Normal Topic C19: French Winawer, 7.h4 (Read 7156 times)
knightmare
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Re: French Winawer, 7.h4
Reply #5 - 09/12/11 at 11:00:54
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MartinC wrote on 08/26/11 at 13:40:27:
You get a weak e6 pawn with a bishop on a4 too, which can be a non trivial problem if going for f6. Also Qa5 - a4 normally comes with tempo, which must help.


Ok, time is definitely an argument.

Quote:

Psahkis gives a fair bit of analysis of 7 Nf3 Bd7 - 8 dc is apparently critical - with plenty of strong enough blacks and nothing too lethal. So its plausible enough there.


I'm playing this line for a very long time, and I think its reasonable. 8.dxc5 is the only way to question the viability, but I simply do not believe in it, as white completely ruins his pawn structure in the center and the queenside.
And there's one really important advantage: It removes the sting from the 8.Bd3-lines, as black simply plays ...Ba4

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Allowing white to go h6 perhaps always going to be risky, but might survive Smiley Just one game in my database cf that (a 2007 game between two Russians) where black does do this, seems to get an utterly winning position then gets swindled....


These lines (after h5-h6) are incredibly sharp. Maybe objectively white is a littel bit better, but at my level black gets more than enough practical chances.
  

ELO 2060. Corr.: 2190. Which casts doubts if I ever knew what I was doing. At least on the Board.
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knightmare
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Re: French Winawer, 7.h4
Reply #4 - 09/12/11 at 10:08:24
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MNb wrote on 08/26/11 at 13:15:08:
If I understand Moskalenko correctly - which is questionable, given my low ELO - he prefers the Queen on a4 because she attacks three pawns (a3, c2 and d4) instead of one.


Ok, that's the advantage. But the disadvantage is IMHO, that the queen is very far away from the kingside, where usually "the music plays" (be it blues or not  Wink) in the Winawer. And if Black wants to close the queenside anyway with ...c5-c4, and castle queenside as it - at least very often - happens in these lines ...
  

ELO 2060. Corr.: 2190. Which casts doubts if I ever knew what I was doing. At least on the Board.
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Smyslov_Fan
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Re: French Winawer, 7.h4
Reply #3 - 08/26/11 at 13:43:37
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Some years ago I played a game that entered the h4-variation via [1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bxc3 Ne7] 7.Nf3 Bd7 8.h4




Really?  Are you sure this move order is correct?

Ok, I corrected the notation.
  
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MartinC
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Re: French Winawer, 7.h4
Reply #2 - 08/26/11 at 13:40:27
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You get a weak e6 pawn with a bishop on a4 too, which can be a non trivial problem if going for f6. Also Qa5 - a4 normally comes with tempo, which must help.

Psahkis gives a fair bit of analysis of 7 Nf3 Bd7 - 8 dc is apparently critical - with plenty of strong enough blacks and nothing too lethal. So its plausible enough there.

Logically then the critical line for 7 h4 Bd7 is 7 h4 Bd7 8 h5 h6 9 Qg4. Moskalenko would probably like Kf8 there Smiley Nf5 ^ o-o seems OK but its not clear if Bd7 is entirely useful there. The folk on my database (inc Flippov) have been into Qc7 or Qa5 instead.

Allowing white to go h6 perhaps always going to be risky, but might survive Smiley Just one game in my database cf that (a 2007 game between two Russians) where black does do this, seems to get an utterly winning position then gets swindled....
  
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MNb
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Re: French Winawer, 7.h4
Reply #1 - 08/26/11 at 13:15:08
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If I understand Moskalenko correctly - which is questionable, given my low ELO - he prefers the Queen on a4 because she attacks three pawns (a3, c2 and d4) instead of one.
  

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knightmare
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C19: French Winawer, 7.h4
08/26/11 at 10:32:44
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Some years ago I played a game that entered the h4-variation via [1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3 Bd7 8.h4

As I played vs a youngster, I thought it might be a good idea to get him off the trodden paths and played 8...Ba4. The idea was to let him demolish blacks kingside structure, close the queenside with ...c4, put the queen on c7, castle queenside and get counterplay on the kingside. So 9.h5 Nc6 10.h6 gxh6, similar to Uhlmanns prefered line in the h4-Variation. After a very exciting game with mutual chances I lost after time trouble and all that makes chess so exciting.

I more or less forgot about it, until I stumbled on Moskalenkos comments around "the black queen blues" vs the h4-Variation.

The "entry point" for my interest was a comment where he writes that he thinks that the black Queen is a better piece to blockade on a4 than the bishop. Which I simply do not understand, except the fact that a Queen on a4 will prevent white castling queenside, which a bishop will not.

Can someone comment on Moskalenkos Statement? And could 7.h4 Bd7 (with the ideas given earlier) be a valid idea?


« Last Edit: 08/26/11 at 13:43:59 by Smyslov_Fan »  

ELO 2060. Corr.: 2190. Which casts doubts if I ever knew what I was doing. At least on the Board.
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