Morphing The French XXI

MY latest attempt to play against the French Defence in the style of Paul Morphy.

Spanton (1998) - Sam Davies (1944)

Ilkley Round 2

French Exchange

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Bd6!?

This is Black's most-popular reply in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database, and also the most-successful of the popular moves, scoring an excellent 58%.

5.Bd3 Ne7!?

Position after 5...Ne7!?

One rule-of-thumb for creating winning chances in the Exchange Variation of the French Defence is to develop the king's knight in a different way, eg if the white king's knight goes to e2, the black king's knight should go to f6, and if, as in this game, the white king's knight goes to f3, the black king's knight can go to e7.

6.0-0 Bg4 7.Re1 Qd7 8.Nbd2 Nbc6 9.c3 0-0

Another rule-of-thumb for creating winning chances is to castle on the opposite flank, and 9...0-0-0 is easily the commonest move in Mega21. It also scores eight percentage points better than  the text.

10.Nf1 Rfe8 11.Ng3!?

This has been played by a 2512, but 11.Ne3, immediately hitting the light-square bishop, may be better. My idea with the text was to follow up with h3, but I never get the chance to effectively play this.

11...Nf5 12.Nxf5 Bxf5 13.Be3 Ne7 14.Bg5!?

Stockfish14 flips between the text and 14.Ne5. Komodo12.1.1 marginally prefers 14.Nh4 over 14.Ne5.

14...f6 15.Be3!?

The engines prefer 15.Bh4.

The question after the text is whether giving Black the free move 14...f6 has weakened the black position or surrendered a useful tempo; I suspect the latter is more likely to be correct.

15...Bxd3

Stockfish14 prefers attacking on the kingside with 15...g5!? Komodo12.1.1 suggests consolidation with 15...c6.

16.Qxd3 Nf5 17.Re2 Bf8!?

Part of a plan to reroute the knight to e4. The downside is that the manoeuvre, including reactivating the bishop, takes a lot of time.

18.Rae1 Nd6 19.Bf4 Ne4 20.Nd2

An interesting alternative to immediately challenging the black knight is 20.c4 c6 21.c5!?

20...Nxd2 21.Qxd2 c6 22.f3!?

I cannot recall my thinking here, but the text may have been to stop Black putting pieces on the g4 and e4 squares (as well as eliminating back-rank mating threats).

22...Rxe2 23.Qxe2 Kf7 24.Qd3 Re8 25.Rxe8 Qxe8 26.Kf2

26.Qxh7?? would demonstrate that not all back-rank mating threats were eliminated by 22.f3!?

26...g6 27.h4 Qe6 28.h5 Bd6 29.hxg6+ hxg6 30.Qd2 Qd7 31.Bxd6 Qxd6 32.Qh6

White gets a slight initiative, but against careful defence it is not enough to upset the balance.

32...Qf8 33.Qh7+ Qg7 34.Qh2 Qf8 35.Qf4

35.Qc7+ Qe7 36.Qb8 a6 is nothing for White.

35...Kg7

SD offered a draw.

36.g4 Qe7 37.Qe3 ½–½