Hello and welcome to the Seventeenth edition of The French Connection. Here, we are going to be looking at the 6th round of The Charlotte Open, which featured one of the main lines of the French Advance. As the subtitle might indicate, there is a critical point in the opening where Black must make a decision between two Bishop moves, one of which is played in this game. White responds with an inferior move, and I will be showing how White should respond to each of Black's replies. Then as the game proceeds, Black makes multiple errors in the middle game, and allows White to reach a winning position in the endgame. Then, White shows that he is not up on his Rook endings, and allows Black to draw the game.
Without further ado, let's see what we have here.
The Charlotte Open, Round 6
W: James Dill (2019)
B: Patrick McCartney (2061)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.a3 Nh6 7.b4 cxd4 8.cxd4 Nf5 9.Bb2
Thus far, both sides have followed the line given against 6...Nh6 in my article on Beating the French with the Advance Variation from back in November, 2017 (Click here if you want to view that article).
The problem at this point is that both sides are starving for progress. Black has three pieces attacking d4, namely the Queen on b6, Knight on c6, and Knight on f5. White has three pieces guarding it, namely the Bishop on b2, Queen on d1, and Knight on f3. White has a problem though. How does he get the rest of his pieces out? If he moves the Queen's Knight, it will block either the Bishop or the Queen from guarding d4. How does the Light-Squared Bishop get out? Does he resort to the passive Be2 and then Castle?
That said, it's not all roses for Black either! His Queen suffers from having much scope, which for a piece like the Queen, the lack of scope is a major drawback. His Light-Squared Bishop is bad. White's Pawns impede the Dark-Squared Bishop. Also, with f6 well in control by White, castling Kingside can be very dicey, especially early on.
So how does either side make progress? Well, it is Black to move, and it really is his choice how the game progresses. In looking at the position, only two moves really make sense, and that's two different Bishop moves:
The first option is 9...Be7. Black plays a solid move and is ready to castle. In addition, if his Knight gets harassed by 10.g4, then he has the h4-square in which to place the Knight and exchange a set of minor pieces. With White having the space advantage, this would favor Black. That said, similar to trap in the Milner-Barry Gambit (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Nxd4? 8.Nxd4 Qxd4?? 9.Bb5+), the a4-e8 diagonal is open if the Knight is traded off, and so White has the opportunity to play 10.Bd3! for similar reasons. Black can't take on d4 three times as his Queen will then hang to a discovered check. After 10.Bd3!, Black can try a couple of different responses, including developing the other Bishop to d7, which might be better than Moskalenko's idea of 10...a5. After 10...a5, 11.Bxf5 is well-known to favor Black, but White has 11.Qa4 Bd7 12.b5 O-O 13.O-O g6 and Moskalenko claims equality based on the fact that 14.Bc3? fails to 14...Na7! with advantage to Black. This may be true, but I think White has the advantage after 14.Ra2 Na7 15.Nc3. It is not clear how Black is going to get his pieces out.
Instead, after 10...Bd7, the important thing is not to be tempted by the immediate pawn snatch. After 11.O-O, the move 11...Nfxd4 is dubious because of 12.Nxd4 Nxd4 13.Qg4 with advantage to White. However, Black should be fine after 11...g6, and now if White doesn't do something about it and plays something like 12.Nc3, only now should Black snatch the pawn with 12...Nfxd4 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Qg4 as now Black can reply with 14...Nb3 intending 15...a5 with advantage. Instead, 12.Bxf5 gxf5 would lead to a position with play for both sides. White should still have a slight advantage, but it's not unbearable for Black.
In the game, Black plays the other option.
9...Bd7
My personal preference is for this move over the other Bishop move. There are a couple of major differences between this move and moving the other Bishop to e7. The first is that White does not have the discovered attack on the Queen if Black goes pawn grabbing once one of the three defenders is blocked, and so 10.Bd3 is no longer possible because it simply drops the d-pawn. On the flip side, with no Bishop on e7, the move 10.g4! is more attractive for White. It dislodges the f5-Knight without allowing Black to trade it off for the counterpart on f3, and therefore allows White to develop his pieces more freely, albeit at the cost of a more exposed King. White, however, fails to take advantage of this move, and instead plays an overly passive move that should be of no harm to Black.
10.Be2 Be7
Now 11.g4 is once again totally ineffective because of 11...Nh4.
11.O-O Rc8
This move is not bad, but given his lack of space and White's ultra-passive approach, Black should think about expanding on the Kingside with 11...h5 12.Qd3 g5 13.b5 Na5 14.Nfd2 Rc8 15.a4 with an unclear position.
In the game, Black will be lacking space, and despite a few inferior moves by White, the moment Black tries to expand and open up, his position gets worse this game, and so now was the time to take that opportunity.
12.Qd3 Na5 13.Nbd2 Nc4 14.Nxc4 dxc4 15.Qd2 Bc6
16.Bc3
White misses the opportunity to at minimum maintain equality and possibly be able to claim a very slight edge by playing 16.g4! on the basis that Black can't play 16...Nh4 because of 17.Nxh4 Bxh4 and now 18.Bxc4! as there is no knight to take on f3, which would normally lead to Black winning a piece, and 18...Bf3 would be answered by 19.Rac1! with a big advantage for White. In order to maintain the c4-pawn, Black would have to retreat with a move like 16...Nh6.
16...O-O 17.Qf4?
Once again, 17.g4 was relatively best, but this time, White can't grab the c-pawn as now 17...Nh4! 18.Nxh4 Bxh4 19.Bxc4? would fail to 19...Bf3 as White no longer has the ability to guard the Bishop with the Rook as the other Bishop on c3 is now blocking that operation. White loses time and Black takes over. Instead of 19.Bxc4, a normal move like 19.f4 would keep the position roughly even.
17...Bd5 18.Rfd1 f6?!
This move is very ill-timed. Now that Black got the long diagonal open and the passed c-pawn, he should help promote both causes and play 18...Qc6 with advantage. White's pieces are slowly coming to the Kingside, and so why open up at this point? Black's pieces are not ideally placed yet, and so given the closed nature of the position, the most important thing is to get the pieces on their best squares before breaking open the position.
19.Qg4 fxe5 20.Nxe5 Qd8
And yet another inferior move by Black, but not enough to totally kill the advantage. The Bishop on e7 was passive and should be relocated via 20...Bd6, maintaining an advantage for Black.
21.Bf3 b5 22.Bxd5 exd5 23.Re1 Bd6 24.Re2 Qf6??
And now Black blunders. Black is better after 24...Qh4 25.h3 h5 26.Qf3 Ne7 27.Qe3 Qf4 28.Nf3 Qxe3 29.Rxe3 Ng6 30.g3 Rf6 as White has the inferior Bishop and also still has to keep an eye on the protected passed Pawn on c4.
After the move played in the game, White has a big advantage with correct play.
25.h3?
White misses the opportunity. Correct is 25.Nd7! This probably was not played in fear of Black getting out of it with 25...Qh6, threatening mate, but after 26.g3! Rf7 27.Rae1! g6 (27...Rxd7 28.Qxf5 is winning for White) 28.Ne5, White has a dominant position.
25...Rcd8 26.Rae1 Qh4 27.Qxh4 Nxh4 28.Nc6 Rd7 29.Ne7+ Bxe7 30.Rxe7
30...Rfd8?
This was Black's final opportunity to maintain the advantage. After 30...Rd6! 31.R1e6 (31.Rxa7?? Rg6 is winning for Black) 31...Rxe6 32.Rxe6 Rf6 33.Re8+ Kf7 34.Rb8 Rb6 35.Rc8 Kf6 36.Rc5 Ng6 37.Rxd5 Nf4 38.Re5 Re6 39.Rxe6+ Kxe6 40.Kf1 Kd5, despite being a pawn down, Black has the slightly better endgame and would be the one pushing for the win due to the good Knight against the horrible Bishop.
Instead, now White has the better endgame.
31.Rxd7 Rxd7 32.Re8+ Kf7 33.Rb8 a6 34.Rb6 Nf5
The passive 34...Ra7 was relatively best, but Black's position is extremely passive and very difficult to play.
35.Rxa6 Nd6 36.f3 Nc8 37.Rc6 Ne7 38.Rb6 Ra7 39.Bb2 c3 40.Bxc3 Rxa3 41.Be1 Rd3 42.Bf2 Rd1+ 43.Kh2 Nf5 44.Rxb5 Nxd4 45.Rb7+
Of course, 45.Rxd5?? loses to 45...Nxf3+.
45...Kg6 46.b5 Rd2 47.Bxd4 Rxd4
White has the farther advanced passed pawn, the outside passed pawn, and an extra pawn. This position is winning for White.
48.Rd7
A more direct win would result from the line 48.b6 Rb4 49.Kg3 Kf6 50.Rb8 Ke6 51.b7 Kd6 52.Rd8+ Kc7 53.Rg8 Kxb7 54.Rxg7+ and 55.Rxh7 with a winning advantage.
48...h6 49.b6 Rb4 50.Rd6+
White is going the wrong way with this, and is able to get into a 3-on-2 endgame all on one side of the board with a Rook each, which should give Black better draw opportunities. White should play 50.b7! and maintain the 7th rank pressure for as long as possible to better arrange the rest of his pieces to win the ending on the Kingside.
50...Kf7 51.Rxd5 Rxb6 52.g4 Kg6 53.Kg3 Ra6 54.h4 Rb6 55.h5+ Kf7 56.f4 Rb3+ 57.Kh4 Rb6 58.g5
White put himself in a far more difficult position than he had to back when he focused too much on Black's d-pawn rather than his own b-pawn, but if he wants any hope of winning, he had to try 58.Rd7+, but it would still be difficult. After 58.g5, all hopes of victory are slam shut. The position is drawn. The Black Rook will just stay on the 6th rank until forced off, and then attack the King from behind. The rest of the moves is one demonstration of how to draw a Rook ending a pawn down. It doesn't work exactly the same as K+R+P vs K+R, as it's not a straight-up Philidor's position, but observe and try to understand each move, particularly for Black. Every move Black plays from here on out, the position is 0.00.
58...hxg5+ 59.Kxg5 Ra6 60.Rd3 Rb6 61.f5 Ra6 62.Rd7+ Kg8 63.Re7 Rb6 64.Re6 Rb1 65.h6 Rg1+ 66.Kf4 gxh6 67.Rxh6 Kf7 68.Rh7+ Rg7 69.Rxg7+ Kxg7 70.Ke5 Kf7 71.f6 Kf8 72.Ke6 Ke8 73.f7+ Kf8 74.Kf6 1/2-1/2
The final position is, of course, stalemate.
There are a few things to pick up from this game:
- When facing the main line of the Advance French, make sure you understand the difference between the two Bishop moves, and play the one you are more comfortable playing. The nature of the game is vastly different between the two options assuming White responds correctly.
- In the line with 9...Bd7, if White plays passive with 10.Be2, don't forget about the idea of Kingside Expansion.
- In a closed position, pry it open when the rest of your pieces are ready, not before that.
- In a Rook ending, having the outside passer is an advantage. If you are the one with the pawn on the outside, you don't want to trade passers unless you absolutely have to. The player with the inside passer wants to trade them off and draw with all the pawns on the same side.
That does it for this edition of The French Connection. Good luck in all your future French Games, Black or White.
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