Attacking the French Defense

Recently, I finished an interesting game as part of the USTCL chess league. This league is an online chess.com league for US states and Canadian territories that play each other throughout the year.

2020 USTCL, D1, R9: New Jersey vs. Pennsylvania - Board 16

This French defense, the normal variation of the French, is a bit different because black plays 2 .. b6 instead of d5. The light squared bishop fianchettoes on the diagonal and the bishop (in addition to a knight on f6) puts extra pressure on the e4 pawn. In this opening, I messed up by playing 5. Be3, preventing myself from further defending the e4 square with a move like 6. Qe2. After black added lots of pressure on the e4 square and pinned my c3 knight, I was forced to play 6. f3, compromising my pawn structure. Black has a slight advantage here but it’s far from over.

All of the pressure I used to have on the e4 square is gone now, which means the position is fairly equal now. In fact, this looks a lot more like a normal French defense then the previously highlighted position. After white castles kingside, a full-blown kingside attack is just waiting for black if he doesn’t defend properly.

The move 13 .. c4 forces me (as white) to make a decision. Pushing my f-pawn to f6 looks promising, forcing a win of the f6 and g7 squares, opening up black’s kingside to a large attack. This would, however, cost me my light-squared bishop, basically committing me to a kingside attack. Instead, I can also forget this sacrifice with 14. Be2 exf5 and try to work my way around the pawns in a much slower fashion. Seeing that after 14. f6 cxd3 15. fxg7 Re8 (Kxg7? Bh6±), black’s kingside is hopeless, I allowed the piece sacrifice and played aggressively.

It turns out that my attack succeeded. Unlike I previously expected, black played 15 .. Kxg7, allowing me to win his rook. Now, losing two minor pieces for a rook is usually a bad trade, and black still technically has a material advantage. Still, this “material” is all hidden behind black’s pawns: the three minor pieces are doing nothing due to the locked pawns on d4 and d5, and the kingside rook has nowhere to go. On the other hand, my minor pieces actively attack black’s kingside, and even my a1 rook can shift over and help control the f-file in some lines. However, will I have enough power to close in on the king before black can reactivate his pieces? In the past, I have been a tactical player but not an aggressive player, so although the position looks promising, at this point it can go either way.

Black messes up once again. By playing 16 .. Kh8 17. Bxf8 Nxf8??, I am able to play the powerful 18. Ng5, threatening a royal fork and a decisive mating attack. Black may have saved his queen, but after Nxf7+, the king will be mated in just a few moves.

Overall, the f-pawn break allowed me to obtain a huge positional advantage against the French defense. Even at the cost of a fairly active bishop, putting a defended pawn on f6 was worth it for a few reasons:

• The g7 pawn was removed, and the king couldn’t hide behind its pawns
• Black could never break my d4-e5-f6 pawn chain by pushing f7-f6 himself (as the pawn wouldn’t be supported by a pawn on g7)
• The f1 rook had increadible range over the open file, and could support attacks on the f7 square

Soon, I’ll post some games I played at the Empire City Open in New York City, and those games will have sharper positional games with more exciting positions.