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ANNOTATED GAME
Team match England v Croatian Knights
charleshiggie (1792) vs. chorba (1677)
Annotated by: charleshiggie
(2222)
Chess opening: Queen's pawn (A40)
charleshiggie (1792) vs. chorba (1677)
Annotated by: charleshiggie
(2222)
Chess opening: Queen's pawn (A40)
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1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 |
Of course we have now reached the standard position in The French Defence, which is normally reached via 1. e4 |
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3. Nc3 |
The French Defence happens to be the only opening I have a book on, and there is a rather nice story behind it. I am a supply teacher - what our American cousins would call a substitute teacher. I go round all sorts of schools and colleges. I was in a staff room, browsing at this book, and someone said that the owner of the book had left, so if I wanted I could have it. At that time my girlfriend lived in London, and phoned her and mentioned that I had been given a book on The French Defence. The football world cup finals had just started and she said "Isn't there anything about the French midfield or the French attack?" She shared by love of football, but not of chess! |
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3... Nf6 |
The book in question is "The French Defence" by Gligoric, Uhlmann, Botvinnik & Karpov, 1975. They comment on black's third move "The oldest method of play in the French defence has been somewhat neglected of late. Perhaps the reason for this is that black cannot avoid concrete variations which tend to favour White, as practical results have shown. I agree, Bb4 or dxe are probably stronger. |
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4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 |
White can at this stage play 6. h4, with a pawn sac which is perfectly sound, but has been analyzed to a draw. My book devotes a chapter to this. The move I preferred exchanges White's bad bishop which has limited mobility due to the pawns on d4 and e5 in return for Black's good Bishop. White has a slight edge. |
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6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. f4 O-O 8. Nf3 a6 |
The book recommends 8.... c5 immediately and doesn't consider 8.... a6, although some of the databases I use show that the move has been played before. |
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9. Bd3 h6 |
White was threatening a standard sacrifice with Bxh7 and if Kxh7, Ng5ch and Q to h5 or g4 depending on how Black plays gives White either a winning attack, or, if the bishop is declined, at least an extra pawn. This does need to be defended against, but f5 or f6 are more common replies, indeed h6 was not on any of the databases I use. I had to think for myself from now on! |
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10. Ne2 |
With my Black squared bishop gone, I am not afraid to put another pawn on a black square, c3, to support d4 and allow my bishop to drop back to c2 or maybe even b1. |
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10... c5 |
c5 is the standard way of counter-attacking against the White centre in the French Defence, although here I have it covered well. |
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11. c3 cxd4 12. Nexd4 |
I was of course tempted to take back with the pawn, but this looks stronger, moving my knight from a poor backward square on e2 to a lovely attacking post on d4. |
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12... Nc6 13. h4 |
Played now with the additional bonus that if Black takes my knight on d4 I can recapture with my other knight without fear of a check from the Black queen on h4 |
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13... Nc5 14. Bc2 Bd7 15. Qe2 Nxd4 16. Nxd4 f6 |
At last attacking the White centre, but in this case, because h6 was played earlier, it leaves weak white squares around the Black king. |
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17. g3 fxe5 18. Qxe5 |
Now my pawns on d4 and e5 have been replaced by pieces which are powerfully placed. Perhaps Black should try and exchange them with say 18.... Qf6? White will always have positional trumps in this sort of position if he plays carefully, as the Black e pawn is now a backward pawn on a semi-open file, (i.e. White can attack it with rook and/or queen down the e file), and the Black bishop is bad. It is to improve this bishop that my opponent tries next. |
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18... Bb5 19. O-O-O Bc4 20. b3 Bb5 21. Rhe1 Rae8 22. f5 |
White wisely ignored the temptation just to fling all the king's side pawns forward and instead concentrates on the weak e pawn. It must fall now, leaving the d pawn weak too. |
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22... Qd8 23. fxe6 Rf6 24. e7 |
passed pawns must be pushed! |
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24... Qd7 25. Bf5 |
I was a little surprised at the resignation, but Black's position is difficult, he is a pawn down, without any compensation, the d pawn is dropping too (Be6 check and Bxd5 is in the air) |
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