5.

43...Qd3+ 44.Kf4 Qe4# 0-1


Wow! That game was a hand full! Here's what should be gotten out of this game:
  • When you encounter a strange move out of the opening (White's 11th move), ask yourself what his plan may be. Think about normal attacking themes in the opening being played, in this case White's normal desire to advance the h-pawn to soften the Black Kingside, and look for sacrifices, usually on g6, and to get at the Black King while he is slightly behind in development. In the game, we made sense out of White's 11th move, and planned accordingly.
  • When your opponent plays something odd, do not just automatically play conceptual moves based on the main line. This is why it is critical to fully understand an opening when you study openings and not just memorize lines. Remember the phrase "Garbage in, Garbage out". Often times garbage must be answered with something that might look like garbage from you as it's not the "normal" theme in the opening you are playing, but White didn't play normal, so why should you?
  • Calculate! Calculate! Calculate! That's what we did on Black's 14th move, and figured out a way to actively develop the Queen without getting our King killed. We figured out that the King needed the d8, c7, and b6 squares to escape, and while a move like 14...Qe7 would have been perfect fine, we went for a direct attack on White's center, forcing White to act quickly, which allowed us to escape with our King and then set up a barrier before shifting gears to the other side of the board.
  • When executing prevention type measures, like we did with placing the Bishop on a4, first determine if we are doing anything else. If all we are doing is stopping the opponent from doing anything, and aren't tying them down to anything else, we are virtually down a piece, especially in this case because any Rb4 move by White would have resulted in a ...b5 push by Black, hemming in the a4-Bishop, and so White could move all his pieces to the other side of the board, and we'd be virtually playing down a few pawns. However, here it played the vital role of attacking the c2-weakness, and distracting White from doing other things as he constantly had to keep c2 covered.
  • The theory of two weaknesses. It is usually fairly easy to cover a single weakness. With a single weakness, White would dispose of the idea of trying to win, and just permanently cover c2, and create a standoff. This is why the second weakness must be created, and the further away the weaknesses are, the better it is. In the game, once Black plugged up the Queenside and created the permanent weakness on c2, he proceeded to force White to weaken his pawn structure by forcing him to advance the g-pawn, putting all the pawns on dark squares and making the light squares weak. Black then used the concept of overworking the White pieces, forcing the h1-Rook to cover h2, the b2-Rook to cover c2, and the Queen to have to cover both g3 for tactical reasons along with c2. The Rooks became immobilized by their duties to cover a weakness each, and the Queen became overworked having to do two jobs at one time, and White's position eventually cracked.


Well, that concludes this article. Until next time, good luck in all your French games, Black or White!

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