Nernstian59 wrote on 12/22/24 at 00:27:09:

IM Toth was close but not quite on the mark. Winning Chess Middlegames Volume 2 placed third in chess.com's Book of the year Award, announced yesterday. The winner was The Unknown Fischer by Cyrus Lakdawala. I'm guessing that its victory may have been at least partly the result of appealing to a wider audience plus the enduring fascination that Fischer holds for many chess fans.

Ah, that should be real wisdom SF doesn't like 10 Be2 at all there. It seemingly decides that the the f5 strong point must be wiped out at all costs, and as soon as possible too.

So it goes g3, Bh3 x f5 and follows up with Nh4 to wipe out any reinforcements coming via e7. Also a4, sometimes o-o and other logical things.

Michael Ayton wrote on 12/26/24 at 09:15:06:


Well, going Bd3 just to swap it off on f5 isn't a triumph c4 is the SF main line (or Qa5 first), white gets a tempo on g4 vs the f5 knight and you get a very interesting position.

cf:
8 Nf3 Qa5 (or c4 then Qa5) 9 Bd2 c4 10 Qf4 Nc6 11 g4 Nfe7 12 h4 etc.

Not that it thinks that that's remotely awful for black, but it seems to the think the Q swap lines are fairly OK too.

cf 9.. Qc7, I suppose the truth of the Winaver at that sort of level is that you make it work by playing a lot of different lines. There's loads of 'almost sound' options....

Same here with the Moles books, tremendous things

The fascinating thing about 7 Qg4 Nf5 is that modern SF points out that 8 Nf3 is quite a good move too No Q swaps! Almost no games in my database.

I'd actually have said that, in aggregate, the computers have made more lines playable than vice versa. They're so good at finding delicate ways to hold a draw.

Even in the Winaver, modern SF actually shows that 7 Qg4 o-o 8 Bd3 is just totally fine for black. 8 Bg5 of course is another matter.

And you do also find loads of sharp lines where you follow computer lines through chaos for 10-15 moves then discover it's still quite as messy as when you started! At that point the eval isn't very relevant.

Returning for a moment to Replies 38-41 and Ivan Sokolov's recent book, Winning Chess Middlegames Volume 2, there still doesn't appear to be much information available about the content of the French Winawer chapter. The excerpt provided by the publisher, New in Chess, doesn't present any material. In Reply # 40, kylemeister did give a link to the video book review by IM Andras Toth, who was quite effusive in his praise of the book, going so far as to anoint it as his Book of the Year, even though there were still more than nine months left in 2024 at that time.

I now have the book and can provide some more details on the Winawer chapter beyond those that can be gleaned from Toth's video.  Throughout the book, Sokolov delves into middlegames stemming from a limited set of pawn structures that arise from 1.e4 openings. He uses one or more illustrative games to discuss the middlegame play developing from each structure. Sokolov may give a few introductory remarks for a game before proceeding with the game itself.  In other cases, he'll present a diagram of a middlegame position from the game, pointing out salient features and plans for each side before digging into the actual moves.

For the Winawer chapter, the structure is the one produced by the moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 and usually but not always 6...Ne7. At an early point, Sokolov states that he won't be covering the Poison Pawn "because there are too many theoretical ('computer prep') lines here". He doesn't elaborate, but seems to suggest that the Poison Pawn's concrete, engine-derived lines aren't especially amenable to his more strategic approach to analyzing the middlegames.

With the Poison Pawn eliminated, Sokolov examines a variety of Winawer lines in twelve illustrative games. The largest share of his attention goes to 7.Qg4 0-0, which is covered in four games. The remaining eight games are each devoted to a single variation. Among these are 6...Qa5 (the Portisch-Hook), the newly fashionable 6...Nc6, the popular 7.h4, the old 7.Qg4 Nf5 (covered with the well-known Stein-Petrosian, URS ch Moscow 1961), and 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Bd3. This last sequence can veer into play with some similarity to the Poison Pawn, but Sokolov only considers the continuation 8...c4, closing the position and producing much more of a maneuvering game.

With the exclusion of the Poison Pawn, one might expect more emphasis on the Positional Winawer lines originating from 7.Nf3 or 7.a4. However, Sokolov covers only one of these: 7.Nf3 Bd7 8.dxc5, which came into prominence when Spassky played it three times as White in his 1977 Candidates match with Korchnoi. Sokolov notes Spassky's employment of this line and also refers to the tripled pawns as "Irish pawns", a term I don't recall encountering before. (A bit of Googling indicates that Tony Miles was its inventor in a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor from the first issue of the short-lived magazine International Chess).

While Sokolov doesn't include the Poison Pawn, he does cover a related line arising from the Classical Winawer: 6...Qc7 7.Qg4 f5 8.Qg3 Ne7 9.Qxg7 Rg8 10.Qxh7 cxd4. As Sokolov mentions, Botvinnik tried this line as Black against Tal in both of their world championship matches. I've had an interest in it ever since I saw John Moles' analysis in his book French Defence - Main Line Winawer (1975). Sadly, the variation is included in Sokolov's book because it's the centerpiece of a section titled "Well-known lines killed by technology". Sokolov states in this section that modern engines "are going to put an end to some of the sharp tactical lines in the Winawer". Using the game Anand-Curt Hansen, Middelfart 2003, Sokolov shows that this is the case for the old Botvinnik line. After Black misses his one chance to obtain counterplay following an Anand inaccuracy on move 13, Hansen is simply pushed off the board with no real chance to put up resistance. Sokolov's point is that modern engines can navigate this complex line and take full advantage of the open position and the bishop pair. While it's disappointing to see just how grim Black's prospects are, I can't say it's a total surprise since earlier in this thread, I pointed to this line in response to FreeRepublic's comment that "Some variations seem to wilt after computer-assisted review". (See Replies #13-14).

Sokolov extends his collection of now-dubious lines to include those where Black snatches a pawn and tries to rely on his solid structure to weather the ensuing storm. The author notes that previously such positions might be evaluated as unclear or as White having compensation for the lost material, but today's engines (and players who are training with them) are much better at making use of the initiative, resulting in the positions being judged as simply better for White. 

The remaining illustrative game in the chapter originates from a different Classical Winawer line; namely, 6...Qc7 7..Qg4 f5 8.Qg3 cxd4 9.cxd4 Ne7 10.Bd2. This particular continuation has a reputation as being more solid and dependable than its Poison-Pawn-related cousin played in the Botvinnik-Tal matches. Sokolov uses Kasparov-Short, Novgorod 1997 to examine this position. Curiously, Sokolov doesn't mention 10.Ne2, which scores extremely well and has put this particular Classical Winawer line on life support (e.g., see Reply #14 in this discussion).  Perhaps he's not overly concerned with such opening details since the focus of his book is on the middlegame.

Shortly after the positive comments in Toth's video were posted, Sokolov's book also received a highly complimentary review in Matthew's Sadler's column in New in Chess magazine. I agree with both Sadler and Toth on the quality of Sokolov's annotations. With the merit of his work beyond doubt, the one question remaining for the Winawer devotee is if Sokolov's book is worth buying just to get one of the six chapters. 

Possibly a more cost-effective alternative is Sokolov's FritzTrainer DVD from ChessBase, Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.8 - French - Winawer. Except for a "bonus" game on the Steinitz Variation, this DVD is devoted entirely to the Winawer. A quick look at its contents on the ChessBase site indicates that Sokolov isn't doing a video version of his book. Out of the seven Winawer games he covers on the DVD, only one is also in the book. 

As far as I know Krishnater proposes 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Nc6. I looked at this for myself some years ago, but I never got it on the board as very few of my opponents played 3.Nc3 and nobody played 4.e5.

kylemeister - Thanks for pointing out that video! It's nice to have some details about what Sokolov covers in his Winawer chapter.