Hello and welcome to the eighteenth edition of The French Connection. It has been a while since covering the Winawer Variation, last seen in Volume 1. The one thing that can be said about the Winawer that is vastly different from most other lines is that the concept of "General Principles" almost never applies here. We will be looking at a game played in January where moves that don't appear to make a whole lot of sense turn out to be the best moves. This is where the concept of asking yourself the question "What matters most?" comes into play. We will be asking ourselves this question many times throughout the game.
So, without further ado, let's take a look at the game.
Tuesday Night Action 49, Round 1
W: Walter Smiley (1954)
B: Patrick McCartney (2070)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qa5
This is known as the Portisch-Hook Variation, named after two advocates, Lajos Portisch (1937-) and Bill Hook (1925-2010). The idea behind the line is simple. Black has given up his dark-squared Bishop for a White Knight. White would like to be able to make use of his Bishop pair. Against the more common 6...Ne7, while 7.Qg4 is the main line, many positional players have preferred the line 7.a4, which opens up the a3-square for the unopposed dark-squared Bishop so that White can get it to be in front of his pawns, which reside mostly on dark squares, rather than behind them.
With the move 6...Qa5, Black takes advantage of the fact that the c3-pawn is hanging and must be defended, and will follow that up with 7...Qa4, blocking the a-pawn and now allowing White to advance it. Then, depending on how White reacts, the main idea is to bottle up the Queenside and then castle in that direction. For example, the main line runs 7.Bd2 Qa4 8.Qb1 c4 9.Ne2 Nc6 10.Nf4 Bd7 11.g3 O-O-O with play for both sides.
7.Bd2 Qa4 8.Qg4
White tries to take another approach, attacking the g7-pawn before Black is ready to fight. Black has to make the decision of whether to weaken the dark squares with 8...g6, or surrender castling rights by moving the King.
8...Kf8
This was Bill Hook's preference, and mine as well!
9.Qd1 Ne7
This is a direct transposition to a line of the 7...Kf8 Variation of the main line Winawer, which is reached via 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 Kf8 8.Qd1 Qa5 9.Bd2 Qa4. The alternatives are 9...b6, intending ...Ba6 to trade the Bishops, and 9...Nc6.
10.Nf3 b6 11.dxc5
This move is not particularly good. Better is 11.Bd3 Ba6 12.dxc5 bxc5 13.O-O Nd7 14.Rb1 h6 with play for both sides.
11...bxc5 12.Qb1
This brings us to the main question for the first time. What matters most? For Black, it should be easy to answer. His main trump is his pawn structure. If this were an endgame, Black would be better. However, it is not, and Black has many problems to solve. He lacks development as all three of his Queenside pieces are still on their original square. His Rook on h8 is blocked and so he should be aiming to get that piece out. Also, White has the Bishop pair, which seeks an open position. So should Black be hunting down Pawns such as the one on e5? Is Black ready to attack the White King?
12...Qe4+
The answer is no! Black should be focused on getting his pieces out and at the same time, eliminating White's Bishop pair specifically by trading his bad Bishop for White's good one. Black already has a small advantage, and he can maintain that small advantage by playing 12...Ba6! 13.Bxa6 Nxa6 on the basis that 14.Qb7?? doesn't work because after 14...Rb8 15.Qxa7 Nc8, the Queen is trapped.
13.Be3 c4 14.Be2 Nbc6
Once again, the question must be asked. What matters most here for White?
15.Bd4
White answers incorrectly. Black went for an aggressive idea before his pieces are developed. White needs to actively pressure Black before Black is able to get his pieces coordinated. He needs to make it as hard as possible for Black to get his Rook on h8 out. In order to do this, White must play actively and with extreme aggression. If he allows Black to coordinate, Black's better because Black's has the long term advantage of having the better pawn structure. So while Black tries to attack and potentially gobble up pawns before his position is ready to do so, White, on the other hand, plays slowly in order to try to protect his pawns when, in reality, he should be happy if Black takes the pawn because it opens up his pieces to attack Black before Black is ready. Therefore, White should abandon the e-pawn and play 15.O-O!. After 15...Nxe5 16.Re1 N5c6 17.Qb5 Rb8 18.Qc5 Rb7 19.Nd4 Nxd4 20.Bxd4 Qxc2 21.Qa5, a draw is virtually forced as Black has nothing better than 21...Nc6, and after 22.Qc5+, 22...Ne7 is forced. Then after 23.Qa5, we are back at the original position and neither side has better than to repeat the position once more.
15...Rb8 16.Qc1
So again, what matters most for Black?
16...h6
Black's idea was to prevent Ng5 from White and enable himself to play ...Nf5 without running the risk of getting the Queen trapped. This is too slow. Black should eliminate White's Bishop pair and then play on the Kingside, despite the straightening of White's pawns. After 16...Nxd4 17.cxd4 g5!, Black has an active game. 18.Nxg5? fails to 18...Qxd4 while 18.Qxg5? fails to 18...Rg8, both leading to a significant advantage for Black. This leaves just 18.h3 and Black gets an active position.
17.O-O Nf5 18.Bc5+ Kg8 19.Re1 Nxe5
If you think about what matters most, White can get an advantage here.
20.Nxe5
Remember what we said before? White's job is all about not allowing Black to coordinate. He needs to act fast, not trade off. White actually gets a slight advantage after 20.Nd4! Nxd4 21.cxd4 (attacking the Knight, which gains time) 21...Nd7 22.Bxc4 (attacking the Queen, which gains time) 22...Qh4 23.g3 Qd8 24.Bd3 and with Black unable to get his King to h7 for the time being, he still can't get his Rook out yet, and White is slightly better.
20...Qxe5 21.Bxa7 Ra8 22.Bc5 Qxc3 23.Bg4
The previous discussion of what matters most for Black should make his next move easy to determine, right?
23...e5
Apparently not! Once again, Black is trying to attack without all of his pieces. Better is 23...Kh7! The doubling of the pawns is a non-issue, and Black is better after 24.Bxf5 exf5 25.Qd1 Be6 26.Bd4 Qa5.
So now, what should White play?
24.Ra2
And once again, White fails to equalize after being given yet another opportunity. He must tie Black down before Black gets coordinated. After 24.Bb4! Qd4 25.h3 c3 26.Rd1 Qc4 27.Rd3 d4 28.Qe1 Qe6 29.f4 exf4 30.Qf2, White has equalized as 30...g5 fails to 31.Rxd4 while 30...Qg6 31.Re1 h5 32.Bf3 Rb8 33.Be4 maintains equality via continuing to tie Black down.
After the move played, Black finally starts playing correctly. Pay close attention to Black's technique in the following moves. There are multiple ways to win this, but Black's play is clean up through move 37. He secures h7 for the King, gets his Rooks connected, maintains the extra pawn and gets the connected passer rolling. He also does not flinch to White's passed a-pawn until it is absolutely necessary.
24...Nh4 25.Bxc8 Rxc8 26.Re3 Qa5 27.Bb4 Qc7 28.Qe1 Ng6 29.c3 Kh7 30.Qb1 Rhe8 31.a4 Kg8 32.a5 d4 33.cxd4 exd4 34.Rxe8+ Rxe8 35.a6 Qc6 36.f3 Ra8 37.Qe4 Qxe4 38.fxe4
So Black's play the last 14 moves has been beautiful. But it's not over yet! He has one more hurdle to get over, and must ask the question one more time. What matters most? Is it eliminating the a-pawn? Advancing his passers? Or centralizing the Knight?
38...Ne5
Black makes the wrong choice this move and the next move, and gave White one more opportunity to draw. The correct answer is to advance the passers. But which one? Well, 38...d3? 39.Kf2 is equal, but after the correct 38...c3 39.Kf1 Nf4 40.a7 Nd3 41.Bd6 Nc1 42.Ra1 d3, Black's winning!
39.Bc5 Nc6
Black's last chance was 39...d3, but after 40.Bb4 Nc6 41.Bd2 Na7 42.Kf2 Rc8 43.Bc3 Nb5 44.Bb4 Rd8 45.Ke1 c3 46.a7 Ra8 47.Ra5 c2 48.Bd2 Nc3 49.e5 Nb1 50.g4 Kf8 51.Bc1 Ke7 52.Ra6 Kd7 53.Rd6+ Kc7 54.Rxd3 Rxa7, converting the win is significantly more difficult than the position that could have been reached after 38...c3!.
Now White draws.
40.Ra4?
And then again, maybe he doesn't! After 40.Kf2! c3 41.Ke2, the position is equal as the Black pawns can be stopped. For example, after 41...c2 42.Kd2 d3 43.Ra1 f6 44.a7 Ne5 45.Bd4 Kf7 46.Bxe5 fxe5 47.Kxd3 c1=R 48.Rxc1 Rxa7 49.Ke3 Ra3+ 50.Kf2 Kf6 51.h4 Ra6 52.Rc5 g6 53.g4 Ra2+ 54.Kf3 Ra4 55.Rc6+ Kg7 56.h5 Ra3+ 57.Kf2 gxh5 58.gxh5 Ra2+ 59.Kf3 Ra3+ 60.Kf2, the position is a dead draw.
After 40.Ra4, Black doesn't look back.
40...d3 41.Be3 c3 42.Ra2 d2 43.Ra1 Rxa6 0-1
White threw in the towel as his only distraction to Black is now lost, and there is no stopping the Black pawns.
The moral of the story is that general concepts only go so far. Both sides tried to use concepts to play this game, and we saw both sides making inferior moves. If you are going to play the Winawer Variation of the French Defense, you must throw concepts out the window, and this is why I recommended 3...Nf6 in the repertoire I wrote in 2017, because it's an easier line to play because Black's ideas are based on common sense. This is also why it is always preached that the first two openings one should learn are the Ruy Lopez and Queen's Gambit. The ideas in both follow most in line with general concepts.
But for a line like the Winawer, concepts must be thrown right out the window, and taking a "What Matters Most?" approach is the way of thinking that is necessary for this variation of the French Defense. Material count and pawn structure, two "concepts" often taught early on, mean nothing here. We saw in this game that what mattered most was neither material count nor pawn structure for either player. For White, it was Time! He needed to play "fast" moves, not pawn-saving moves, in order to keep Black from taking advantage of the better pawns. For Black, it was Harmony! Sure his pawns were better than White's the whole game, and he was even up a pawn for much of the game, but the pawn structure and the extra pawn meant absolutely nothing until his pieces were coordinated. Compare Black's position after move 13 to Black's position after move 30. After move 30, his Rooks are connected, his Queen is in a good spot, and his pawns are ready to roll. After 13 moves, Black's Queen is the only active piece and in line to be harassed by White's pieces. His Knight on e7 is passive, and his entire Queenside is undeveloped. None of his pieces worked together at all at that point, and hence why it was Harmony, or Coordination, that mattered most for Black.
While the Winawer is an extreme case of how critical it is to ask the question "What Matters Most?", this question can and just as much should be asked in any game you play, no matter what the opening is.
That concludes this edition of The French Connection. Until next time, good luck in your French games, Black or White.
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