Hello everyone and welcome to the twenty-first edition of The French Connection. Today, we are going to cover an Exchange French where I played Black in a game that just ended this week in the Semi-Final round of the 2017 Electronic Knights Championship.
A word about the tournament. The Electronic Knights Championship is an email-based correspondence tournament with an elimination-type format. Entries are taken over the course of the year with multiple entries allowed (up to 10 for the year), and every 7 entries creates a preliminary round bracket where you play 3 of the other 6 players with White and the other 3 with Black. All players that score at least 4 1/2 points advance to the Semi-Final round, and they are grouped in sevens, and the same rules apply. All those that score at least 4 1/2 points will advance to the final. Typically the final will be two brackets. Once the final is completed, scores are tallied up, with latter rounds being weighted, using the following formula: (Preliminary Round Score) + 2.2*(Semi-Final Round Score) + 4.5*(Final Round Score), where a perfect score is 46.2. The top 10 are then paid. I had scored 5.5 in the Preliminary round, and I had 2 wins and 3 draws for a score of 3.5 in the current round with just this game remaining as the game reached the early-to-mid 40s in moves, and so I knew that if I win this game, I advance to the Final for the second time ever. Note that you can see one of those two wins in the Semi-Final in
The French Connection - Volume 19.
2017 Electronic Knights Semi-Finals (Correspondence)
W: Jay Hall (1901)
B: Patrick McCartney (1958)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Be3
Those of you that have read my article on the
Exchange French when I published the repertoire in 2017 and those of you that have read
Volume 8 of The French Connection will know that I am a big advocate of many symmetrical lines in the Exchange French, making White prove that he has something, where lower rated players either won't understand the position or else try to force the issue themselves and implode while I have no objection to drawing a 2400 player with Black. That said, there are exceptions to that rule, and this is clearly one of them as I really do not see a strong purpose for this move. Part of understanding the Exchange Variation is understanding what order to develop your pieces. There is the old adage to develop your Knights before your Bishops, but there is a reason behind that blanket statement. Most of the time, you know well in advance where the best square is for each Knight. For example, in the Najdorf Sicilian, Black's Knights will go to f6 and d7 with the Bishops usually going to e7 and b7. However, in the King's Indian Defense, it's not the two Knights that you know where you want them ahead of time. Depending on what White plays, the Queen's Knight may want to go to c6, d7, or even a6 in some cases. However, the King's Knight and the Dark-Squared Bishop have pre-defined locations of f6 and g7. When that adage came about of developing Knights before Bishops, it was when most people played 1.e4 e5, and the board would be open with it being easier to develop the pieces, and the Knights were known to go toward the center while the Bishops had multiple options, and so you wanted to wait before you committed.
With the Exchange French, it's a little different. After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5, we see an open e-file with both sides having a strong point on the d-file. For White it is d4 and for Black it is d5. The reason behind this the fact that in order to attack the opposing Pawn, you have to be willing to take an isolani. Now this is fully possible, and many openings specifically lead to an Isolated Queen Pawn (or IQP), but it's a commitment that must be made early on. Otherwise, the d4-pawn for White and the d5-pawn for Black will typically go undisrupted until later in the game. Therefore, I see no reason to "protect" the d-pawn with the Bishop here on move 4. In addition, the Dark-Squared Bishop in the Exchange French typically has multiple options, including going to f4 or g5 (after Black has played something like ...Nf6). In addition, this plugs up the open file, and if anybody wants to be doing the plugging up of the position, it should be the person looking to defend. In symmetrical positions, that's typically Black, not White. White should be looking to take advantage of the extra move in symmetrical positions.
So instead, White should be developing a minor piece with a more defined role and less flexibility. While 4.Nf3 is ok, if White doesn't want to go into the IQP positions with 4.c4, I think that the minor piece with the most defined role is the Light-Squared Bishop. Going to e2 is very passive for the player with the extra move while going to b5 only helps Black develop as he gets in ...c6 (a move he is likely to play anyway) with tempo, and it will never to go c4 with the strong point for Black on d5 unless White goes for the IQP lines. Therefore, if White doesn't want to venture into the IQP lines, the move that makes the most sense for White is 4.Bd3 because the Bishop has a pre-defined role. Then when Black plays 4...Bd6, he is forcing White to make the first decision, or the first commitment, and this is why I condone the mimic approach here as there is no real way for White to take advantage of the extra move like he can if you mimic too far in other openings, such as the Four Knights Game. For example, if White tries to play 5.c3 and 6.Qc2, Black can do the same with 5...c6 and 6...Qc7. Therefore, White has to decide first what to do, and that usually entails deciding what to do with the King's Knight. He can play the Knight to e2, which allows White to contest the Bishop on d6 with a subsequent Bf4, or he can play Nf3, and when Black plays ...Nf6, the Bishop can pin the Knight on g5.
Therefore, the Dark-Squared Bishop for White plays a volatile role, and is often dependent upon where White and Black develop their King's Knight, and so committing it early like White did in the game to me is not correct, and this is one case where we will not see Black taking the mimic approach. White should instead play 4.Bd3, 4.c4, or 4.Nf3 here, though the third may be microscopically weaker than the other two for move order reasons.
4...Nf6 5.Bd3 Bd6 6.Nc3 c6
So notice that Black started with developing first the items that are for the most part pre-defined. With White not developing his Kingside pieces and already plugging up the e-file, there is no reason for Black to fear disruptive checks on the e-file with his King still in the center, and so there is no reason for Black to develop the Bishop or the Knight to e7, and he places them on the active f6 and d6 squares, and the ...c6 push is totally normal in this line, and even more so with a White Knight on c3. Similar to the issues that Black has in the Spanish Four Knights (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.O-O O-O 6.d3 Bxc3 7.bxc3 d6 8.Bg5 Qe7 9.Re1), we see a Knight on c3 opposed by a pawn three squares forward from it, controlling the squares that the Knight would like to go to, and so the Knight ends up not well placed, and similar to that Spanish Four Knights position, where 9...Nb8 is fairly normal here, we are probably going to be seeing White move that Knight again from c3. So we now have two pieces for White that are likely to get moved again in short order while Black will continue to develop his other pieces that haven't moved already. While it is way too early to say either side is winning by any stretch of the imagination, I already prefer Black's position, and can't fathom how White can claim any advantage here.
7.Qd2 O-O 8.O-O-O
So now we see what White is doing, but I have to admit that I don't think his attack is well coordinated. Let's think about the various scenarios where we typically see this opposite side castling approach. One case where this is commonly seen is in the Sicilian Dragon, but a major difference between the Sicilian Dragon and the French Exchange is that Black has the ideal pawn structure in front of his King with no squares weakened. In the Dragon, the g-pawn is advanced, and a simple trade of the Dark-Squared Bishops can lead to some very weak dark squares around the Black King. Here, we see Black with no such issue, and even if the Bishop at some point goes to f4 and the Bishops do get traded, with the pawn on g7 instead of g6, the dark squares are not an issue around the Black King. The other thing that White has in the Dragon that he doesn't have here is what is called a hook. The g-pawn in the Dragon is a hook for the h-pawn to latch onto at h5. Here, it doesn't matter which Pawn or Pawns White advances on the Kingside, there is no hook to latch on to.
So what other openings do we see this type of play with opposite side castling and the Bishop and Queen lined up on the c1-h6 diagonal but Black's Bishop is not fianchettoed? How about the English Attack against the Najdorf Sicilian or the Taimanov Sicilian? There is a problem with comparing those as well, and that is the d-pawn. In the Najdorf Sicilian, the pawn is typically on d6, hemming in the Dark-Squared Bishop to the passive e7-square. Here, Black has already played ...d5, a move that Black often struggles to play in the Sicilian and when he does, it often has certain consequences attached to it. The d5-pawn is actually Black's strong point here, and the Bishop is free to roam. So you might say "Well, what about the Taimanov?", but even here, the Black pawn is usually on d7, limiting Black's amount of space, and there are again consequences with playing ...d5. Sure the Bishop may be open unlike the Najdorf, but what Black has here is still a far better version than what we typically see in the English Attack against the Taimanov Sicilian.
In addition, Black has not committed his Queenside pieces yet. Since the White King has already committed to the Queenside, Black will simply advance the Queenside Pawns, his a8-Rook will almost develop itself via the Pawn advancement, the c-pawn can stay back on c6 to protect d5 while we advance the a- and b-pawns, and so with c6 plugged up and the Light-Squared Bishop still pretty much our bad piece, though not quite as bad as in other lines of the French Defense, we pretty much know what we want to do. That is:
- Advance the a- and b-pawns.
- Use the Light-Squared Bishop to either defend the Kingside or trade it off for White's better Bishop or possibly a Knight, especially if it will wreck the pawn structure - notice that playing the Bishop to d3 and the Queen to d2 has weakened f3, and as we will see in the game, Black will get a favorable trade on f3, wrecking White's Pawns.
- Wait on developing the b8-Knight until the position is more well defined. Black may want to develop it to a6, say if b4 becomes a weakness because White plays something like a4, or it may want to go to d7 and then either b6 or f6, or possibly promote an eventual ...c6-c5 push, and so just like what was mentioned about White's Dark-Squared Bishop at move 4, holding off on it's development due to the volatile nature of what it needs to be doing, Black will do just that here with the Knight on b8, which ends up staying on b8 until the 14th move of the game.
- Other than whatever happens with the Light-Squared Bishop, avoid Kingside moves except when necessary, and especially avoid advancing the Kingside Pawns until it is necessary.
8...b5 9.Nf3 a5 10.Bg5
So already we see that Dark-Squared Bishop moving again, and had it actually done a task on e3, mission was accomplished from there, and now relocated to g5, that would be one thing. That happens often in chess where a piece does a temporary job from one place and then goes to another square after the first job is complete, but here, there was no purpose on e3, and so, in essence, White has already lost a move. He could just as easily have played an early Bd3 and Nf3, waiting for ...Nf6 from Black, place this Bishop on g5 from the get go, and virtually achieve the same position that we have here with now White to move instead of Black.
10...a4 11.Rhe1
This is possibly the only plus for White. His Rooks are connected, Black's are far from it. However, with the pawn on f7, Rook and Queen on f8 and d8, and the Dark-Squared Bishop ideally placed on d6 for now, all the entry points on the e-file are under control, and White has no breakthru down the e-file at this point in time, and so there is little for Black to worry about in terms of his Rooks not being connected. Black's Queen's Rook is busy on the Queenside anyway, and doesn't even want the lone job of backing up his mate on f8.
11...a3 12.b3 Bg4 13.h3 Bxf3 14.gxf3 Nbd7 15.Ne2 Re8 =/+
Black has a slight advantage due to the pawn structure and further accomplishments against the White King than White has achieved against Black's. However, we now have a critical position where both sides error. White needs to create a weakness for Black. The best way to do that is to force Black to weaken himself by making him advance a Pawn on the Kingside. How does White do that?
16.Rg1
This is not it! Sure White has the Semi-Open g-file, but does that make the g-file the line of attack? A lot depends on which Pawn you can make Black advance. It turns out, that's the g-pawn, and the way to do it is with 16.Ng3. Black can ill-afford to let that Knight get in on f5. After 16.Ng3 Rxe1 17.Rxe1 g6 18.h4 (There's that hook that White was looking for, and could it now be the h-file that's opening up instead of the g-file?) 18...Qc7 19.h5 Bxg3 20.fxg3 Nxh5 21.g4 Ng7, Black still has a slight advantage with the extra Pawn, but White is showing signs of progress and has at least some compensation for the Pawn.
Instead, the game move gave Black the opportunity to increase his advantage.
16...g6
And Black came back with a slight error. Better was 16...Kh8, and if now 17.Ng3, then 17...Qc7 where 18.Nf5 can be answered by 18...Nh5 with advantage. Here, it's not an issue if Black trades on d6, and there are no problems on g7. The difference between this and the position after 16.Ng3 Qc7 17.Nf5 is that the e-file is contested, and after 17...Rxe1 18.Rxe1 Nh5, it's White that owns the e-file, and after 17...Nh5, White can trade the Rooks off with 18.Rxe8+ Rxe8 19.Re1 and Black's advantage has been minimized. In the line with 16...Kh8 17.Ng3 Qc7 18.Nf5 Nh5, sure White can come back and contest the e-file again, but once again, it's another tempo lost, similar to the initial development of White's Dark-Squared Bishop.
Often times, the small details that make the difference in two similar looking lines is something that is away from the action. Here we see the battle over whether the Knight should be allowed into f5, and attacks on the g7-pawn, and trading Knight for the strong Bishop on d6, and yet the difference is the control of the e-file.
17.h4
In this particular case, this is the wrong pawn to advance. White is positioned in such a way that he is ready to break with the f-pawn now without further preparation. After 17.f4 Qa5 18.Qxa5 Rxa5 19.f5 Ne4 20.Bxe4 Rxe4 21.Rde1 Ra8 22.f3 Ree8 23.h4 Kg7 24.Kd2, White has minimized Black's advantage to being something that is microscopic. Black still can't take the f-pawn because of a discovered check, winning the Bishop on d6 for White.
17...Qb6
This move is possible, abandoning the over-protection of f6 due to a tactical shot.
18.Bxf6 Nxf6 19.Qg5
White was probably banking on Black playing something like 19...Qd8 or else moving the Knight away with something like 19...Nd7, both of which allowing White to follow up with 20.h5 and create massive pressure on the g6-square with a potential sacrifice of the Bishop at some point on g6 after a trade of pawns occurs. However, Black has one tactical shot, and it's the only move on the board that maintains the advantage.
19...Ne4!
Black recognized that if White takes the Knight with the Pawn, the Bishop is trapped. In addition, this removes one of the attackers of g6, and probably the most important one as it's the piece that would likely have sacrificed itself to pry open the Black King.
20.fxe4 dxe4 21.Bxb5 Be7 22.Qf5 Qxb5 23.Qxb5 cxb5 24.h5 Bh4
Threatening the f-pawn. With reduced material after the trade of minor pieces and Queens, the cost of dropping a pawn is far greater, and these little nuances can slow down an Opponent's attack.
25.hxg6 fxg6
Another rule people always hear about is capturing towards the center. While this is still true for most middle game positions, as the game gets closer and closer to an endgame, the more attractive outside pawns are, and especially passed ones as they can be harder to reach and defend. Black is looking at the passed h-pawn and doesn't want to give it up, and with the reduced material, he is not exposing his King or severely weakening what is now an isolated e-pawn for Black. As we will see later on, this h-pawn is actually what wins the game for Black.
26.Rg2 b4
The purpose of this move is to virtually isolate the White d-pawn. If Black waits until White has played c3 to advance ...b4, then White can by-pass and have a mobile pawn duo on c4 and d4 with both of them also being passed pawns. By playing this prophylactic move, Black is assuring that the d-pawn will never get the help of it's mate on the c-file. The moment White advances the Pawn, Black will capture on c3, either naturally or en passant.
27.d5 Rad8 28.c4 bxc3
As prescribed on move 26. White still has two passers, but they are not connected, and instead come in the form of b- and d-pawns.
29.Kc2
Or 29.Nxc3 Bf6, which is also an advantage for Black.
Up until now, Black has virtually dominated the game, but now he makes a move that could very well have cost him everything.
29...Kg7??
In a single move, we go from almost winning for Black to better for White, and again for the same reasons that White's position has become wretched. Surrendering a tempo to White! Instead, 29...Bf6 keeps Black in the driver's seat.
30.d6?
White immediately fails to take advantage. Both 30.Nd4 Rxd5 31.Ne6+ Rxe6 32.Rxd4 Rf6 33.Rd7+ and 30.Nf4 Kf7 31.Rg4 Bf6 32.Ne6 give White the advantage because they both gain time on Black due to the threat of the fork on move 30 that Black literally walked right into the previous move.
After the move played in the game, simply trying to advance the passer, Black has his advantage back.
30...Bf6 31.Nd4
Too late! In addition, the advancement of the d-pawn has relinquished any threats on e6 anyway as White no longer controls that square.
31...Bxd4 32.Rxd4 Re6
White's main trump card, the passed d-pawn, is now toast. Now the problem becomes the h-pawn, and that's a problem for White.
33.Kxc3 Rdxd6 34.b4
Possibly 34.Rg4 is a slightly better try, but Black is still clearly better after 34...h5 35.Rgxe4 Rxe4 and now 36.Rxe4 Rf6 37.f4 h4 is better for Black, but even worse is 36.Rxd6 h4, winning for Black.
After the move in the game, Black emerges up a Pawn for tactical reasons.
34...Rxd4 35.Kxd4 Rd6+
Once White takes the Pawn, there is no way to save the b-pawn and it comes with check.
36.Kxe4 Rb6 37.Rg3 Rxb4+
And now the tactical trick is visible. If White goes to the third rank, the King blocks the Rook from taking the a-pawn. If the King goes to the fifth rank, Black can check again and go to f5, attacking the f2-pawn. The latter is what happens in the game.
38.Ke5 Rb5+ 39.Kd4 Rf5 40.Rxa3 Rxf2 41.Ra5
If White plays 41.Ra7+, Black can actually get away with interposing with 41...Rf7 as White has no way to keep the Black King off of c8 and Black is in the box of the a-pawn after 42.Rxf7 Kxf7. If White tries to race the pawn, then the King gets there in time. If he immediately tries to cut the Black King off with 43.Kc5, then 43...h5 does the trick. Even if the White King returns to the Kingside, the two pawns guard each other, and White can never take the pawn in the back as the other pawn then promotes. Black only has to stop one Pawn, and can immediately capture it once White goes after the Kingside Pawns.
Therefore, White has to keep the Rooks on the board and try to draw that way, but Black has the ideal scenario for a Pawn-up Rook ending. The pawns are on opposite wings, and the White King is cut off from the Black Pawns, and Black keeps it that way until White advances the a-pawn, at which point, he will get behind the passed pawn, which is where the Rook belongs. Behind, not in front.
41...h5 42.Ke3 Rf1 43.Ke2 Rf7 44.a4 h4 45.Rd5 Rf4
An important move, getting behind the a-pawn or else forcing White to block himself with the Rook by returning to a5 and putting the Rook in front of the passed Pawn. Instead, White advances.
46.a5 Kh6
No need to get behind the Pawn yet. White is guarding it laterally and so can't get behind it first, and the King can't get to b3, stopping Ra4, so no need to play it immediately. Might as well keep the White King cut off as long as physically possible.
47.a6 Ra4
Now it was necessary as White threatened 48.Ra5.
48.Rd6 Kh5 49.Kf3 g5 50.Kf2 Ra2+ 51.Kf3 g4+ 52.Kf4 h3
52...Ra4+, forcing the King to either f5 or else to the e-file, getting the King even further away from the passed pawn, may have been slightly better, but 52...h3 also wins fairly easily. White tries to get behind the Black Pawns, but must surrender his a-pawn to do it.
53.Rd8 Rxa6 0-1
You might be wondering why White resigned here. In correspondence chess, there are these things called Tablebases. They are databases of every legal position with 3, 4, 5, or 6 pieces, and whether they are a win or a draw based on each side being on the move. They are not computers, and are perfectly legal in correspondence chess, even tournaments where computers are forbidden like most USCF Correspondence tournaments are. Therefore, a tablebase was accessed here, Black has forced mate in 25 moves from this point, and since White recognized and acknowledged the same thing, he resigned.
There are a few items that can and should be picked up from this game:
- In the Exchange French, or in any opening, it's not so much the old adage of "Develop Knights before Bishops", but more accurate in modern day chess would be "Develop the minor pieces with the least number of sensible options first". If there is only one place that makes sense for one piece, and multiple places that make sense for another piece, and it doesn't fail tactically to anything by your opponent, develop those minor pieces first. In the French Exchange, it's the King's Bishop followed by the King's Knight.
- Black did not mimic White like what is recommended in the Repertoire from 2017 because White made a committal move and that, in and of itself, is information to Black. When Black plays the mimic game, it's because White has made non-committal moves that he is going to make anyway, and so Black responds with non-committal moves, forcing White to show his hand first. In this case, with 4.Be3, White, in a sense, has already showed his hand, and Black no longer needs to, nor should he, copy White.
- The tempo is one of the most critical things in an opening like the Exchange French. We saw that White moving his Bishop twice in the opening, on moves 4 and 10, cost him any chances at an advantage. The comparison of lines at moves 16 and 17 also illustrate the differences one tempo can make, and in the cases where Black controlled the e-file, White could regain the contesting of the e-file, but again, would cost White an extra valuable tempo. Lastly, Black's error on move 29, in essence offering White a free tempo in the form of two different Knight productive Knight moves on move 30, could have easily swung the game from borderline winning for Black to at minimum a slight advantage for White and likely more than that!
Well, that concludes this edition of The French Connection. Good luck in all of your future French games, whether playing Black or White.
