I’m currently playing in the Spring 2019 Tuesday Night Marathon at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco. In a previous post, we looked at my game from round 1. In this post, we’re going to focus on my game from round 2. I was black against A-player Guy Argo (currently rated 1909).
The games from this event can be watched live on Chessbomb every Tuesday night. Be sure to tune in!
Unlike in round 1, in this round I knew my pairing one day in advance. I had looked at some of Guy Argo’s games, and saw that he mostly plays 1. e4 as white, and usually plays the Advance variation against the French Defense. Since I generally enjoy playing black in the Advance French, I decided to go for this. Sure enough, the game began:
Here, Qb6 is the most popular move, putting yet more pressure on d4. I chose the second most popular move: Bd7. One point of Bd7 is that if white develops his light squared bishop to the most active square, d3, black can then play Qb6 and will be threatening to win the d4 pawn (since white will not have a Bb5+ discovered attack afterwards). Also, 6. a3 has proven to be a relatively effective way of meeting 5… Qb6, but it makes less sense after 5… Bd7, since black can strike immediately with 6… f6.
During my preparation, I had been hoping for 6. a3. However, my opponent disappointed me by playing the standard (and likely better) move Be2.
Could white win a pawn here with dxc5?
Reveal Solution
It would be short-lived, since black would win it (either e5 or c5) back via Ng6.
Instead, white calmly castled.
What are some possible motivations behind 9. g3?
Reveal Solution
It guards the h4 square, so that black can no longer contemplate playing Nh4 to exchange knights
It prepares pawn to h4, which would threaten a further advance to h5, kicking black’s knight away
It prepares to reposition white’s bishop along the long diagonal by Bf1-g2
I castled here, completing my development.
Here, 10. h4 was probably white’s most ambitious try. How should black respond to this idea?
Reveal Solution
Black must strike with f6, but should he exchange on d4 first or not? During the game, I was intending to exchange first so as to avoid the following line
And here, I thought that Bxf6 would hang the c5 pawn, while Rxf6 would allow Bg5. It turns out that both assumptions were flawed.
One of the most interesting variations occurs if white attempts to win the c5 pawn immediately, without first playing h5.
It turns out that exchanging on d4 first is also reasonable for black. For example
Instead of playing 10. h4, white went for 10. Bf1 in the game, unblocking his rook and preparing a possible Bg2 or even Bh3 in the future.
This is not an uncommon decision for white in the French. The idea is often to relieve pressure on the d4 pawn (which no longer exists!) and focus on holding e5 instead. Here, however, it invites my bishop and queen to form a battery against f2. Additionally, black already has quite a bit of force arrayed against e5.
My opponent had taken a long time to decide on dxc5, but now blitzed out Qe2. This makes some sense, since he had to have anticipated that I would recapture with the bishop. Qe2 is logical since it adds another defender to e5 and also guards f2.
The problem for white is that his queen is doing double-duty guarding both f2 and e5. It turns out that black can exploit this directly by capturing the e5 pawn.
How to evaluate this position? Black has two pawns and a rook for a bishop and knight. By the point count system, black is ahead 7 to 6. On the other hand, there are many instances when two pieces can work very well together, and white does have the two bishops. In this particular case, however, black’s extra pawns are both center pawns, and white is somewhat behind in development. Taking these two factors into account, it seemed likely to me that black was substantially better, and Stockfish appears to agree.
What do you think is the most accurate way for black to proceed here?
Reveal Solution
Since black has rooks and a lead in development, it makes sense for him to play for the initiative, and also to welcome the appearance of any open files. In the game, I failed to appreciate this. Here, black could have played Bc6! This is the move I wanted to play anyway, since it prepares to advance the d pawn with check.
In the game, I played e5. This is not a bad move, but is not the most incisive.
At this point, black should have a very large advantage. All of his pieces are ready to attack, and white still has not begun to catch up in development. Also, since fully half of my remaining pieces are rooks, I should have given some serious thought here to their future. Combining these two ideas, can you suggest a simple plan for black to convert his advantage?
Reveal Solution
In the game, I blithely played Rfd8, a slow move which throws away some of my advantage.
Black has an impressive pawn chain stretching from g7 to d4, but by playing slowly has allowed white to develop, and has also failed to open any files for his rooks. White has equalized according to Stockfish. Though I wasn’t sure how to evaluate this position during the game, I did have a vague sense that black had let something slip.
Dark visions of a white knight coming to d6 plagued my thoughts. If white managed to activate his queen and light squared bishop on top of that, I could easily be in huge trouble. After a long thought, I decided that my best hope might be to activate my queen. If my queen got to f5, it would control the d3 square (stopping white’s bishop from going there) and would threaten to invade on f3 should white move his knight away.
What would you play with black here?
Reveal Solution
Here, d3! would have kept white’s bishop from getting to c4, thereby preparing Qd5. I was fixated on keeping the pawn on d4 so white’s dark squared bishop would remain boxed in, but it was more important to play against his dangerous light squared bishop. d3 would also have paralyzed white’s knight for fear of the pawn advancing to d2 with a fork. Black would have been clearly better again after d3.
In the game, I decided to continue my plan with Qf5
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this game is the way in which I drifted after the Nxe5 combination. Instead of urgently trying to advance my central pawns and open files for my rooks, I fixated on maintaining my pawn structure and playing against white’s dark squared bishop. As a consequence, white was able to equalize and even develop some positive chances later in the game. If you find yourself with a rook against two minor pieces, remember to open files ASAP so that the influence of your rook can be felt. And if you have a lead in development, remember to play more vigorously than I did here!
