Morphing The French XXII

FACED a junior (born 2009) in the last round at Hradec Králové, which was played on November 13.

The game gave me another chance to try to play against the French Defence in the style of Paul Morphy.

Spanton (1804) - Lukas Zelba (1883)

Hradec Králové Round Nine

French Exchange

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Bd6 5.Bd3 Nc6!?

As far as I can discover, Morphy never faced this continuation, which scores 63% for Black in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database.

6.0-0 Nge7

This move, which is the most popular continuation, has been played by Vladimir Kramnik and many other strong grandmasters.

7.Re1 Bg4 8.c3 Qd7

There are more than 1,000 games with this position in Mega22.

9.Nbd2 0-0-0!?

Castling on opposite flanks is often suggested as a recipe for Black to avoid a draw, and the text has been played by the likes of  Alexander Alekhine, Rudolf Spielmann, Nigel Short and Wesley So. That is a very good pedigree, but the move is certainly risky.

The stage is set for rival flank attacks

10.b4 Rdf8?!

Apparently a novelty, and almost certainly not a good one as the rook's prospects for action seem slim on the f file. The main moves are 10...Ng6 and 10...Rde8.

11.b5 Nd8 12.a4 f6 13.a5 g5 14.b6 Kb8 15.bxa7+ Ka8!?

A reasonably well-known idea - the king shelters behind an enemy pawn.

16.Rb1 h5 17.c4 h4?!

Also dubious is 17...dxc4?! 18.Nxc4, when the threat is 19.a6 b6 20.Rxb6! Possibly best is 17...Bf5, but the engines reckon White is much better after 18.Bxf5 Nxf5 19.c5.

18.c5 Bxh2+?!

Best, according to Stockfish14.1 and Komodo12.1.1, is 18...Bf4, but they reckon 19.a6 gives White a large advantage.

19.Kxh2 Bxf3 20.Qxf3 g4 21.Qe2 g3+ 22.Kg1 Nec6 23.Nf3 Re8 24.Be3 f5 25.a6 f4 26.axb7+Nxb7 27.Qb2 1-0