[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: This Week's ChessVideos Show: The cure for last week's show!

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
This Week's ChessVideos Show: The cure for last week's show!
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1216877677.shtml


   [1]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 [2]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.

References

   1. http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3429
   2. http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3446