Malta Round 9
French Exchange
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5
My seventh attempt to play against the French Defence in the style of Paul Morphy.
3...exd5 4.Nf3 Bd6 5.Bd3
Carlsen and Kasparov have played 5.c4, but I do not believe that is in the style of Morphy, who emphasised fast development.
5...Ne7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3 c6
This is overwhelmingly the most popular move. For 7...h6, see my round-five game: https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2019/11/morphing-french-vi.html
8.Re1 Bf5 9.Nh4
Not 9.Rxe7? Bxd3 10.Rxb7 Ba6 11.Rb3 Bc4 12.Rb7 Qc8.
Mir Sultan Khan - Sir George Thomas, Liege 1930, saw 9.Bg5 f6 10.Bh4 with a fairly even position (but 0-1, 44 moves).
9...Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Na6 11.a3
During the game, I could not help feeling Morphy would have found a way to avoid this non-developing defensive move. Stockfish10 suggests 11.Ne2!?, and if 11...Nb4, then 12.Qb3 a5 13.a3 a4 14.Qc3 Na6 15.Bf4, although the position looks very drawish.
11...Qd7 12.Ne2 Qg4 13.Nf3 f6!?
This takes away the e5 and g5 squares from White's pieces, but creates a hole at e6 and slightly weakens the black king's position.
14.Ng3
I avoided the immediate 14.h3 because of the reply 14...Qf5.
14...Rae8 15.h3 Qd7
If 15...Qg6, the engines give 16.Qb3 b6 17.Nh4, with at best a small edge for White.
16.Bd2 Nc7 17.Nh4 Ne6 18.Ngf5 Nxf5 19.Qxf5 Qf7 20.c3 Nc7 21.Qg4 Rxe1+?!
Black gets a slight initiative after 21...f5. which must be better than giving up the e file for no apparent reason.
22.Rxe1 f5 23.Qf3 g6
Having said that, the engines reckon Black is equal after 23...f4 or 23...Qf6.
24.Bf4
This allows simplifications, but it is in White's favour to exchange dark-square bishops as Black's bishop is more active than White's.
24...Re8 25.Re3 Rxe3 26.Qxe3 Bxf4 27.Qxf4 Qe7
This position may look very drawish, but White is slightly better because a) the black king's position is airy, b) the white knight has an excellent outpost at e5, whereas a black knight on e4 can be evicted at will.
28.Nf3 Ne8 29.Ne5 Nd6 30.h4 Kg7 31.Nf3!?
In order to play h5 without allowing the reply ...g5.
31...Nc4
In the mini-postmortem, BS said he should have played 31...h6, although the engines slightly prefer White after 32.a4.
32.h5! Qd6
Best according to the engines, but Black's defence becomes tricky after …
33.h6+
The point is that a pawn on the sixth rank in the vicinity of an enemy king creates a surprising number of threats.
33...Kg8
The engines' choice, at least for most of the time, although Komodo10 for a while prefers 33...Kf8.
34.Qg5!?
White has an edge after 34.Qc1, but we were nearing the move-40 time control and I wanted to keep the pressure on.
34...Nxb2 35.Nh4
 |
| Black to make his 35th move |
*****
*****
*****
*****
35...Qe6??
Best seems to be 35...Kf7, when 36.Nf3 gives White full compensation for the pawn, according to Stockfish10, but Komodo10 reckons Black has a slight edge. I was contemplating 36.Nxf5??, missing that Black has 36...Qf6, which wins thanks to the weakness of h6 and the fact that Black has the more-active king.
36.Qd8+
Black is completely lost. The remaining moves were:
36...Kf7 37.Qh8 Qe1+ 38.Kh2 Qxf2 39.Qxh7+ Ke8 40.Qxg6+ Kd8 41.Nf3 Nd1 42.Qd6+ Ke8 43.h7 1-0
My final score of +5=0-4 saw me gain 17.4 Fide elo. It also tied a world record for fewest draws in a nine-round international tournament.
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