kylemeister wrote on 10/15/23 at 00:10:05:
Re 8. h4"!?" a5"!?", he gave two continuations, both leading to equality. They were from Engedal-Poulton 1994 and Psakhis-Farago 1988
Psakhis and Farago were two French defense experts. I played through their game and was not dissapointed:
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. c3 Nc6
7. Ndf3 Qb6 8. h4 a5 9. a4 cxd4 10. cxd4 Ndb8 11. h5 h6
12. Bd3 Bd7 13. Ne2 Na6 14. O-O O-O-O 15. Kh1 Be7 16. Be3 Kb8
17. g4 Nc7 18. Qd2 Qb4 19. Nc3 f6 20. Qh2 fxe5 21. fxe5 Rhf8
22. Nb5 Nxb5 23. Bxb5 Qb3 24. Qe2 1/2-1/2
In addition to the game's 10...Ndb8, Black can consider 10...Bb4ch and 10...h5. Generally, Black is fighting from behind the barricades, to borrow a metaphor from Moskalenko. At first, I did not like 9a4 as it leads to a hole on b4. On the other hand, White can occupy b5. Looking further, it seems that White may be better after 9a4!?
I will check out Pedersen's analysis at the next opportunity. For now, I think this may be the biggest challenge to 3...Nf6.