Nernstian59 wrote on 09/25/23 at 20:06:36:


I am definitely losing the thread, making related comments on different threads. I ran across Positional Repertoire against the French, by IM Renier Castellanos, 2017, updated 2018 (Modern-chess). It's a Tarrasch French repertoire. On this line he states:  "11b3, White will put his bishop on b2 taking full control of the e5-square. White’s play is much easier, and Black is totally without counter-play."

Castellanos and Moskalenko are in agreement. In that sense at least, 11b3 can be dubbed the main line. However the few games that I am aware of have been mixed.

I like your summary:
" A cursory check of the Mega Database indicates that Black can try to meet White's plan with 11...0-0 12.Bb2 Bd7 13.Ne5, and now 13...Be8 has been doing OK statistically. ChessBase flags this as a "hot" variation, and Stockfish evaluates the position as equal."

Nernstian59 wrote on 09/24/23 at 22:46:07:


NIC Yearbook 139 contains an excerpt from the Fully-Fledged French, and it is this very same chapter! Thanks for the continuation (beyond Moskalenko).I proceeded the same as you, to 13...Be8. 14Nxc6, 14Re1, 14h3 and 14f4 have been played. Stockfish considers 14Qf3 and 14Rc1. I think it's an interesting position and will leave it at that!

FreeRepublic wrote on 09/24/23 at 20:12:39:

Chapter 9 is relatively short, containing two games played with the Universal System.  Matthew Sadler plays Black in the second game against French GM Fabien Libiszewski, which is apparently the reason for Moskalenko putting "Game Changer" in the chapter title.  In fact, he dedicates the chapter to Sadler and Alpha Zero.

The first game in the chapter is Zdenek Nemec-Richard Pijl, Correspondence 2012. It begins 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ngf3 Qb6 arriving at a position where we exchanged posts in the thread on Miedema's Modernized French Volume 2:

https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1585089764

The correspondence game then continued with the line I quoted from Miedema's book: 8.0-0 cxd4 9.cxd4 a5. Moskalenko describes 9...a5 as a move that "is quite useful and remains a tough nut to crack". He also echoes Miedema's opinion that idea behind 9...a5 is to wait for White to commit before grabbing the d4-pawn. The wait isn't that long in the Nemec-Pijl game since Black takes the pawn on move 11. At move 19, Moskalenko comments that White has some compensation for the pawn, but not enough for an advantage, and the game is drawn on move 34.

You might be interested to know that Moskalenko also looks at 7...f6 in his notes to Nemec-Pijl. He follows the moves you gave in your analysis in this thread:

https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1342015696/6#6

Instead of your 11.Re1, he gives 11.b3!?, with the comment "The knight on d2 is slightly passive; however, with his last move, White is planning Bb2 and Ne5!, which will be difficult to neutralize." Moskalenko ends his analysis of 7...f6 here. A cursory check of the Mega Database indicates that Black can try to meet White's plan with 11...0-0 12.Bb2 Bd7 13.Ne5, and now 13...Be8 has been doing OK statistically. ChessBase flags this as a "hot" variation, and Stockfish evaluates the position as equal.

Moskalenko uses the second game in the chapter, Libiszewski-Sadler, to explore the variation with 7...Be7, intending ...g5. This is the recommendation in Simon Williams' Attacking Chess: The French and the Chessable course Mastering the French Defense by Bryan Tillis.  It's also covered by Antic and Maksimovic in The Modern French.