Chess Evolution: The French Defence (part eight)

BLACK had one other major choice in the French Classical: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5, instead of 4...Bb4 and 4...Be7, and that is 4...dxe4.
The move goes back to at least 1878, but it was English master Amos Burn who popularised it in the late 1880s and the 1890s.
Carl Schlechter - Amos Burn
Berliner SG 70th Anniversary (Berlin) 1897
French Burn
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nbd7
Today 5...Be7 is considered the main move, but Burn scored much better with the text.
6.Nf3 Be7 7.Nxf6+ Nxf6 8.Bd3 c5!?
Burn castled in a round-four win over Rudolf Charousek, as indeed he had done nine years earlier in a win over Charles Locock. But in round five of this tournament, against Richard Teichmann, he switched to the text and lost. This game against Schlecter was in round eight.
9.dxc5!?
Tecihmann preferred 9.c3.
9...Qa5+ 10.c3 Qxc5 11.Qe2
Magnus Carlsen played 11.0-0 in a 2006 win over Ulf Andersson, but the text scores very well in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database.
11...Bd7
Both players are being cagey about their castling intentions, reminding me of the dictum attributed to Pillsbury: "Castle because you will or because you must, but not because you can."
12.Ne5 Rd8
Petrosian played 12...Bc6 in a draw with Spassky in their 1966 world championship match.
13.0-0
Somewhat speculative-looking is 13.0-0-0!? but it seems playable.
13...0-0?
The analysis engines Stockfish11 and Komodo11.01 suggest 13...h6 or 13...Bd6!? The text loses material, but can you see how?

Position after 13...0-0?

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14.Rad1?
The position after 13...0-0? appears 12 times in Mega20 but only Ludwig Rellstab - Kurt Richter, Berlin Championship 1932, saw 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 15.Bxh7+ Kxh7 16.Qd3+ Kg8 17.Nxd7 and 18.Nxf6+. If 16...Kh8, White still emerges a pawn up after 17.Nxd7 thanks to having a queen check at h3.
14...Bc6 15.c4 Qb6 16.Qc2 h6 17.Bh4 Rd4 18.Bg3 Rfd8 19.Qe2?!
Black gets something of an initiative after this. Safer was 19.Nxc6.
19...Be4 20.Bxe4 Nxe4 21.Rxd4 Qxd4 22.Qh5 Rf8
Black has been obliged to go passive with his rook, but he commands the centre of the board.
23.b3 Bc5 24.Qe2
The engines suggest 24.Ng4 Nxg3 25.hxg3, but prefer Black after 25...f5 or 25...g6!?
24...Rd8 25.Qh5
Schlechter makes a tacit draw offer, but Burn wants more.
25...f6?
Better is 25...g6, one point being that 26.Qxh6?? loses to 26...Nxg3 and 27...Qxe5.
26.Ng4?!
Schlechter presumably saw he had a draw with 26.Qf7+ Kh7 27.Qg6+, but must have thought Burn's last move left him with winning chances.
26...e5?!
It is hard to know what both players missed as Black seems comfortably better after the simple 26..Nxg3.
27.Qg6?!
Here the engines give 27.Bh4 Ng5 25.Bxg5 hxg5 26.Ne3 with what they reckon is just a small edge for Black.
27...Kf8 28.Ne3 Nc3
Very good for Black, according to the engines, is 28...Qd3, eg 29.Nf5 Rd7 30.Qg4 Nc3, when White can hardly defend his queenside.
29.Qh7?
Correct is 29.Nf5, threatening mate and attacking the black queen at the same time. After 29...Qd7 30.Qh7 Black has no time to go after the white queenside pawns with 30...Nxa2?? as 31.Qh8+ Kf7 32.Qxg7+ Ke6 33.Qg4 leaves him busted.  Best, according to the engines, is 30...Ne2+ 31.Kh1 Qf7 with what they reckon is dead-equality.
29...Ne2+ 30.Kh1 Qd3! 31.Qxd3 Rxd3
With queens off the board, there is no longer any danger to the black king, and Black's pieces are much better coordinated than White's.
32.Rd1 Rxd1+ 33.Nxd1 Bd4 34.f3
Or 34.Ne3 Nc1 etc.
34...Nxg3+ 35.hxg3 f5 36.g4 e4 0-1
Schlechter resigned as the black e pawn will cost White his knight.

Lasker's Spanish Inquisition (part six)

THIS was the first game of the 1908 world championship match.
Emanuel Lasker - Siegbert Tarrasch
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d4
Lasker had played 5.Nc3 in a win against Tarrasch 12 years before.
5...exd4 6.Qxd4 Qxd4 7.Nxd4 c5!?
Fred Reinfeld & Reuben Fine condemned this in a 1935 book, reprinted by Dover in 1965 as Lasker's Greatest Chess Games 1889-1914, for weakening Black's queenside, but it has been the choice of many strong players.
8.Ne2 Bd7 9.b3!?
Reinfeld & Fine criticise this rare move as "an indifferent idea," preferring 9.Bf4 followed by Nd2 "with pressure on Black's queenside pawns."
Andrew Soltis in Why Lasker Matters (Batsford, 2005) says "the natural response to ...c5" is Nbc3, intending Nd5.
9...Bc6
Reinfeld & Fine recommend castling, with ...f6 to follow to blunt White's bishop.
Soltis says Alekhine was impressed by Schlechter's recommendation of 9...c4. The future world champion used it in a 1909 game, meeting 10.bxc4 with 10...Ba4?!, when 11.c3 0-0-0 was unpleasant for White. But Stockfish10 and Komodo10 come up with a major improvement, 11.Nbc3, the point being that Black's light-square bishop is trapped after 11...Bxc2?? 12.Kd2, so instead has to retreat with loss of tempo.
10.f3 Be7 11.Bb2 Bf6?!
Reinfeld & Fine are surely right in calling this "illogical, since Black's only compensation for his weakened queenside is his two bishops." Soltis calls it "a curious decision."
12.Bxf6 Nxf6 13.Nd2 0-0-0 14.0-0-0 Rd7 15.Nf4 Re8
As Soltis points out, 15...Rhd8? loses a pawn to 16.Nd3 as 16...b6?? allows 17.Ne5.
16.Nc4 b6 17.a4
Soltis gives this an exclamation mark, but does not explain why.
17...a5
This is Komodo10's choice, but Reinfeld & Fine call it "purposeless," saying Black should have played ...Kb7 followed by ...b5 to create counterplay.
18.Rxd7 Nxd7 19.Rd1 Ne5 20.Nxe5 Rxe5
Reinfeld  & Fine say the ending favours White "because of the relative immobility of Black's bishop."
21.c4
This gets an exclamation mark in both books, but the move is almost compulsory as otherwise Black undoubles his pawns with ...c4.
21...Re8 22.Nh5 Rg8?!
A horrible-looking move. The engines point out the better 22...Re6, which effectively prevents 23.Nxg7 as White does not want to allow 23...Rg6 followed by ...Rxg2.
23.Rd3 f6 24.Kd2 Be8 25.Ng3 Bd7
Soltis: "In principle, Black should be reluctant to trade rooks (...Bg6 and ...Rd8) because there is a danger that White will simply create a passed kingside pawn. Here ...c6 followed by ...Kc7 and ...b5 looks right."
26.Ke3 Re8 27.Nh5 Re7 28.g4
Another move that Soltis rewards with an exclamation mark, but does not explain what is so good about it. However, note that 28.f4? loses the e pawn, eg 28...Bc6 29.Ng3 h5 30.h4 Bxe4 31.Nxe4 f5 etc.
28...c6
Soltis praises this move, saying it is necessary to keep the knight out of d5.
29.h4 Kc7

How should White proceed?

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30.g5?!
This move passes without comment in both books, but it seems to be an example of how Lasker occasionally became impatient to finish a game.
The engines suggest 30.Rd1, but do not really come up with a plan for further activating White's kingside.
Perhaps 30.Kf4!? was best. The idea is to be able to play g5 without allowing the reply ...f5.
30...f5 31.Ng3 fxe4 32.Nxe4
Soltis says "the thematic" 32.fxe4 is better, but that Black is fine with ...b5. The engines reckon ...Rf7 is also satisfactory.
32...Bf5 33.h5 Rd7! 34.Rc3!?
The players have seen, and the commentators agree, that White cannot make progress after 34.Rxd7+ Kxd7 35.Kf4 Ke6. The text, hardly surprisingly, does not improve White's position, but avoids simplification - a sign, surely, that Lasker regarded himself as the superior player.
34...Rd1 35.Kf4 Bd7?
Tarrasch goes wrong almost immediately. He had a simple draw with 35...Bxe4 36.Kxe4 Rh1, which wins the h5 pawn, although White is in no trouble either as Black cannot create a passer on the queenside.
36.Re3 Rh1 37.Ng3 Rh4+ 38.Ke5 Rh3  39.f4 Kd8 40.f5 Rh4 41.f6 gxf6+ 42.Kxf6 Be8 43.Nf5!
Not the only way to win but, as Reinfeld & Fine say, "pretty and decisive."
43...Rf4
Or 43...Rxh5? 44.Rxe8+ Kxe8 45.Ng7+.
44.g6 hxg6 45.hxg6 Rg4 46.Rxe8+!? Kxe8 47.g7 Kd7 48.Nh4 Rxg7!?
A desperate last try, but White has it all covered.
49.Kxg7 Ke6 50.Nf3 Kf5 51.Kf7 Ke4 52.Ke6 Kd3 53.Kd6 kc3 54.Kxc6 Kb3 55.Kb5 1-0