2 Nf3 Versus The French

Decades ago when playing Backgammon professionally there was a story going around about the best player in the world, a fellow named “Ezra.” As the story went “Ezra” enjoyed spending time watching players new to the game. When asked why he would waste his time watching novice players yet to have found a clue the answer was he liked watched those new to the game because they had no preconceived ideas about how the game was played. For that reason I have always found watching the play of newbies interesting.

In the second round of the European Senior 65+ an unrated player, Ryszard Borowik faced class A player Roger S Scowen, rated 1864. The opening moves were 1 e4 e6 2 Nf3. Now, “Everybody knows” the best second move is 2 d4, because players are taught to “Control the center,” are they not? Playing 2 d4 has become de rigueur. Who checks to learn what the latest version of Stockfish plays on the second move? The AW, that’s who. I was shocked, SHOCKED, to see the version of Stockfish at lichess.com plays 2 Nf3.

Ryszard Borowik UNR vs Roger S Scowen 1864
European Senior 65+ (round 2)
C00 French defence

1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Qe2 dxe4 4. Qxe4 Nf6 5. Qh4 Be7 6. d3 c5 7. Nc3 Nd5 8. Qg4 Nxc3 9. bxc3 Bf6 10. Bb2 e5 11. Qe4 Nc6 12. O-O-O O-O 13. h4 g6 14. h5 Bf5 15. Qe3 Bg4 16. Qxc5 Bxh5 17. Qc4 Bxf3 18. gxf3 Bg5+ 19. Kb1 Rc8 20. Qe4 f5 21. Qc4+ Kg7 22. Qb3 Na5 23. Qb5 Nc6 24. Bc1 a6 25. Qb2 Bxc1 26. Qxc1 h5 27. Be2 f4 28. Rh2 Rf5 29. Bf1 Rg5 30. Bh3 Rc7 31. Qb2 Qd5 32. Bg2 b5 33. Qb3 Ne7 34. Kb2 Qc5 35. Bh3 Nd5 36. c4 Nb6 37. cxb5 axb5 38. Kb1 b4 39. Be6 Rc6 40. Bg8 Rc7 41. Rhh1 Qxf2 42. Rhf1 Qc5 43. Rd2 Qc3 44. Bh7 Qxb3+ 45. axb3 Kxh7 46. d4 exd4 47. Rxd4 Rg2 48. Rxf4 Rcxc2 49. Rf7+ Kh6 50. Ra7 Rb2+ 51. Ka1 Rxb3 52. f4 Ra3+ 53. Rxa3 bxa3 54. f5 gxf5 55. Rxf5 h4 56. Rf6+ Rg6 57. Rf3 Kh5 58. Rxa3 Rg3 59. Ra5+ Kg4 60. Ra6 Nd5 61. Rg6+ Kf3 62. Rd6 Nf4 63. Kb2 h3 64. Rh6 Rg2+ 65. Kc3 h2 66. Kd4 Ne2+ 67. Kd3 Ng3 68. Rf6+ Kg4 69. Rh6 h1=Q 70. Rxh1 Nxh1 71. Kc3 Kf4 72. Kd4 Rg5 73. Kd3 Rd5+ 74. Kc4 Ke4 75. Kc3 Rd4 76. Kb3 Kd3 77. Kb2 Rb4+ 78. Kc1 Ng3 79. Kd1 Rb1# 0-1
   https://live.followchess.com/#!european-senior-65-2022/2005571260

GM Mikhail Bryakin 2441 RUS vs IM Balazs Csonka 2496 HUN
Titled Tuesday intern op 12th Apr Early 2022

1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Qe2 dxe4 4.Qxe4 Nf6 5.Qh4 c5 6.b3 g6 7.Bb2 Bg7 8.Bb5+ Bd7 9.Bxd7+ Nbxd7 10.d3 O-O 11.Nbd2 Nd5 12.Qxd8 Rfxd8 13.Bxg7 Kxg7 14.g3 1/2-1/2 (From the ChessBaseDataBase)

The programs frown on 3 Qe2, preferring 3 exd5, as in the following games:

Magnus Carlsen (2857) vs Julio Catalino Sadorra (2560)
Event: 42nd Olympiad 2016
Site: Baku AZE Date: 09/08/2016
Round: 6.12
ECO: C00 French defence
1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.d4 Bd6 5.c4 Nf6 6.c5 Be7 7.Nc3 O-O 8.Be3 b6 9.b4 a5 10.a3 Ng4 11.Bf4 Re8 12.Be2 axb4 13.axb4 Rxa1 14.Qxa1 bxc5 15.bxc5 Bxc5 16.dxc5 d4 17.O-O dxc3 18.Bc4 c2 19.Qa4 Bf5 20.Nd4 Bg6 21.Nxc2 Re4 22.Bg3 Ne5 23.Bxe5 Rxe5 24.Ne3 Rxc5 25.f4 h6 26.Qb4 Nd7 27.f5 Bh5 28.Qd2 Qg5 29.Qd4 Re5 30.Qxd7 Qxe3+ 31.Kh1 Qc5 32.Qd3 Re3 33.Qc2 Qe5 34.Qd2 Kh7 35.h3 Qe4 36.Kg1 c6 37.Rc1 Qe5 38.Bf1 Rg3 39.Qf2 Qd6 40.Rc4 f6 41.Rxc6 Qxc6 ½-½
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=4009476

Vassily Ivanchuk (2704) vs Ian Nepomniachtchi (2714)
Event: SportAccord Blitz 2014
Site: Beijing CHN Date: 12/13/2014
Round: 1.8
ECO: C00 French defence
1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.d4 Nc6 5.h3 Be6 6.Bd3 Qd7 7.O-O O-O-O 8.Nbd2 f6 9.Nb3 g5 10.Re1 g4 11.Nh4 Kb8 12.Qe2 Bf7 13.Bf5 Qd6 14.Bxg4 Nge7 15.c3 h5 16.Be6 Bg6 17.Nc5 b6 18.Nxg6 Nxg6 19.Qb5 Nh4 20.Kf1 Rh7 21.g3 Ng6 22.Bf5 Nce7 23.Bxg6 Nxg6 24.Re6 1-0
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=3921752

French 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3?

Meadmaker
Sep 10, 2009

So I decided to start learning an opening or two at some point, and decided the French Defense would be one I would try out.

The books all have it. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5

There’s an occaisional variation mentioned, but that’s the line the books say is the usual one.

When playing blitz on chess.com, the most common second move I see is Nf3. What’s up with that? Has some master found great success with that line, but my books are too old for it? I just bought a book on the French Defense. 269 pages of French Defense. I doubt I’ll ever slug my way through it, but I thought I would try really studying one opening in depth, and seeing where it leads. In all those 269 pages, published in 2003, they don’t even mention the possibility of Nf3, or bother telling the reader how to reply.

So, am I just running into lots of players who don’t know the “right” move, or has someone advanced some theory showing why 2. Nc3 is superior to what people did for the last 100 years? And is there a better response than d5?
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/french-1-e4-e6-2-nf3

All The Wrong Moves Review: Part 2: Hooked, Lined, and Sinkered

I enjoyed every minute spent reading this wonderful book.

It was so interesting the book was completed in only a couple of days because I simply could not put it down. From the inside front cover jacket one reads, “Sasha Chapin is a victim of chess. (“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art – and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.” Marcel Duchamp)

Like countless amateurs before him – Albert Einstein,

Humphrey Bogart,

Marcel Duchamp

– the game has consumed his life and his mind.”

Which means, even though he is a writer by trade, he is one of us! On the inside jacket one finds, “Sasha Chapin is an award-winning journalist and recovering chess enthusiast.”

I have yet to win an award for writing and I am still recovering from the years spent playing the Royal game.

The book begins, “Anyway, like most people, I became obsessed with chess after I ran away to Asia with a stripper I’d just met.”

I had been hooked, lined, and sinkered after reading only the first sentence! The stripper was Courtney and she “…made an impression.”

From experience I know most strippers make an impression or they find another line of work.

Courtney suggests they “do drugs together – specifically Psilocybe cubensis, aka magic mushrooms. “Doing shrooms with somebody instantly acquaints you with about half of who they are.” Unfortunately, as often happens when dealing with the opposite sex, “I became sullen and Courtney became moody and erratic.” What to do? “”Since we were going crazy, I suggested we take a trip to Bangkok.”

Courtney runs out of money and decides to return to Toronto earn it the old fashion way.

“She left just before Christmas, so I was alone on New Year’s Eve in our Chiang Mai apartment…”

“In January I was writing six pieces at once, but in February I was barely writing one. My credit card balance crept up; I observed it with no particular emotion. And as I predicted, there was no sign of Courtney.” That’s when my troubles really started. That’s when life as I know it began. Not that I knew that at the time. The future never announces itself. Your destiny is quietly prepared offstage, until the hour when it emerges, saying something like, “Knock, knock, motherfucker.” Elena arrived in the apartment bearing a contagious excitation about the most recent leg of her travels.”

“Nepal is so interesting,” she said.

“What’s going on there?” I said.

“There’s a blockade, gasoline isn’t making it over the Indian border, nobody can do anything and, like, everything is paralyzed.”

“That sounds good. Should I write a story about it?”

“Totally.”

And Sasha was off to Kathmandu.

“So I did – a story about the incredibly complicated domestic tensions there, which I barely understood, even after extensive research. Essentially all I knew was that reporters should talk to people, so from the moment I landed in Kathmandu, I began a conversation with everyone who engaged me in more than a moment of eye contact. During the ungainly process, after after ambling down an arbitrary lane, I found myself in a rubble-strewn square presided over by a group of chess hustlers – strong players who make their salary on small-wager games with suckers like me.”

You know what comes next: “He opened the game in the most common fashion, by playing e4. This was the only opening move Bobby Fischer

enjoyed playing; he called it “best by test.” In response I played the move e6-the first move of the French Defense. The French Defense was an old friend of mine that I hadn’t seen since I was a teenager. I hardly recognized it when I saw it on the board, although we had once been intimately familiar. It was my weapon of choice when I played on my hippie alternative school’s Pawnishers.”

This is how the first chapter concludes, and how the book begins. Now you know how I became hooked, lined, and sinkered.

Upset in Sautron

The games from the National Open were being broadcast by a website new to me, FollowChess (http://followchess.com/news/). Further exploration brought a page of upsets, nothing but upsets (http://followchess.com/share/). Everyone loves an upset, unless they are the one being upset! The first entry is:

Upset in Sautron: Flachet 2025 beat Sergeev 2417. Attack & Tactics!
October 27, 2017

The game is, according to 365Chess, a C00 French, Chigorin variation! What are the odds?! If you are a regular of this blog you KNOW I was compelled to play over the game…

Vladimir Sergeev (2417) vs Thierry Flachet (2025)

17e open international de Sautron, 2017.10.26

1 e4 e6 2 Qe2 Be7 (Stockfish at the ChessBaseDataBase gives this as best. Komodo prefers 2…c5, which is the move chosen by Siegbert Tarrasch

in the second game of the 1893 match with Mikhail Chigorin,

still the most outstanding Chess match ever contested. Seven times Chigorin played 2 Qe2 against his opponent’s French defense. If you have not played over the match I urge you do do so. It can be found at a fantastic historical website, chessgames.com (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=85135)

Here is a game played by Chigorin and the man who lost the US Chess Championship to Frank Marshall,

Jackson Whipps Showalter,

on June 13, 1899 in London. Chigorin pulled a rabbit out of his hat when playing his third move, a move that cannot be found at the CBDB!

Mikhail Chigorin vs Jackson Whipps Showalter

1. e4 e6 2. Qe2 Be7 3. Qg4 Nf6 4. Qxg7 Rg8 5. Qh6 Nc6 6. Nf3 Rg6 7. Qe3 d5 8. e5 d4 9. Qb3 Nd7 10. Bb5 Nc5 11. Qc4 Rxg2 12. b4 Nd7 13. Bxc6 bxc6 14. Qxd4 Rb8 15. Ba3 a5 16. bxa5 Rxb1+ 17. Rxb1 Bxa3 18. Qa4 Bc5 19. Qxc6 Kf8 20. d4 Be7 21. a6 Bxa6 22. Qxa6 Nb6 23. Qb7 Kg7 24. Kf1 Rg6 25. Rg1 Nd5 26. Rxg6+ hxg6 27. c4 Nf4 28. Qb8 Qd7 29. Qa8 Bf8 30. Rb8 Qe7 31. c5 Nh3 32. Qc6 1-0. Back to the game…)

3 Nf3 d5 4 e5 (Komodo’s choice of 4 d3 is far and away the most often played move, although Stockfish 9 at a depth of 32 gives 4 d4. Stochfish 9×64, at a depth of 25, shows the game move)

4…Nh6 (SF 9 and Komodo 11.2 2 64-bit at depth 27 play 4…c5, but Komodo 9.2 64-bit at depth 25 would play the game move)

5 h4? (I considered being kind and including an exclamation mark after the question mark but not because the move is dubious but because the move is so shocking. Consider for a moment you are sitting across from your student. Let us call him “Allen.” He has just begun showing his most recent rated game and you are sitting behind the black pieces. Your first instinct may be something like, “What the hell kinda move is THAT?!” You cannot say this because Allen is a “Priest.” So you stifle yourself and say, “That is a bad move.” Although a middle-aged man Allen looks like one of your young students as he hangs his head before asking, “Why is it bad?” As you sit gazing into the distance you consider his lowly 701 rating and recall some of the lame opening moves you played in the past before replying, “Because it is unnecessary.” Then you tell him about how important time is in the opening phase of the game, and of the many things one needs to accomplish in the opening, such as development, etc. You would follow by explaining why 5 g3, to develop the bishop, is the way to play this particular opening. This would also be the time you attempted to explain why h4 may be a decent move in the opening if black has weakened his pawn structure when playing g6. This would make Allen feel a little better, especially if you add, “In many openings the same moves are played, but what matters is not the move played, but the order in which they are played. There must be a reason for every move.” Since you must sit there and see the remaining moves of Allen’s game you decide to show him the opening moves of the game between Dimitri Bogdanov (2175) and Bjorn Brinck Claussen (2354) from the 21st Politiken Cup in 1999 at Copenhagen. 1 e4 e6 2 Qe2 Be7 3 Nf3 d5 4 e5 Nh6 5 g3 f5 6 d4 Nf7 7 h4. “See how the pawn stops any black piece from coming to g5?” you ask. “Now the rook pawn move has a purpose,” you say as the color begins returning to Allen’s face. This causes you to show him the rest of the game before having to get back to his game. After all, you are getting paid by the hour…

7…c5 8. dxc5 Na6 9. Be3 Qc7 10. Bg2 Nxc5 11. Bd4 O-O 12. O-O Bd7 13. Re1 b5 14. Nbd2 a5 15. Bxc5 Qxc5 16. Nb3 Qb6 17. Nbd4 Nd8 18. Qd2 Nb7 19. Rad1 Nc5 20. Qf4 b4 21. Bf1 a4 22. Re3 Ne4 23. Rdd3 a3 24. bxa3 Rxa3 25. Rxa3 bxa3 26. Rb3 Qa7 27. Kg2 Rc8 28. Qe3 Qc7 29. Ba6 Rb8 30. Rxb8+ Qxb8 31. Qb3 Qa7 32. Bb5 Bc8 33. c4 Bc5 34. Qd3 g6 35. cxd5 exd5 36. Nc6 Qb6 37. Qxd5+ Kg7 38. Bc4 Qb2 39. Kh3 Qxf2 0-1)

5…c5 6 d3 Nf5 (6…Ng4 would be possible because of white playing pawn to h4) 7 c3 h6 8 h5 Nc6 9 Na3 a6 10 Nc2 b5

11 g3 (Although the move could have possibly been played earlier, now looks like the right time for 11 g4)

11…a5 (The coach would have to take time here explaining why development should be completed before launching any kind of aggressive movement, such as the last move. 11…O-O or Bb7 are good alternative moves)

12 Bg2 Rb8 13 Bf4 b4 14 c4 b3 15 ab3 Rb3 16 Bc1 Ba6 17 O-O O-O 18 Re1 dc4 19 dc4 Ncd4 20 Ncd4 Nd4 21 Nd4 cd4

22 Rd1 (22 Qg4! Kh8 23 Bd2 looks about equal) 22…Bc5 23 Be4? (23 Bxh6! gxh6 24 Qg4+ Kh8 25 Qf4 Kh7 26 Be4+ Kg7 27 Qg4+ Kh8 28 Qf4 looks like all white can hope for at this point in the game)

Take a good look at this position as black. What move would you make?

23 Rg3! (Brings the house DOWN! Examine ALL checks, something neglected by the much higher rated player)

24 Kf1 d3 (I looked at moving the rook to either b3 or h3, in addition to 24…f5, so the move in the game took me by surprise) 25. Rd3 Rd3

26 Bd3 (The human brain rejects 26 Qxd3 Qh4 27 Kg2 Qxf2+ 28 Kh3, leaving the King naked in no mans land) 26…Qh4 27. Qf3 Rd8 ( As my friend the Master of Understatement was fond of saying, 27…Bb7 looks strong, not that it matters) 28. Be4 Bc4 29. Kg2 Rd4 30. Ra5 Re4 31. Ra8 Kh7 32. Qe4 Qe4 0-1

P. Vessosi (2351) vs M. Astengo (2064)

Lodi Open 2008

1. e4 e6 2. Qe2 Be7 3. Nf3 d5 4. e5 Nh6 5. d3 Nf5 6. g3 c5 7. Bg2 Nc6 8. O-O g5 9. c3 h5 10. h3 g4 11. hxg4 hxg4 12. Nh2 Nh6 13. Rd1
Bd7 14. Na3 Qb6 15. Bxh6 Rxh6 16. Nxg4 Rg6 17. Bf3 O-O-O 18. Kg2 Rdg8 19. Rac1 Kb8 20. Rh1 Qa5 21. Rh6 Rxg4 22. Bxg4 Bg5 23. Rch1 Bxh6 24. Rxh6 b5 25. Bh5 Be8 26. d4 c4 27. Qd2 b4 28. cxb4 Qxb4 29. Qc3 Qf8 30. Rf6 Rh8 31. g4 Nb4 32. Nc2 Nd3 33. Ne1 Qg7 34. Kf1 Qh7 35. Nxd3 cxd3 36. Qb4+ Ka8 37. f3 Qg7 38. Qd2 Qh7 39. Ke1 Rf8 40. b3 Bb5 41. a4 Ba6 42. b4 Bc4 43. b5 Qg7 44. Qf4 Qh7 45. Kd2 Bb3 46. Rxf7 Rxf7 47. Qxf7 Qh6+ 48. f4 Bxa4 49. g5 Qh8 50. Qe8+ 1-0

The general of the white pieces takes 46 seconds of his five minutes to play his THIRD move of the game, obviously flummoxed by the choice of move made by the general of the black pieces.