The French Connection: Volume 14

Hello and welcome to the fourteenth edition of The French Connection. This one will conclude the trifecta of French McCutcheons, and the line we will be looking at here is a line that you could face fairly frequently against lower-rated opposition, but will almost never see at the GM level. This game was played in late July, and I have faced this same line in a correspondence game on chess.com since then! Since the majority of the audience reading this article will also be facing amateurs, it's critical to know what to do as Black. The game in and of itself is not particularly well played, and is not as exciting as the previous two we saw with the King walk and Rook Sacrifice, or the battle of the color complexes leading to a fast mate that we saw in the first two articles on this line. That said, we will see three very important concepts in this game:

• Why capturing with the Bishop on c3 in the opening is bad.
• Bad trades
• The importance of the Intermezzio and Deflection tactics

So with that said, let's take a look at the main game.

Potomac Open, Round 4
W: Albert Yao (1846)
B: Patrick McCartney (2050)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.Bxc3

This is the wrong way to recapture on c3.

7...Ne4 8.Qg4

Also seen is 8.Bb4, but after 8...c5 9.Bxc5 Nxc5 10.dxc5 Nd7 11.Qd4 Qc7 12.Nf3 Qxc5, White has nothing.

8...Qg5

So this move was made on the basis of the fact that I was facing a young kid, and most young kids do not like to trade Queens. That said, there is a slight problem with this response as after 9.h3 Bd7 10.Nf3 Qxg4 11.hxg4 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Nc6 13.g5 Ke7 14.gxh6 gxh6 15.g3 Rag8 16.Bd3 Na5 17.Ke2 Bc6 18.a4 Nc4 19.Bxc4 dxc4 20.a5, White has a nagging advantage.

That said, significantly stronger is 8...O-O! with a major advantage for Black. In the normal McCutheon, Black can't do this because the Bishop on d2 would take on h6 with major threats on g7. Here, there is no Bishop on the c1-h6 diagonal, and if White goes back there, Black has time to move his King. Therefore, Black doesn't have to weaken his Kingside with 8...g6 or lose his castling rights with 8...Kf8 unlike when the Bishop is still on d2.

9.Qf3

This move is not good and swings the advantage to Black. As mentioned prior, White should play 9.h3, and it turns out that it is the only move for White to avoid turning the advantage over to Black.

9...c5 10.h4 Qe7 11.dxc5 Qxc5 12.Ne2 Nc6 13.Qf4 Bd7 14.Rh3 O-O-O 15.Rf3

15.Qxf7?? loses tactically to 15...Rhf8 where if 16.Qxg7, then after 16...Qxf2+ 17.Kd1 Qxf1+ 18.Be1 Rf2 19.Re3 Rxg2 20.Qxh6 Nf2+ 21.Kd2 Ng4, White is mince meat!

15...g5 16.Qe3 Qxe3 17.Rxe3 Nxc3 18.bxc3 Kb8 19.h5 Rc8 20.Kd2 f5 21.Nd4

A very critical point in the game has arrived. White has the better Knight, the better Bishop, and the better placed King for an endgame. Black's only trump is the pawn structure. White's e-pawn is a liability, and the doubled c-pawns are an issue for White. Which is more important to Black? Getting rid of the well-placed White Knight? Or maintain the train wreck pawn structure for White?

21...Nxd4?

This is the wrong idea and Black's advantage is gone. Instead, it is more vital for Black to maintain the wrecked pawn structure, despite putting the Knight on the edge of the board, and play 21...Na5, after which, something along the lines of 22.Ree1 g4 23.Rab1 Rhg8 24.Rb4 Rc7 25.Bb5 Bxb5 26.Nxb5 Nc4+ 27.Kd3 Rc6 28.Nd4 Ra6 29.a4 would occur and now 29...Rg5 would give Black a substantial advantage.

The next few move see Black activating his Rooks, trading one set off, and we reach a critical juncture of what is an equal endgame.

22.cxd4 Be8 23.Rh3 Rh7 24.Bd3 Rhc7 25.Rb1 Rc6 26.Rb2 Kc7 27.f3 Rb6 28.Rxb6 Kxb6 29.g4 Bd7 30.Rh1 fxg4 31.fxg4 Rf8

So here, there are a number of moves that work for the draw, but one move is best and the way to find it is to recognize what Black is trying to do, and preventing it. What move do you think White should play here?

32.Rf1??

Believe it or not, White actually offered a draw here with what is ultimately the losing move as Black will be able to dominate the Bishop ending. Black has a bad Bishop, White has a good one. Black wants to force the Bishops off. Even better would be to force both minor pieces off as, given the position of the Kings and the pawn structure, a King and Pawn endgame wins for Black here.

That said, the big thing is that Black wants to play ...Bb5. White still has an equal position with the moves 32.Kc3 or 32.Ke3 due to improvement of the King position, but best here is the intermezzio move, 32.Rb1+! This forces the Black King back since 32...Ka5 drops the b-pawn, 32...Kc6 blocks the Bishop, and 32...Ka6 is illegal, and so 32...Kc7 is virtually forced, not allowing Black to get his inferior minor piece out with ...Bb5. After the King moves away via 32...Kc7, only then is 33.Rf1 correct.

In the game, letting the King remain on b6 allows Black his goal, and since White can't afford to trade the Bishops, his Bishop will be dominated, at which point, Black can force the Queenside pawns off the board, and the fact that his King will be far advanced will allow Black to grab the loose White Pawns while his bishop is sitting uselessly on the Kingside. All of this was calculated by Black when he played 31...Rf8, expecting 32.Rb1+, but knowing that if White missed that, and played the move played in the game, Black has an easy win via calculation.

32...Rxf1 33.Bxf1 Bb5! 34.Bg2

Again, White cannot trade the Bishops due to the superiority of the position of the Black King.

34...Bc4

Forcing the advancement of the White Pawn, which is to his own detriment.

35.a3 Ka5 36.Kc3 Ka4 37.Kb2 Be2 38.Bh3 b5

Black will force the Queenside pawns off the board and then use his advanced King position to win the game. White is completely helpless with his useless Bishop on h3.

39.c3 a5 40.Ka2 b4 41.axb4 axb4 42.cxb4 Kxb4 43.Kb2 Kc4 44.Kc2 Kxd4 45.Kd2 Bf3 46.Ke1 Kxe5 47.Kf2 Kf4 0-1


So as mentioned in the introduction, not quite the fireworks of the previous two McCutcheons we have seen, but a number of vital concepts in this game shows the importance of knowing your sidelines, especially when playing at the amateur level, where sidelines are more common than at the GM level. The items that should be absorbed from this game include:

• Understanding that piece placement is sometimes more important than pawn structure. We saw that by White not accepting doubled c-pawns, his Bishop abandons the Kingside, and allows Black to castle to safety. Black did not do that in this game, but reading the notes to Black's 8th move should illustrate the reason behind why Black's move was inferior to castling.
• The importance of understanding when to trade and when not to. In this case, Black's 21st move was a mistake because his one major trump card was superior to all of White's smaller trumps. White may have had more trump cards, but Black had the ace, which was the far superior pawn structure. After Black gave that up, he had to rely on White blundering to win the game.
• The last thing we saw was how vital a single tempo can be, and how an intermezzio move that acted as a deflection can mean the difference between survival and defeat. It was critical to not allow Black to turn his Bishop from a passive piece into a dominant one, but White lack of exercising the check on move 32 before trading the Rooks is what lead to his defeat.

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