What's So French About The French?

THIS is the fourth in an occasional series on How The Openings Got Their Names.
The French Defence (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5) dates back to at least the 17th century, with Greco giving examples of winning with the white and black pieces (both games, assuming they really were games - his opponents are "NN" - saw White play the Advance Variation with 3.e5).
Louis-Charles De Labourdonnais chose the French to win a game in one of his matches against Alexander McDonnell, and many other top players in the 19th century tried it at least once.
Even Paul Morphy, lover of open games, used it to beat James McConnell, who is perhaps best known today for suffering a Philidor's Mate* in another game against a pre-teen Morphy in New Orleans in 1849.
One exception to the French's popularity in the 19th century was Wilhelm Steinitz, who labelled it "the dullest of all openings."
With his first move, 1...e6, Black erects a sort of Maginot Line against a quick attack on Paris and its environs (here represented by the black king and the f7 square). He follows with 2...d5, the counterthrust the real French army was unable to perform in 1940.
But enough with the laboured metaphor: the French Defence is named after a correspondence game between the chess clubs of London and Paris in 1834. What the opening was called before 1834, I have been unable to discover.
Here is an example of the  French Defence that won the 1980 Doncaster & District Chess Association best-game prize.

My first chess trophy

David Tate (grade unknown) - Spanton (140)
Doncaster League
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.c3 c4
The standard response, preventing early white expansion with 7.b4.
7.Be2 Bd7 8.0-0 Nge7 9.Nbd2 f6?
Normal is 9...Na5.
10.Re1
Missing 10.Bxc4!, when 10...dxc4?? loses to 11.Nxc4 followed by 12.Nd6+ etc. Black therefore has to play 10...fxe5, but after 11.dxe5 Ng6 12.Ba2 Ncxe5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5, his position is very loose, eg 14.Qh5+ Ng6 15.c4, with the black king unlikely to find safety.
10...Ng6 11.exf6 gxf6 12.Nf1?!
Defending against Black's coming kingside attack, but this is probably too passive. The engines Stockfish10 and Komodo9 give 12.b3 cxb3 13.Nxb3 with an edge to White.
12...0-0-0 13.Ng3 Be7 14.Bf1 h5 15.Ne2 Bd6 16.Qc2 Rdg8 17.h4
This comes to be Stockfish10's choice, but White is in difficulties whatever he plays - Black has been allowed to build a strong attack on the kingside while White, without making any out-and-out bad moves, has failed to generate counterplay on the other flank.
17...Nce7 18.g3 Nf5 19.Kh1 e5 20.Bh3 e4 21.Nfg1 Qc7 22.Bxf5 Bxf5 23.Be3 Qg7 24.Qd2 Nxh4 25.Bf4 Qg4!
The concentration of forces around White's king is overwhelming.
26.Bxd6 Nxf3 27.Qf4 h4 28.Qxg4 hxg3+! 29.Kg2 Rh2+ 30.Kf1 Nd2#
*The finish of McConnell - Morphy, New Orleans 1849:

22...Qg1+ 23.Rxg1 Nf2#

How The Openings Got Their Names - Mar Del Plata

FELLOW Battersea Chess Club member Joe Skielnik returned earlier this month from a tournament in Spain where a mutual friend "had a couple of games on the white side of the King's Indian, Mar del Plata Variation."
Joe asks: "It appears it was first played in Najdorf v Gligoric, 1953, in Mar del Plata. However, I thought it might have had something to do with the carnage arising from the Battle of the River Plate in 1939, which sometimes appears similar to what happens on the chessboard in this line.
"Unfortunately I can find no connection, so only a mysterious coincidence?"
The Mar del Plata Variation is an important line of the King's Indian that arises after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8. d5 Ne7.

Starting tabiya of the Mar del Plata

There are more than 3,000 games with this position in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, and the Mar del Plata is important enough to get its own chapter - the first - in Robert Bellin & Pietro Ponzetto's classic Mastering The King's Indian With The Read And Play Method (Batsford, 1990).
The variation is named after a tournament held in 1953 in the Argentine coastal resort of  Mar del Plata, where Gligoric used the black side of the variation to beat Najdorf and Eliskases, and Najdorf was later held to a draw in the same variation by Trifunovic.
But the moves had been known since the 1920s at least, becoming suddenly fashionable in 1952 when it was played at the olympiad in Helsinki and in the Soviet and Hungarian championships.
At first the variation did not do well for Black - Taimanov with the white pieces beat both Aronin and Bronstein in the 1952 Soviet championship.
It was Black's success with the variation in Argentina that gained it the name Mar del Plata (the name of the city literally translates from Spanish as Sea of Silver, but in this case Plata refers to the country's Plata region rather than directly to silver or the River Plate - Rio de la Plata in Spanish).
Here is one of the variation's less-successful outings.
Ivan Nemet (GM2412) - Spanton (2250*)
Simul, Villars-sur-Ollon, 2001
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1
This was White's response from the earliest days of the variation, although its popularity has been challenged by 9.b4. The idea of both moves is to press on with c5 (after Nd3 or Be3 in the case of 9.Ne1) and to attack on the queenside before Black can organise a mating attack on the kingside.
9...Nd7 10.Be3
This has become more popular than the immediate Nd3.
10...f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.Rc1 h5 14.c5 Nf6?
Correct was 14...Nxc5, and if 15.b4, the move I was worried about, then 15...Na6. Black need not fear 16.Bxa6?! bxa6 as Black's kingside attack is enhanced by the absence of White's light-square bishop.
15.cxd6 cxd6 16.Nb5 Ne8 17.Nxa7 Kh8
17...Bd7 was played in Stefan Docx (2384) - Slavisa Brenjo (2495), European Championship 2009, but 18.Qb3 Ng6 19.Qxb7 Rb8 20.Nc6 stopped Black getting a strong-enough attack to compensate for his disappeared queenside (1-0, 37 moves).
18.Nxc8 Rxc8 19.Rxc8 Qxc8 20.Nd3 Rg8 21.Kh1 Bf8 22.Qc1 Qd7 23.Qc3 g4??
A blunder, but Black's kingside attack is getting nowhere anyway.
The remaining moves were:
24.Nxf4 Nf6 25.Ne6 gxf3? 26.Qxf3 Ng4? 27.Nxf8 1-0
*My Swiss rating at the time.

Marvellous Meran

THIS is the second in an occasional series on How The Openings Got Their Names.
The Meran System, aka the Meran Variation, is a series of lines, many of them very sharp, in the Semi-Slav arising after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5.

Start of the Meran … the early moves, especially Black's second, third and fourth, can be played in various orders

The Meran is named after a town-sized city in the South Tyrol that was part of Austria but was given to Italy, and renamed Merano, after World War One.
The city hosted a tournament in 1924 in which Rubinstein used the "Meran System" as Black to beat Grünfeld, who later in the same tournament switched to the black side of the system to beat Spielmann.
It probably will not surprise anyone to learn that the Meran had been played long before it got its name, including by Bernstein to draw with Capablanca in 1914.
When I discovered that an international tournament, the Gold Cup, is still played for in the city, I could not resist going. That was in 2013, and I have been back twice since.
Meran(o) - the linguistic split in the wider commune is apparently almost exactly 50% German, 50% Italian, but with the latter dominating in the city itself - has a beautiful setting amid snow-capped mountains whose lower slopes are covered in vineyards and apple orchards.
The modern Gold Cup is organised as part of the German-based ChessOrg.de series of tournaments, which includes Bad Wörishofen and Malta.
The Gold Cup is that rarity of modern tournaments of being a nine-rounder that is not Fide-rated.
I never managed to play the Meran in Meran(o), not least because 2.c4 is a rare follow-up to 1.d4 d5 at club level.
But here is a double-d pawn opening from round two of the 2014 Gold Cup.
Franz-Josef Schleime (1749) - Spanton (1949)
London System
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bf4 Bg4 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 Bd6 6.Bg3 e5!?
As is usual in the London System, White has two pawn breaks - e4 and c4. Black is using a pseudo-Chigorin set-up in which he has only one pawn break, ...e5, but White's move-order has allowed Black to get in his pawn break first, albeit at the cost of moving a man for the second time in the opening.
7.dxe5 Nxe5 8.Be2 Ng6?!
White was threatening to win a piece, but probably a better way of meeting that was to exchange on f3.
9.Bxd6 Qxd6 10.Nd4
Stockfish10 and Komodo9 want to dissolve Black's little centre with 10.c4, as grandmaster Nigel Davies played against me in a similar position in this month's South Wales International (https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2019/07/grandmaster-crush.html).
10...Bd7 11.Nb5 Qb6
I cannot recall why I did not play the simple 11...Bxb5 12.Bxb5+ c6.
12.Nc3 Nf6 13.Rb1 0-0 14.Nf3 Rad8 15.0-0
Not 15.Nxd5? Qa5+ 16.Nc3 Bh3.
15...Be6 16.Nd4?!
White's kingside proves surprisingly vulnerable after this. The engines suggest 16.b4!?
16...c5 17.Nxe6
Best, according to the engines, as 17.Nf3?, for example, runs into 17...d4.
fxe6 18.Bf3?
White is in big trouble after this, which is why the engines give 18.Bd3, albeit with a slight edge to Black.
18...Nh4 19.Bg4??
19.Be2 would have been met with the same move as in the game, so it seems best was 19.g3, but Black has the initiative after 19...Nxf3+.
19...d4
White loses a piece. The game finished:
20.exd4 Rxd4 21.Bxe6+ Qxe6 22.Qc1 Nxg2 0-1

Earliest Falkbeer

THIS is the first in what is planned as an occasional series on How The Chess Openings Got Their Names.
The Falkbeer Countergambit is a line of the King's Gambit that starts 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5.
It is named after Ernst Fallkbeer, who is regarded as Austrian although he was born in a city now known as Brno in the Czech Republic (the Brno Open, part of the CzechTour, is played in November - both the city and the tournament are well worth a visit).
Falkbeer's birthday was June 27, 1819, but the Falkbeer Countergambit had by then already been around for two centuries.
Gioacchino* Greco, who seems to have been born to Greek-speaking parents in south Italy, quotes a game he claimed to have played in 1620 (some chess historians believe many of Greco's quoted games were really made-up encounters for teaching purposes).
Greco - Anon
1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5
This seems to have been regarded as more-or-less forced in the early days of what would be named the Falkbeer. Three moves have supplanted it in popularity: offering a second pawn with 3...c6 (White rarely accepts), offering a transposition to a line of the King's Gambit Accepted with 3...exf4 (after the commonest reply, 4.Nf3, the game reaches a position traditionally arrived at via the move-order 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5), and Falkbeer's invention 3...e4 (I will come to that later).
4.Nc3 Qe6 5.Nf3?!
Best seems to be 5.fxe5 Qxe5+ 6.Be2, when material is level, but White will develop smoothly, while Black only has his queen in play.
5...exf4+ 6.Kf2!?
An extravagant-looking choice, but it was later played by two world champions-to-be, Steinitz and, believe-it-or-not, Petrosian. More solid is 6.Be2, as in Achim Schlitter (2025) - Ralf Lau (2490), Kassel 1995, which was won by White in 59 moves.
6...Bc5+?
This is too accommodating, as the check is parried with gain of tempo. Sensible is 6...Be7, reducing the danger of a pin on the e file, or 6...Qb6+, removing the queen from the e file.
7.d4 Bd6?
Black could have avoided immediate catastrophe with 7...Be7.
8.Bb5+ Kf8 9.Re1 Qf5? 10.Re8#
The moves 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 were given the name Falkbeer Countergambit thanks to Falkbeer treating the opening in a new way in the following game.
Adolf Anderssen - Falkbeer
Berlin 1851 (match - game 3)
1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4
Falkbeer's idea is that the black pawn on e4 cramps White's game. Meanwhile the white king is already slightly exposed thanks to the move 2.f4, and White's compensation for all this consists of an extra but doubled pawn. It is interesting to compare this with the Albin Countergambit, where the mainline starts 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4. Despite the fact that White's king has not been weakened in the Albin, it is probably fair to say that today the Albin is regarded as sounder - or, at least, less unsound - than the Falkbeer.
4.Bb5+
According to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, today's most-popular antidote of 4.d3 was first played by Conrad Vitzthum von Eckstädt in 1861, although it took some time for the strength of the move to be fully appreciated. Anderssen, for example, was still playing 4.Bb5+ in 1877.
4...Bd7 5.Qe2 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bc5
This is not liked by my main analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo9. Most popular is 6...Qe7, but the engines prefer 6...Bd6, eg 7.Nxe4 0-0 8.Nxd6 cxd6 9.Bxd7 Nbxd7 with an unclear position in which Black is two pawns down but has a big lead in development and attacking chances.
7.Nxe4 0-0 8.Bxd7
8.Nxc5 Re8 9.Ne6 fxe6 (George Mackenzie - Francis Brenzinger, Brooklyn 1869, ½–½ 63 moves) is another line in which White is two pawns up, but Black has lots of compensation.
8...Nbxd7 9.d3 Nxd5 10.Nf3
The engines reckon White is better after 10.f5 Re8 11.Bd2 with quick queenside castling.
10...Re8 11.f5 Bb4+?!
It is easy to be wise with the help of engines, but this is a strange choice when Black has the natural 11...N7f6.

White to make his 12th move - can you refute Falkbeer's play?

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12.Kf2?!
This is no refutation, but then maybe there is no refutation.
Hard to evaluate is 12.c3!? Nxc3 13.bxc3 Bxc3+ 14.Nxc3! Rxe2+, when White gets rook, bishop and knight for queen and pawn. An added complication is that White also needs to take into account the possibility of 13...Rxe4!?
Anderssen must have been tempted by 12.Bd2, but presumably rejected it because of 12...Nf4, when 13.Qf2 Nc5! leads to huge complications, the engines' main line running 14.0-0 (14.Bxb4? Ncxd3+ 15.cxd3 Nxd3+ 16.Kf1 Nxf2 17.Nxf2 gives White three pieces for queen and pawn, but he is losing because his pieces are uncoordinated) Rxe4! 15.Bxb4 Ncxd3 16.cxd3 Rxb4, which the engines assess as equal.
However, it seems that after 12.Bd2 Nf4, White gets a slight edge with 13.Qf1! (avoiding the fork on d3), when the engines reckon that best is 13...Bxd2+ 14.Nfxd2 Nd5, and now 15.Qf2, when White emerges a pawn ahead and with Black's attack diffused.
12...N7f6 13.g3 Qd7
Black could have won his pawn back with 13...Nxe4+ 14.dxe4 Nf6 15.e5 Ng4+ 16.Kg2 Nxe5! 17.Nxe5 Qd5+, when he has a lead in development and the safer king. However, the text is also strong.
14.c4?!
Black is much better after this. The engines suggest 14.a3 (or 14.c3), but prefer Black despite White's pawn-plus.
14...Nxe4+ 15.dxe4 Nf6 16.e5 Qxf5
Also strong is 16...Ng4+, which is similar to the line given at move 13.
17.Kg2 Rad8
The engines want Black to methodically go after the e pawn with 17...Ng4 etc.
18.a3 Bd6 19.Rd1

The game's key moment - can you do better than Falkbeer?

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19...Qh5??
Throwing away all his hard work. Black is much better after the obvious 19...Ng4 or 19...Nd7. But can you see what is wrong with the text?
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20.c5 Rxe5?
This speeds the end, but Black is also lost after, say, 20...Bf8 21.Rxd8 Rxd8 22.exf6.
21.Qxe5 (1-0, 26 moves)
*Also spelt Gioachino