MNb wrote on 04/16/12 at 20:58:54:


After 7 Be3 Eingorn has 7...g6; MNb - I've PMed you about this.

Paddy wrote on 12/05/11 at 18:50:35:


I notice that 6...h6 is the ONLY line against the Chatard given in the new book "A Rock-Solid Chess Opening Repertoire for Black" by Eingorn, so maybe it's time to re-open the discussion.

By the way, Gleizerov has still been playing 6...h6 this year.

Ok Did you mean to end the game at move 19 though? It just seems an odd place to stop.

Seems an interesting place to stop that Horribly unclear still, and far from obviously OK for black.

As an aside, isn't the sort of ending after 14 Nd4 much more 'boring' for black than white? Suppose that it must be much easier to defend that sort of thing in correspondence.

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 12/06/11 at 01:54:59:


Hi SF, I've PMed you about this.

Anonymous3 wrote on 12/04/11 at 09:02:09:


OK, I know that 6...h6 has been the recent choice of those two Classical French gurus Gleizerov and Ulibin, but on the whole it scores badly and seems to me to be hard to handle.

Why suffer with this when you can play the much more interesting 6...Nc6!? This line, played by Morozevich in the only two games I could find in which he has had to face 6 h4, is an unusual but combative response.

The main ideas behind this move are:
a) develop quickly;
b) put pressure on d4 to deter Qh5;
c) prepare ...f6 by overprotecting e7; *
d) facilitate queenside castling via ...Nb6, ...Bd7 and ...Qe7, as an alternitive to the quick ...f6 plan.

* Compare this with the line 6...f6 7 Qh5+ g6? 8 exf6! and if 8...gxh5 9 fxe7 regaining the queen with a much superior structure.

8.f4 is almost surely the best move, where the insertion of the moves h4 and h6 is to White's interest.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the following line: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4!? h6 (this move is generally thought to be dubious but I think it may good and I'm not sure if any of the other moves are satisfactory) 7.Be3 (This is generally considered to be the best move but 7.Bxe7 is much more popular even though Black is fine. After 7...Qxe7 8.Qg4, Black is fine with 8...0-0 and maybe 8...g6!? What do you think about 8...g6!?.) 7...c5 8.Qg4 g6 (This is actually slightly more popular than 8...Kf8 which I think is generally more well known and thought to be best but I think is slightly better for White). I've been analyzing this line with Fritz 11 and Rybka 3 and it's quite interesting and seems playable for Black. White can't currently exploit Black's weaknesses or breakthrough on the kingside and Black can get good counterplay on the Queenside and just leave his king in the center.