It's not specifically about 10 b4 and 11 Qa4 - SF16 just thinks white has an advantage there in a few different ways from moves 9 to 11.

Much more likely to be the latter - white trying to dry things up, getting surprised and then getting outplayed.

The whole plan probably does up the volatility of the position. If you run engine tournaments with mixed strength engines you might see black winning a few this way. 

Although this might be too risky/strategically 'simple' for that to show through.

Black plays provocatively with 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. c3 Bd6 6. Bd3 Nge7 7. O-O Bg4 8. Nbd2 Qd7 9. Re1 O-O-O



I agree with Spraggett that Black's play has been overly aggressive. Fishbein indicates 9...0-0-0?! Thanks AOC for providing these evaluations.

MNb's comment seems apt to me:
"Interesting. A few years ago I looked at this via 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Bd6 6.Nf3 from Black's perspective and concluded that White has the better attacking chances after 10.b4, ie castling queenside is too risky. Then I looked at 9...f6 (iso 9...O-O-O) and concluded that Black's best is castling kingside followed by ...Bf5. Finally I wondered if Black can save a tempo with 6...Nge7 (iso 6...Bg4) followed by 7...Bf5 as pointed out by GM Moskalenko in his latest book on the French; only after 7.Qc2 Black plays Bg4 as in Braga-Moskalenko, Barbera 2001. Black claims to play an improved version of the Thavandiran-So game, because Qc2 is a suboptimal move."

I think this covers it. Yet Black has done well playing aggressively:

Overall (through 2023) after 9...0-0-0
=107 +138 -225
Rated above 2300
=14 +11 -12
For 2024 thus far
+5 -8

Recently, Jeffrey Xiong has played this as Black, winning two games, and one more with 9...f6.

FreeRepublic wrote on 06/12/24 at 22:38:01:

Sam Collins also advocates the Exchange variation at Chessable.com. He makes the point that it can be used as part of a reply to the Petroff defense also.

I found the free video to be worthwhile. The variation where Black castles queen-side did not show up in that video. With White and Black making other choices, it may not be covered in the course at all.

Spraggett played 11.Qa4.
https://2700chess.com/games/spraggett-rivera-r2-lisbon-2014-12-27

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 05/23/21 at 17:28:15:

It's not easy to search through Spraggett's stuff in the Wayback Machine, but here is the Exchange French article. The plugin of course doesn't work, so view the page source in order to get the analysis. https://web.archive.org/web/20180206075645/http://www.spraggettonchess.com/the-french-exchange-variation

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 05/23/21 at 17:28:15:

He/she shouldn't even try, with or without scare quotes.
Btw Black has a very easy game after 8...Qxf5 iso the more ambitious 8...Nxf5.

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 05/23/21 at 17:28:15:

Black can do better as the game transposes to Samblic-Jurkovic, Bizovac 2006 with 10...Qd7 11.Nbd2 f6. GM Fishbein can say what he wants, with this move Black controls square e5 forever. Here Black also has a slight lead in development while White has to make a decicion: 12.b4 O-O, 12.Nf1 O-O-O. It seems to me that the fairly neutral 12.a4 maintains equality. As Black I would be pretty confident against a weaker opponent though; in this sense Black has won the opening battle.
But White has several better moves than 10.Qd3: 10.a4 (idea 11.Na3), 10.Ne5  and 10.Qb3 should all be fine without pretending an opening edge.

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 05/23/21 at 17:28:15:

I am not surprised. Yet 6...Nge7 was already played by Nimzovitch in 1927 and 7...Bf5 more than ten times in the previous century.
Thanks for confirming my thoughts on GM Fishbein as expressed in previous comments.

MNb wrote on 05/23/21 at 06:23:23:

Which book is Moskalenko's latest? Fishbein has in his bibliography Moskalenko (2015) The Even More Flexible French.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 

Spraggett says "!". For some strange reasons I am interested in this line for white. One contributor is an important tournament I played as a junior, which I won because of three games in the Exchange French, none of which involved me! In the second one, the top-ranked player was held to a draw, later allowing me to finish 1/2-point in first. Yet objectively the move deserves "?!" because it gives away all white's positional advantage and reduces it strictly to the first move. It's an uncommon case of an opening I have looked at a lot, yet played hardly ever. However it's not completely a wasted effort -- my record on the black side of the Exchange French is outstanding.

3...exd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.c3 

Fishbein has

• 5.Bb5 - 6 games 
• 5.c3/5.Bd3 - 3 games 
• 5.Nc3!? - 3 games 
• 5.h3!? - 1 game

This is the only place in the book, except for the Introduction (chapter 1), where he gives more than one line for white. I speculate that previously he played 5.Bb5 and now he doesn't really have an answer.

5.Bd3 Bg4 6.O-O Bd6 Fressinet - Short move order, I was sure must have been a typo, or a double-inaccuracy in a rapid game, but no: 6...Nxd4 7.Qe1+ Ne6 8.Ne5 +=. Should the GM have mentioned this? Perhaps he just expects *all* his readers to be able to figure this out with an engine's help.

5...Bd6 6.Bd3 Nge7 7.O-O Bg4 

This is the Stojchev - Jacimovic move order. Between 5.c3/5.Bd3 and 9.Re1 Fishbein doesn't analyze any alternatives for either side, nor in his other two games in this line. 7...Bf5!? 8.Bxf5 Nxf5 9.Re1+ Nge7 I'm not sure how white should "punish" this, certainly not by 10.Qd3 O-O 11.Nbd2 Qd7 12.Nf1 when black is tempo ahead of Spraggett - Rocha (there the wN is already on g3).

8.Nbd2 Qd7 9.Re1 

In the notes to Thavandiran - So, he quotes Spraggett - Rivera, Lisbon 2014, but he doesn't seem to be aware of Spraggett's article on the Exchange French. See spraggettonchess.com 2016.11.04 at archive.org.

• 9...f6 10.Nf1 O-O-O 11.b4 +/- (1:0, 57) Spraggett - Stella, Figuera da Foz 2016
• 9...O-O-O 10.b4 +/- (1:0, 59) Spraggett - Rivera, Lisbon 2014 
• 9...O-O "small edge" according to Spraggett 10.Nf1 Bf5 11.Ng3 (Fishbein gives instead 11.Ne3 and 11.Be2) Bxd3 12.Qxd3 Bxg3?! 13.hxg3 (1:0, 33) Spraggett - Rocha, Ponto Delgado 2016

I wouldn't be at all surprised if 9...O-O "small edge" turns out to be "no edge". Unfortunately black won't have many winning chances with same side castling.

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 05/22/21 at 21:22:31:


Interesting. A few years ago I looked at this via 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Bd6 6.Nf3 from Black's perspective and concluded that White has the better attacking chances after 10.b4, ie castling queenside is too risky. Then I looked at 9...f6 (iso 9...O-O-O) and concluded that Black's best is castling kingside followed by ...Bf5. Finally I wondered if Black can save a tempo with 6...Nge7 (iso 6...Bg4) followed by 7...Bf5 as pointed out by GM Moskalenko in his latest book on the French; only after 7.Qc2 Black plays Bg4 as in Braga-Moskalenko, Barbera 2001. Black claims to play an improved version of the Thavandiran-So game, because Qc2 is a suboptimal move.
Just my two SRD (worth less than ever in this time of inflation).