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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) C00-C19: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition (Read 6462 times)
kylemeister
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #13 - 10/29/07 at 22:33:40
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Speaking of the "French Poisoned Pawn," I noticed that Emanuel Berg (one of the major French-playing GMs I'm aware of) played it against Svidler yesterday.  I wonder if he'll stick with it; it seems he's been playing all kinds of stuff (like 4...Qd7/b6, 6...Qc7, and 4...Ne7 plus 6...b6, as well as 3...h6) since becoming disenchanted with 7. Qg4 0-0 something like a year ago.
  
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Stigma
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #12 - 10/29/07 at 21:44:05
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I was excited by Watson's comments in PTF3 that the good old 7.Qg4 Qc7 main line didn't deserve the harsh, often unsubstantiated criticism it has received. But then he didn't give any analysis, focusing instead on 7.Qg4 0-0 which surely leaves Black with fewer winning chances. I would love to see coverage of 7...Qc7 or the interesting transposition 7...cxd4!? in a new edition, they seem to fit Watson's generally dynamic, counter-attacking interpretation of the French very well.
  

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Bibs
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #11 - 10/26/07 at 10:49:20
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I originally learnt the MacC from old shakmatny 64 about 17-18 years ago after a mate gave me a job lot. Think the two articles were by Polgar? Anyone else read them?

Occasional articles in NIC, but no books alas devoted to the MacC yet.

Check out Glek, Nepo...chi, Nakamura games to prime yourself.
  
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ghenghisclown
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #10 - 10/26/07 at 04:15:54
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I totally agree Kalle99! He seems down on the MacCutcheon. In Dangerous Weapons he writes that he couldn't quite make it work, so then I guess he went for the Burne.

Anyway, not exactlyhot on the heels of Dangerous, but soon given the pace of publishing, there 'll be a very similar book called


Flexible French: 10 Surprise Weapons for Dynamic Chess Players
by Viktor Moskalenko
  

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kalle99
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #9 - 10/09/07 at 21:20:26
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If Watson ever will come out with a fourth edition. He should include the MacCutcheon variation. That would be very nice.
  

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whiteatak shredder
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #8 - 10/05/07 at 00:55:34
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If Watson does do a 4th edition of "Play the French" I'd like to see him do a section on the classical (3...Nf6) again, with hopefully some of the classical main lines. In the Steinitz variation with 7...cxd4 and 11.Nb3, I think black is fine after the natural move 11...Be7; I take issue with Khalifman's assessment of that move. After 11.Qf2 black may still have some hole-patching work to do, however I suspect that white would have to be pretty good to capitalize on white's advantage, even if theoretically black has a hard time achieving full equality. After 4.Bg5 I like the main lines with 4...Be7 and the positions after 6...c5 in the Alekhine-Chatard Attack. That would be my input for what lines I find interesting and like to play after 3.Nc3.
  
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ghenghisclown
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #7 - 10/01/07 at 12:00:06
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I agree with that. So the danger is that in the Caro Black will slip into passivity, as just developing your pieces won't due...
  

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exigentsky
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #6 - 10/01/07 at 01:35:35
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I've just tried the Caro-Kann in a few blitz games so that I won't have to deal with the often "bad" French bishop. The games were obviously not very high level, but nonetheless, I get the impression that the Caro-Kann is often easier to play but not as aggressive/active. Would this be accurate? What are your impressions of both?
  
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exigentsky
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #5 - 09/28/07 at 18:51:57
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It's not the same kind of book. That one is about new ideas (some better than others) and is not really a repertoire book.
  
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #4 - 09/28/07 at 14:28:26
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Uh, Watson wrote Dangerous Weapons:  The French, like how long ago?
  

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Bibs
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #3 - 09/28/07 at 11:04:46
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Kylemeister:
Such a Luddite. Games collections? Theoretical works? Works of Dvorestsky, Shereshevsky? Surely sufficient: find around a 58% or so for white, a 50 for black if you dig around enough. Bob's your uncle. Watch your rating rocket.

  
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kylemeister
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #2 - 09/28/07 at 06:43:12
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I have recently come to realize how deprived I was when I was say 1600 or 1800, that I wasn't able to do extensive statistical comparisons and computer analyses in order to determine the objectively best openings/variations and thus figure out what my opening repertoire should be.  Instead I was limited to things like looking at annotated master games in books and magazines, playing openings that I found interesting and congenial, and trying to understand chess better.

Okay, end of snark.
  
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notyetagm
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Re: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
Reply #1 - 09/28/07 at 05:04:43
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You can search for upcoming chess book releases on amazon.com. I did not see a new edition of this standard French book when I looked for Everyman titles coming up in 2008. The search returned titles forthcoming as late as around Summer '08 (I think?) so if a new edition is coming it will not be available until Fall '08 at the earliest.
  
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exigentsky
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C00-C19: Watson's Play the French: 4th Edition
09/28/07 at 04:35:02
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Almost four years have passed since the 3rd edition and theory has changed. Some of his lines, especially against the Tarrasch need some revising. Although, the Winnawer also seems to be suffering a bit at the very highest level. Anyone know if he's working on getting the next edition out any time soon?

Maybe he can address some of my thoughts:


http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=68150&page=1
http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=66191&page=1

« Last Edit: 07/30/11 at 14:19:38 by dom »  
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