The Chess Mind

Last week's ChessVideos show (still available this week, and probably for as long as that enterprise remains in business) was part one of a two-part series exploring the interesting anti-French line 1.e4 e6 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 exd5 4.Qb3. I tried in that presentation to make the line look as attractive as possible, and that wasn't hard to do. In practice, especially in quick games, Black often falls apart quickly, and not necessarily due to any overt blunder. Sometimes Black makes the most natural moves, only to discover it's time to throw in the towel by move 20.

Still, that's far from the end of the story. If it was, then everyone would play this against the French, all of you would have already known about it, and the French would be considered a dubious opening. So as a matter of principle, there simply must be a solution - and there is. Or rather, are: Black has many ways to achieve a good game, but they require some mental and psychological agility. It's not a bad exercise to try to come up with some replies on your own before watching this week's show or switching on your computer. Once you're ready to compare answers, you can have a look at my presentation for this week (free, available on-demand, and requiring no special software). And if you've found some promising ideas I haven't mentioned there, for either side, please comment it here and/or there.