A couple of test positions before we start:
White to move. I'm not sure there's a right or wrong answer, but it's a bit of a judgment call. Do you take on a7?
White to move. One move draws, one move gives White an advantage.
Black to move. Does he have anything?
Chess is a strange game sometimes. Obviously, you have no control over what openings your opponents will play. Lots of people complain that they spend hours studying a certain opening before a tournament, and then suddenly nobody plays into that opening against you anymore. At one point, I experienced the opposite effect. While I was writing my "Fighting the French" course for Chessable, not once but twice in one tournament one of the main lines of the French Tarrasch appeared on my board. Not only that, but they both followed the same path for 14 moves (well, Black deviated on move fourteen...).
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6
I really don't want to have to abandon my favourite system against the French, but 3...c5 4.exd5 Qxd5 provides something of an incentive to do so, as it's currently looking very very solid for Black.
4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.Nf3 Bd6 11.0-0 Qc7
11...0-0 is the other main line, while 11...Qb6 is played as well. With the text, Black prevents the strategically undesirable (for him) exchange of Dark Squared Bishops which follows Bf4. However, the Queen can be somewhat misplaced on c7.
12.h3!
This little move was one of the main things I learned about while working on the course. It scores fantastically, is relatively fresh, and should promise White a fairly stable positional advantage. The idea is quite simple: White wants to develop with Be3, Re1, Rc1 and Nc3, but doesn't want to allow ...Ng4 in reply to Be3.
12..0-0 13.Be3 Bd7 14.Re1!
There's some subtleties involved here; moving this Rook first discourages the typical maneuvre ...Be8-h5, as after Ng5, the e6 pawn is slightly uncomfortable to defend. With the action taking place along the e-file in this case, having the Rook on e1 turns out to be more useful than having the Rook on c1. White is likely to play both moves anyway, but it makes sense to start with the text. Of course, I'm not nearly clever enough to work this out Over the Board, but I was still just parroting what I had learned at home.
Here is where the two games split. I'll show them in chronological order. I think the first one is definitely less well played by me than the latter, but is also really interesting, in my opinion.
mn-S.S
Ottawa 2017
14...Be8 15.Ng5! Bf7 16.Rc1
There's not really any reason to take the Bishop right away. I was still "in book" at this point.
16...h6
Forcing the exchange on f7 whilst weakening the Light Squares a little bit seems odd, but the alternative, going ...Kh8 intending ...Bg8, doesn't seem altogether appealing either. Navara-Michiels, Wijk aan Zee 2015 went 16...Kh8 17.a3 Bg8 18.b4 a6 19.g3 h6 20.Nf4 with a clear advantage for White.
17.Nxf7 Qxf7 18.a3
I have written in my notes here "Nothing terribly exciting so far. White's got a small plus; Bishop pair, blah, blah. Here's where the fun starts." Pretty eloquent stuff.
18...e5?!
Black is voluntarily isolated his d-pawn in a bid for activity. Probably not a great decision objectively, but it was wonderful in practice, as it led to a complete mess.
19.dxe5 Nxe5 20.Bb1
Positionally speaking, White must be extremely well off; Bishop pair, facing the isolani, as well as some Kingside Light Square weaknesses. Black does have some play though...
20...Rad8
At this point, I noticed there was a pawn hanging.
21.Bxa7
This actually does turn out to be a good move, but it was based on a miscalculation.
21...Ne4 22.Rf1?!
22.f4! is stronger, but let's keep going down the rabbit hole.
22...Nf3+! 23.gxf3 Qg6+
I have a lot of computer generated notes to this game. I'll spare you the details and just point out that the interesting try 23...Ng5?!, which we examined in the post mortem, can be defused with 24.f4!, with the idea of a defensive Rook lift via c3.
24.Kh1?!
24.Ng3!! is a better move than the one I chose. Believe it or not, not only did I see it, but I also calculated it accurately. Unfortunately, I thought 24.Kh1 was even better, because I didn't calculate that one correctly. After 24...Bxg3 25.fxe4! Bxf2+ 26.Kh1 Bxa7 27.exd5, White is a pawn up. As mentioned, I thought I could do better than this though.
24...Rxf3??
Once this position actually appeared on the board, I panicked, because I'd noticed 24...Qh5! for the first time. I didn't see a defense, and thought I was just losing immediately. I got up to get some water, convinced I was a big idiot. Which is true, but for different reasons.
25.Ng1 (25.f4 is also fine, but I wanted to show what exactly I'd miscalculated) 25...Qe5! 26.f4 Qxf4 27.Nf3! (Oh. That's what I'd missed) Now best play seems to be 27...Qf5! 28.Ng1 Qf4 29.Nf3 and so forth. I was convinced that my opponent had missed a straight up win through the rest of the game, through the post mortem, and until I decided to run the game through the engine on my phone. I did feel just a little bit silly, because I was kind of going on to my friend about how bad I was and how my opponent missed a clear win. Really though, it might actually be worse to not only miss a key idea, but also miss the defense to it. Anyways, big sigh of relief after my opponent took on f3.
25.Ng1?!
This Knight saves the day. Although, as it turns out, White can even get away 25.Qxd5+ first, although I hadn't really considered this. (I just wanted to make it out alive with my extra piece!)
25...Rf5
25...Ng3+ 26.Kg2!! (26.fxg3! Qxg3 27.Qxd5+ Kh8 28.Qd2 wins simply) was cute, I thought. Black has three hanging pieces, and no good discoveries.
26.Be3 Rdf8 27.Bxe4 dxe4 28.Qg4 Qf6?! 29.Qxe4 Bb8 30.Qxb7 Qe5 31.Qg2 R8f6 32.Rc5 Rg6!? 33.Rxe5 Rxg2 34.Re8+
1-0
This game was played in Round 4. In Round 7, my opponent and I repeated the above game until 14.Re1. That's for next time, though...
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