Small revival of the thread because of game Leko-Bartel, Dortmund 2012 http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8348
Leko wants a win, and it can explain some choices prior to 17th move: 15.Rb1 d4 16.Rg1 is Tait's variation and alternatives to 15...d4 were dealt on some occasions in current forum ; 15.Qxc3 d4 or 15...Kb8 are dealt in Watson's analysis, 15..Rg4 needs further investigations.

I recall these lines because Leko refrains from grabbing c3 pawn and prefered to play the 17.Be3 move (Van der Grinten,Riemelmoser,Latschach 2011) in this position following the h pawn push:

14.Qd3 Nf5 15.h6 Rg6 16.h7 Rh8 17.Be3



and here, better for Black would have been 17...Nxe3 with the idea to take back the dangerous h pawn rather than securing attacking ideas on center with d4: the d4 pawn will fall quickly and one black rook will be missing on d file.

17.Rh3 d4 18.Rb1  is "transposition to famous game Bronstein-Uhlmann" (Tait)...with 18..Be8!? Tallin 1977

Last chesspub update comes with an upgrade analysis of Tait's variation and some comments about Williams's book (Attacking Chess - The French - Everyman Chess) I continue to browse. 



16...f6?! 17.g4 Nh4 18.exf6 e5 19.Kd1!? (Watson assessment and variations are clear enough about 19.f7 which seels roughly equal)

Kd1 is prophylactic idea vs the usuals trick on e file and f3 square. It's difficult for Black to get an "easy" line

19...e4 20.Qxe4 Rxg4 (20...Rde8 21.f7) 21.Rxg4 Bxg4 22.Rb3 d3 23.Rxd3 Bf5 24.Qb3 Bxd3 25.cxd3 with a serious advantage for White in the ending

19...Rge8 20.f7 Rf8 21.Qg3  Ng6 22.f5 Nge7 23.Bg2 Rxf7 24.Qb3 Rff8 25.Bg5+/-

19...Bxg4 20.Bh3 e4 21.Bxg4+ Rxg4 22.Qh3 d3 23.Qxg4+ Kb8 24.cxd3 +/-

19...Be6 20.Rg3 

*****************

16...Na5 17.Rb4 a6 18.g4 Ne3 

(18..Nh4 

19.a4!?  f6 20.exf6 e5 21.fxe5!? (21.f7 Stelfish-Poldauf,Chalkidiki 2002 (Vitiugov) ; 21.Kd1 e4) Qxe5 22.g5 +/-) 

19.Nxd4 Bb5 20.Nxb5 axb5 21.Qe4 Qc3+ 22.Kf2 Rd1 23.Bd2 (23.Bd3 Rxg1 24.Kxg1 Rxg4+ 25.Kf2 Rg2+ 26.Kf1 Rxh2 27.Rxb5 Nc6 28.Rb1 Nf5 29.Qa4=) Rd2+ 24.Be2 Qh3 25.Ke1 (25.Rxb5? Von Buelow-Poldauf,Bundesliga 2002 ) Rxe2+  26.Kxe2 (26.Qxe2 Nf3+ 27.Kf2 Nxg1 28.Kxg1 Rxg4+ 29.Kh1 Rg3 30.Bc1 Nc6 31.Rxb5 Nd4=) 
)

19.Bxe3 Bb5 20.Rxb5 dxe3 21.Rxb7 Nxb7 22.Nd4 Qb6!?

23.c3 Nc5 24.Qxe3 Kb8 with the idea Na4 or Rc8 is equal

Yes Bd3 is better in that line but I think he meant to use it for comparison purposes and the comparison is interesting alright.

Going back to this move-order question I've been digging deeper and I am not convinced at all with this claim that 7...cxd4 is the more accurate way to enter the poisoned-pawn. For one thing the main-line (also given by Vitiugov) is a forced-draw:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 cxd4 8.Bd3 Qa5 9. Ne2 O-O 10. Bg5  Ng6 11. f4 Nd7 12. Bxg6 fxg6 13. Qxe6+ Rf7 14. Qe8+ Rf8 15. Qe6+ etc. as happened in various games including Svidler-Grishchuk 2009.

Fair enough, you might think, shouldn't Black be happy with a draw? And indeed he should. But my concern is not only this but that 10.Bd2!? (not even mentioned by Vitiugov) for me leads to very pleasant compensation for the pawn and a ready-made attack: e.g. Macieja-Vysochin 2010 went : 
10... dxc3 11. Bxc3 Qc7 12. O-O Nbc6 13. Qh5 Ng6 14. f4 and already I just don't fancy Black (1-0 in 44)


Going back to the classical and more popular 7...Qc7 then if 8.Bd3 c4 9.Be2 and instead of the very popular 9....Nf5 the move 9...0-0 followed by the f6 break as discussed earlier is the next thing on my list to investigate. I noticed that GM Barsov was playing this way and it may be another viable line.

Well for comparison, Kindermann/Dirr think 7 Qg4 o-o 8 Nf3 Qa5 9 Bd2 c4 is entirely playable for black -because of the quick counterplay via f6 then e5. With black breaking like that the positions are more like semi blocked I think.

I suppose Qc7 is going to be a wasted tempo if black follows up here with Qa5 (seems to most of the time) and white has some f4 ideas etc, but not totally different.

One thing for sure after checking my database for some games (also via Nf5) is that anyone who thinks this is too dull has a very low boredom threshold!

But in the mainline white can play 13.h4 with the idea of going h5-h6-h7 and winnining. Isn't this plan the reason why winawer is considered dubious nowadays ?

Yes its not at all clear to me why you'd ever use 7 ..Qc7 as 7 .. cd has no obvious cost and extra options vs 8 Bd3. Mind you I suspect that a lot of the danger of 7 .. Qc7 8 Bd3 is self inflicted by people insistent on 'blundering' their kingside pawns  

8 .. c4 ^ o-o, f6 etc or Nf5, Bd7, o-o-o etc is rather solid.

dom wrote on 01/04/10 at 11:35:29:


I am not sure if I like 18...Bc6. When I faced this line in an email game I did not know how to meet 19.Nd1 Bb5 - a loss of tempo - 20.Qc3. Hence I tried 18...Kb8, but wasn't all too happy either (and subsequently lost).
I concluded that the Poisoned Pawn is too risky to my taste.

Thanks.