I am back in the thread to answer Sjim's post...but if would be better if Inn2 gives his own reply. 

I give some variations with the "c4" idea in the French Tarrasch: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 (one "main line", often leading to isolated pawn game) and now

A) 4.Ngf3 ("universal system" ?) Nf6 (in other lines 4...cxd4 ; 4...Nc6 ; 4...a6 the c4 move will not occur because White will play some dxc5 and exd5 moves to give Black an isolated pawn on d5 square...maybe the most flexible a6 is used, like in Gurevich's games ) 5.exd5 (5.e5 is closed main line where c4 is not in Black strategy: attack d4 pawn with c5xd4;Qb6.. ; 5.Bb5+ leads to isolated pawn game after Bd7 or Nc6 example: 5...Bd7 6.Bxd7 Nbxd7 7.exd5 exd5 Carlsson-Potkin,2001 Mueller-Kindermann,Autriche 2002; Rozentalis-Ross,Montreal 2003  or Yemelin-Dolmatov,Novgorod 1999; Kharlov-Gurevich,Istanbul 2003 (Chesspublishing)  ) exd5 (5...Nxd5 is one good idea to play without isolated pawn as given for example, in McDonald&Harley's book about the French, game King-Dolmatov,Reykjavik 1990) and now 6.Bb5+ Bd7 and game as given above ; 6.dxc5 Bxc5 7.Nb3 isolated pawn game without c4, maybe one "safe" line for each side of the board ; 6.Ne2 Nc6 7.oo c4 ; 6.c3 c4 ; 6.Bd3 c4 7.Be2

B) 4.exd5 exd5 (4...Qxd5 not in c4 stategy but one other main line) 5.Ngf3 Nf6 transposes to A)

C) 4.c3!? Nf6 (Dom's advice ; if 4...cxd4 there is McDonald/Howell/Crawley's idea to go off-theory: 5.cxd4 dxe4 6.Nxe4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3) 5.exd5 (5.e5 closed main-line ; 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Ngf3 Qb6 Dom but you can try the over variations 6..a6!? ; 6.cxd4 ; 6.Be7 ; 6.h6) exd5 6.Ngf3 c4

D) 4.dxc5 Bxc5 5.Nb3 leading to isolated pawn game

Sometimes I’m a strong player, sometimes not.  Anyway, I think 3…h6 is weak.  1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 h6 4.Ngf3 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nf6 6.Bd3 Nxe4 7.Bxe4 c5 8.Be3 Nd7 9.O-O Qc7 10.Qe2 Bd6 11.Bd3 O-O 12.Rfe1 

White probably wins 80% from here.

Ah that article caught my eye too. It's not with me at the moment, but I remember Bosch gives White the advantage in quite a few places (somewhat surprisingly for his typically optimistic SOS analysis!). 

Not sure what to think of 5. Nc3 (?!)  Bb4. I prefer developing another piece, so 5. Bd3 Nf6 (the whole SOS idea) 6. Nxf6 gxf6 is the critical position which I think is fundamentally a better position for White, and Black's kingside "attack" is a pipe dream. There is always Bf4-g3 blocking the g-file no?

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Yes: they typically are...

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Oops. What a dampener of a reply!


I was half hoping to hear how white did not have any clue

Any body has sufficient experience with Guimard against Tarrasch? Aside of Niel's updates, that is

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Nope. These days you have me for company. The positions you get in the off-beat lines appear more silicon than human to me. Especially I'm disillutioned with Be7 lines with g6 and 0-0.

Some of the exchange variation lines also make me feel uncomfortable.

To sort out my repertoire completely I parked myself in Fort Knox for the time being and it looks like I'll move towards Rubenstien, Burn, Steinitz and Guimard. This should give a pretty flexible repertoire to choose from.

His Qb6 repertoire for Advance French is Okay, though.

How is his Classical Section? Any Comments ?

The basic problem as I see is that the lines are pretty much tactical. What else can you expect from computer aided analysis?

Second edition, perhaps is better. I have lots of regards for Watson and he should consider revising the book to suit strategic (human) play.