FreeRepublic wrote on 01/02/24 at 19:14:48:

I wasn't aware of Jobava playing the Fort Knox, and so successfully as well! So much for the variation's reputation of being solid and mostly good for a draw. We hear so much about the Jobava London - when is someone going to publicize the Jobava French?

Thanks for pointing out that game from 1933. It isn't in ChessBase's Mega Database, but shows up on chessgames.com. Assuming that "kurt ritcher" is just a typo for "Kurt Richter", it's interesting to see this because his name popped up when I did some more research into this 8.Bc1 line today. I dug out my copy of Lutes' French Defense McCutcheon Variation (1991) and found that Lutes cites the 1935 Türn-Keres game as the introduction of 8.Bc1. He adds that Kurt Richter "reintroduced" this move in a game with Rudolf Duehrssen (Bad Saarow Meister 1937). However, the 1933 game with John shows that Richter played 8.Bc1 prior to Türn-Keres.  Apparently Lutes and Harding were unaware of this earlier game. 

Kerangali wrote on 10/01/23 at 07:50:18:

Kerengali - Thanks for pointing out how old 8.Bc1 is. You inspired me to check for it in my oldest MacCutcheon book, TD Harding's French: MacCutcheon and Advance Lines (1979), and sure enough, 8.Bc1 is covered. One line given by Harding is the same 8...c5 9.Ne2 Qa5 10.f3 Nxc3 11.Qd2 that Watson warned against (See Reply #5). Harding cites the game Türn-Keres, Tallinn 1935, where Black was already in trouble at this early stage. This is the oldest game with 8.Bc1 in the Mega Database. 

Harding also gives 10...Ng5 (instead of 10...Nxc3), continuing with 11.h4 Nh7 and noting that Black was able to hold the draw in Bednarski-Minev, Varna 1968. This is the line that was played in the game recently highlighted in the ChessBase Live Ticker. So this line is at least 50 years old, but as you point out, it's getting new attention. 

Although I was already aware of 6.Bc1 as an alternative to the main move 8.Bd2, the delayed retreat to c1 on move 8 was unknown to me, and I appreciate your information on its history.

Kerangali wrote on 09/30/23 at 19:40:05:

Strictly speaking, the Play Magnus Group bought Everyman in March 2021. (And they had bought New in Chess the month before, and Chessable in February 2019). Play Magnus was acquired in turn by Chess.com in August 2022.

FreeRepublic wrote on 09/30/23 at 19:16:27:

Some time in the last few months, I saw a line in the MacCutcheon that I thought was new because it was flagged as a New Opening Trend on the ChessBase Live Ticker. It goes 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.bxc3 Ne4 and now 8.Bc1, which is denoted as a "hot" move in the Mega Database. The game continued 8...c5 (the most popular move according to the database) 9.Ne2 Qa5 10.f3 Ng5 11.h4 Nh7. While this 8.Bc1 line might be "hot', it turns out that it's not entirely new. Watson covers it in the 4th edition of Play the French. He advises against the natural looking (and more popular) 8..c5, giving 9.Ne2! and noting "the idea of f3 gives White reasonable play". Watson adds that 9...Qa5 in response to 9.Ne2 is met by 10.f3 (just as in the game on the ChessBase ticker), pointing out that 10...Nxc3 11.Qd2 "ends well for White" This is an understatement - the database shows White scoring 91.3% here. Watson's recommendation is 8...Nxc3, which scores better than 8...c5. My foggy memory doesn't remember the details of the game, but it might be N.Ward-J.Stopa, Los Angeles 1000GM Inv 02 2023, though its date of Feb 26 2023 isn't as recent as my recollection thought it should be.

Didn't Chessable buy Everyman some time ago? if so, it's weird for them to issue this kind of old-fashioned paper book.

Given Langrock's book on the Rubinstein from from 2014 and Martin's poor quality (his book on the O'Kelly is a terrible mess) my bet is that this one will be superfluous at best.