Stigma wrote on 11/16/09 at 20:06:38:

Oh I am not disputing its theoretical status, but imo you make life very easy for white. If someone is used to the various Qg4 lines you can quickly get in a lot of trouble as black and you have to resort to all kinds of crappy sacrifices (just check Short-Uhlmann where Short could have massacred Uhlmann at move 10 and if such a french expert can get himself into this kind of trouble...). I have noticed that as white when you dont try to mate black on every move, but just step up the pressure on the king (and keep an eye on the move e5) black gets into real trouble quite quickly.
In short you have to know your theory and you have to be good at defending if you want to play this and at my level the defending is not really up to par with the rest.

Willempie wrote on 11/16/09 at 12:15:43:


Easy. When someone writes such a marvelous book as Kindermann and Dirr did you just fall in love with it and really want it to work... the same thing happened to me with Pirc Alert!. 7.Qg4 0-0 is one of the lines I've spent most time studying, and yet I've never dared to play it in a rated tournament game! It's a great blitz opening (like the French in general) because it's so easy for White to overextend and allow a counterattack or a good endgame:

[Event "Esbjerg"]
[Site "Esbjerg"]
[Date "1988.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mortensen, Erling"]
[Black "Karlsson, Lars"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C18"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 O-O 8. Bd3
c4 9. Bh6 Ng6 10. Bxg6 fxg6 11. Be3 Nc6 12. h4 Qe8 13. h5 gxh5 14. Rxh5 Ne7 15.
Nf3 Rf5 16. Rh2  Qg6 17. Qh4 Nc6 18. O-O-O Bd7 19. Rdh1 h6 20. Rh3



                        Black to play and win

[Event "GM"]
[Site "Panevezys LTU"]
[Date "2008.08.15"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Klimov, S."]
[Black "Malakhatko, V."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C18"]
[WhiteElo "2509"]
[BlackElo "2612"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Ne7 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. Qg4 O-O 8. Bd3 f5 9. exf6 Rxf6 10. Bg5 Rf7 11. Qh5 g6 12. Qd1 Nbc6 13. Nf3 Qf8 14. O-O c4 15. Be2 h6 16. Bc1 Bd7 17. a4 Rd8 18. g3 Kh7 19. Nh4 e5 20. Ng2 Qg7 21. dxe5 Qxe5 22. Qd2 Qg7 23. Ba3 Bf5 24. g4 Bc8 25. f4 d4 26. Bxc4 dxc3 27. Qe3 Nd5 28. Qc5 Rc7 29. Qf2 Bxg4 30. Bxd5 Rxd5 31. Ne3 Rd2 32. Qg3 Bf5 33. Rf2 Rcd7 34. Raf1 Nd4 35. Qg2 Nxc2 0-1

[Event "Munich"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1990.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Huebner, Robert"]
[Black "Kindermann, Stefan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C18"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 O-O 8. Nf3 Nbc6 9. Bd3 f5 10. exf6 Rxf6 11. Bg5 e5 12. Bxh7+ Kxh7 13. Qh5+ Kg8 14. Bxf6 gxf6 15. dxe5 Qf8 16. O-O-O fxe5 17. Rhe1 Qf4+ 18. Rd2 Bg4 19. Qg5+ Qxg5 20. Nxg5 Rf8 21. h3 Bc8 22. g3 d4 23. cxd4 cxd4 24. f4 exf4 25. gxf4 Rxf4 26. Rg2 Kf8 27. Rg3 Bf5 28. Rf3 Rxf3 29. Nxf3 Bxh3 30. Re4 d3 31. cxd3 Bf5 32. Rf4 Ke8 33. Kd2 Bg6 34. Nd4 Nxd4 35. Rxd4 Bf7 36. Ra4 Nc6 37. Rh4 Ke7 38. Kc3 b5 39. a4 a6 40. axb5 axb5 41. Rh6 Be6 42. Rh5 b4+ 43. Kb2 Kd6 44. Rb5 Bd5 45. Kc1 Ke5 46. Kd2 Kd4 47. Rb7 Kc5 48. Ke3 b3 49. Kd2 Nb4 0-1

dom wrote on 11/16/09 at 12:03:20:


Interesting concept...

BlunderKing wrote on 11/16/09 at 09:57:53:

Well I play the French with white and black and for the life of me I cant really understand the appeal of 7..0-0. You are already under pressure on the kingside and to make the queen on g4 a useful piece you castle right in front of her.

Stigma wrote on 11/16/09 at 01:47:13:


Any games on that? I have Kindermann-Dirr and after 13. ... Qf8 it has only 14. O-O for White (they also note that 14. Qd2 is bad).

6...Qa5 is +=, but at least it's complex and a game. The positions are closed, so ample room to outplay lower rated players. However, I would never play it against someone higher rated.

I think 7...cxd4 is the more accurate move order for the poison pawn. The poison pawn is a great winning try, but there's some problem variations that have made me stay away from it. Great fun against the unwary, or in blitz, though.

My favorite move would be to not play the dreary positions after 7. Qg4 0-0. 

Seriously, 8. Bd3 f5 probably comes the closest to equalizing, with 8...Nbc6 a close second. For the record, I don't think black fully equalizes in either. There's a ton of draws, however, so it makes it effective as a drawing weapon given how hard it is to actually make use of the += in practice.