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I hadn't considered 22.Qf2 before, but I like the Qf2/Rf1 theme very much.  I will certainly take a careful look at 22.Qf2.

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I have to admit that I felt that after 21...Qg5 White just replies 22.Qe2 with a clear advantage. Thus, I didn't think that 21...Qg5 was really a serious alternative to 21...Ncxe5.  Now I'm not so sure -- your 22...Rab8 is proving to be stronger than I thought.  Just the same, I think 22.Qe2 is still likely to be a strong move, and the one I will most likely play, once the details are worked out.

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Of course they've been following this fascinating thread - they'd be fools not to!  

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Looking forward to Wednesday where we'll see if there will be a repeat of the San Luis, 2005 line.

Round 4: Wednesday, February 21st

Peter Leko             Levon Aronian

Vishy Anand          Alex. Morozevich

Vassily Ivanchuk    Magnus Carlsen

Veselin Topalov      Peter Svidler

Morozevich is playing the French against Leko right now at Linares.  I hope this means he'll play the French against Anand again like in their encounter in San Luis. Maybe they've been reading this thread so they can use our moves we've made. 

I just thought I'd mention that based on many of the lines I've been looking at, the e5 pawn looks pretty poisoned, especially with the bishop on d4. Also, the e6 pawn is often weak after the e5 pawn is taken. Perhaps to some extent a better strategy for white might be to just ignore the e5 pawn, with something like 22.Qf2 a5 23.Rf1 

I agree that the position is complicated and that accurate moves are valued at this stage, so by all means, Ostap, take your time in making your moves.

Regards.

In a way I think this is a poor move. What does Qd8-h4-g5 add to Black's position?
I predict 22.Qe2 giving Black a hard time.

Sorry, I meant to say that my computer prefers Bf8 to Be7. And now that you mention that fact that the bishop on e7 would block the queen's retreat, that makes sense now, because the queen does of course retreat in some lines. I was thinking of moving the bishop to c7 or b6, via e7 and d8, but I now suspect that having the bishop defending the kingside (in the event of a3) is the more correct strategy for the position -- at least for now.

The move a3 has recently been shown to be a surprisingly very effective move in many openings, several of them occurring in the French defense. For instance, Kasparov played 9.a3 against Radjabov in 2003 in the variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.a3 and I think this is the move which makes most of the top players prefer 7...cxd4. Fischer played a3 in a king's indian attack against the French and I think the move still often gets an exclamation mark in the theory books. And Psakhis gives a main line in the French classical (4...Be7 with 7...a6) where has calls 12.a3 "A good prophylactic move." and he goes on to give white a slight advantage a few moves thereafter.

MNb wrote on 02/14/07 at 20:31:10:

Agreed.  I think 22.Qe2 is probably the best response to 21...Qg5.

Just for an update: 21...Qg5 is the clear front-runner right now for what move I'll likely be making. However, if you don't mind I might like a few more days of engine-running just to make sure I'm not ... losing (which however doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.) After 22.a3 I'm back to preferring 22...Bf8 rather than Be7, although I can't quite put my finger on why the engines seem to be prefering that move. The analysis I gave two days ago is still my "main line", so to speak: 22.a3 Bf8 23.Bxc4 bxc4 24.Na5 Rab8 25.Ba7 Ra8 26.Nxc6 Rxc6 27.Be3 Qd8 28.Bd4 Qg5.

Cheers.

MNb wrote on 02/12/07 at 20:32:19:

If 21...Qg5 22.Re1 a5 23.f6 a4

then 24.Bxc4 looks virtually forced (retreating the knight allows the fork 24...Nd2+)

After 24...bxc4 25.Nd2 Qxg4 (not forced, but I don't see an obvious refutation)

we get
                          analysis position  
http://www.france-echecs.com/diagramme/imgboard.phpfen=r1r3k1/3n1p1p/2b1pPp1/3pP...
                              after 25...Qxg4

Although Back's queen looks precariously placed, I can't find a way for White to take advantage of this.  Meanwhile Black's queenside play is starting to look rather dangerous.  I tried to find an advantageous line based on harrassing (or actually trapping) the black queen and came up empty-handed.

So 21...Qg5 22.Re1 a5 23.f6 appears to be an interesting, but ultimately unsuccessful, continuation for White.  There may be a clever idea that I'm missing in the diagrammed position that changes this assessment.  Any thoughts?