Could you please show a game on Grofe's strategy and another one on what you think should be done?
French defense by Grofe
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benedictus wrote:
Could you please show a game on Grofe's strategy and another one on what you think should be done?
Tue. May 26: I'll look it up on Chessbase and get back to you. I'll also examine
Frfitz 8 . It should not be too much to set that up as it is only 5 or 6 moves.
pakitine wrote:
Hello Benedictus:
In the sequence that I copied below, according to Fritz 8 White goes into the
9th move with a small (40/100) pawn advantage. After the exchange (10 of the
pawns at f6, White has to triple pawns with an exchange and goes down to
a -40/100 situation.
However, most of the moves had to be amended from Fritz which were more like the ones I would have made. Goes to show that parallel theories exist in play and to study one needs to accept the school of the teacher.
(copy of Grofe's lesson below)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 (the Winawer Variation) 4.e5 is our starting position. Black has virtually committed himself to surrendering the two bishops. Nevertheless, his third move continued to apply the thematic French pressure against e4. This induced White to forge ahead with e4-e5 rather than awkwardly trying to maintain the center pawns at e4 and d4, which he couldn't do for long anyway.
The active counterblow 4...c5 hits the White pawn chain at its base on d4. The idea is to undermine d4 and turn the advanced peshky at e5 into a target.
5. a2a3 BxB3 6 BxC3 N g8e7 7. Ng1f3 Bb8c7 8. a3a4 Qd8a5 ! 9. Bc1d2 N b8c6 10.
After 6.bxc3 the dark squares in Black's position need to be watched carefully lest they become nesting spots for the White pieces now that the "good bishop" is gone.
. . . Ng8e7
7. ..B b8c7 8. a3a4 Qd8a5! 9.Bc1d2 N b8c6 10. Be2 . . .f7f6?
White presses ahead with simple development on 7.Nf3, strengthening the key points d4 and e5. If he played 7.Qg4 you could answer with the sharp 7...Qc7 or 7...0-0. For a long time the latter was considered inferior but today seems playable, though requiring knowledge of some tricky variations.
White's a-pawn is virtually there for the taking if you want to go after it, but not only will this cost time, you'll get several pieces out of play and possibly tangled up.
The sharp 8...Qa5 attacks c3 and forces White to attend to his pawns.
White goes for a complex middlegame with 9.Bd2, forgetting about the a3-f8 diagonal for the time being. If instead White plays 9.Qd2, there comes 9...Nbc6 with the intention of trading pawns on d4 and then queens, but not till White can no longer retake on d2 with the c1-bishop. If White keeps this bishop on c1 his development suffers. But if he goes to a3 with it, then after exchanging queens on d2 you can get your c6-knight to a5 with good counterplay.
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At some point White can gain a tempo and open up the center with c3-c4, but he must give this break careful thought, as his own center can easily collapse.
(I did not find Grofe on Chessbase This is not a complete one, goes down only to 2700)
"Question Authority"
( "A kaleidoscope of Openings")
I disagree with the sequence in Grofe's lesson
"French Defense Winauer that concludes with Black's move,
f7-f6 you expect answered by e5xf6,
If Black retakes g7*f6 leaves a gap or else where is Black going to move his knight?
Without further analysis the whole thing looks deadly as that white pawn advances
and threatens the rookwith the F3 Knight following
Grofe's trategy on the Queen's side was to keep White from
working the King's side in the first place
but I don't see how his moves are any better than what I have usually seen:
Also Black's B knight usually goes to D7 instead of c6 to back up Black's
G knight.
If Black made the counter attack early (5 . . . f7f6
6 E5x f6 N g8x f6
Or Else Black moving 5 . . . F7 F5
so White has to decide on an ep or leaving Black's pawn at f5.
That is keeping White busy enough so that a3-a4 etc. does not happen.