Opening Bomb Diary #14: Refuting the 3.h6 French

Happy New Year! To kick things off, I'd like to share one of the most lethal discoveries I've recently found: a new idea that might refute the popular 3.h6 French. 

One of the advantages of playing the French as black is that it's great to specialize in. Black has a whole host of ideas against the 3.Nc3 and 3.Nd2 mainlines, and so a well-prepared French player can be incredibly hard to pin down despite playing their favorite opening every game. In this article, however, lets lay waste to a entire battleground where they might choose to hide next. 

The 3.h6 Tarrasch

The Refutation:

12.Qb6

12.cxd4

It seems that black will have to look for alternatives earlier, but this is hard to imagine when the whole point of the variation is to play h6-g5. I'm confident but not certain that 11.Nh2 is the final word on this line. As always practical tests are needed, so if you feel brave enough to toss a few pawns into the fire this year, Happy Hunting!