The Resilient French - A Last Look at the 10…Bg5 Variation

In this article I  continue with the discussion that began with The Resilience of the French Defence, and that I last visited in the article The Resilient French - A Closer Look at the 10…Bg5 Variation.

Alan contributed the following:

Here’s a possible continuation: 12. Qd2 Bd7 13. Qe3 Qe7 14. Nf4 Nd8 15. Rae1 b6 16. Kh1 c5 17. Nfxd5 exd5 18. Nxd5

This gives us this position (see first diagram):

The black position is not a pretty sight! Black’s queen must move, but is very restricted for moves because of the knight on g5 that will be left hanging. Black can’t play 18…Qe6 because of the reply 19.Bc4 which looks like it wins material by force. The only move appears to be 18…Qf7 (allowing black to interpose the light squared bishop after 19.Bc4) - although black leaves the g5 knight hanging there is a counter attack against white’s d5 knight. However, after 19.Nxb6 f4 20.Qd2 Rb8 21.Nxd7 Qxd7 22.d5, white’s pawn roller will be devastating - see second diagram.

I now think this line - that is, with 10…Bg5 - is far worse for black than I did when I first stated analysing it. I was interested in it because it seemed to avoid the need for black to play 10…Nxc3, giving white two c-pawns to use as leavers against the black centre. Note that in the 10…Bg5 line it is possible black might be able to make the line playable. Following the line Alan suggests (see above) black can try either 15…c6 or 15…b5 (preparing …c5 and covering c4 so white can’t play Bc4). I think the former can be dismissed because it leaves no play at all in black’s position. However, the latter might be worth looking at - but frankly I now want to move on, so I’ll only come back and look at what happens in the 15…b5 line if black’s position after 10…Nxc3 (as played in the game) turns out to be untenable.