Opening Bomb Diary #21: Destroying the French Wing Gambit

The French Defense is experiencing a new rise in popularity these days, with Grischuk and Nepo wheeling it out in the Candidates, both confident that it would withstand the highest level of preparation.

But perhaps this is not surprising. Compared to openings such as the Najdorf, which requires memorizing a whole encyclopedia of lines in order to not get mated, the French just requires mapping out three main lines: The Steinitz/Winawer, Tarrasch, and Advance Variations. Besides the King's Indian Attack, all the sidelines are pretty harmless. Couple this with the fact that the newest Lc0 engines give surprisingly equal evals to the critical positions, and it's only a matter of time before we see more French at the top level. 

For an amateur like me, this is also fantastic. I just had to spend some time and work mapping out the three mainlines, spend a bit more time to crush the sidelines, and suddenly I had a French repertoire that was both easy to learn and packed with novelties. 

However, there was one sideline that drove me crazy to face: The French Wing Gambit. The positions are surprisingly hard to find clean equality against using engines. Also, from a purely petty standpoint, I refuse to accept and "respect" the gambit. After relentless digging, I finally came up with a solution that is not only dangerous for White, but also one of the coolest opening lines I've found recently. Let's take a look!

So there you have it. We flipped the script on Wing Gambit players. It's so aesthetically satisfying to me how the black pieces coordinate and click in place after the two pawns are sacrificed. 

Hope you enjoyed the idea. I'm considering sharing at least parts of this "Fast and Futuristic" French repertoire I've built, as well as some other big ideas in my favorite openings, so stay tuned!