Fat Lady and the 2320...

Old Fat Lady emailed me his best win v an higher graded player
It was in a league game played a few days ago. Thought I'd share.

FL is Black, he kicks off the game with a 'ready or not here I come' 12...e5.


White pulls a psuedo sac out the hat winning a pawn. 13.Nxd5

Not sure if White underestimated, or simply did not see
the sting in the tail but Fat Lady did and nabbed back the pawn.


Black has just played 17...Bxh3

White decided here....



...to swap the Queen for the two Rooks. 19.QxR.

A big decision made by a good player OTB. I'm not going to look
at the 0-1 on the score sheet and say it was wrong.
Finding other White moves all appear to me meet with natural
Black attacking ideas but nothing alarming.

No 19 QxR was not a blunder, it was a stab at trying to win the game.
Weighed down by a ball & chain grade the higher graded player
is sometimes forced into selecting unclear paths.

Or perhaps White strolled around and saw his team were losing
on the other boards so had to go for the win.
Fat Lady's team won 4-2 despite being outgraded on every board
so this game was critical.

After the Queen for two Rooks swap the Q and two Bishops
wriggled into a dangerous position and here I think was the error.
(it must be it drops the exchange and two pawns by force.)


White has just played 24.Rae1 missing 24...Bxf4+ and perhaps
realising then that he cannot play 25.Kxh3 because 25...Qh5 mates him.

It ended here.


The g & h pawns will set up mating and promotion threats
far two stong for the Rook and Bishop to handle.

A good game by Fat Lady. White is graded 2320

I don't like 7.exf6

In the French game, he who controls the center controls the universe. You get the center, then you launch your attack. White's 7th move gave black both center and attack.

The fact that black played Nc6 instead of c5 first should have had white in good standing for a while, but white gives the fat lady a nice QR battery down the f-file, and clears the diagonal for the bishop sac.

There are variations where exf6 is great, but most of the time they usually involve black already being castled and white with a bishop on d3.


Methinks that white was trying to play on "class" and trying to win with tactics. Good play beats that trick every time.

Fine win by FL, nicely closed out.

7. exf6 is correct. White gets a sound position; Black gets typical chances for the French. 3...Nc6 is both fine & fashionable these days. It avoids well-travelled strategic pathways that arise after 3...c5; or even after 3...Nf6; 4. e5

The principal point of interest from the opening is that Black, with ...h6, suckered White into h3, thereby creating a target & weakening of the K-side. Remove both those pawn moves, and the game up until Bxh3 has been played before.

Originally posted by atticus2
Fine win by FL, nicely closed out.

7. exf6 is correct. White gets a sound position; Black gets typical chances for the French. 3...Nc6 is both fine & fashionable these days. It avoids well-travelled strategic pathways that arise after 3...c5; or even after 3...Nf6; 4. e5

The principal point of interest from the opening is that Black, with ...h6, sucke ...[text shortened]... of the K-side. Remove both those pawn moves, and the game up until Bxh3 has been played before.

Wow, exf6 is right.



I still don't like Nc6 though.

exf6 is not merely right, it's strategically necessary.

If W allows fxe5, then B has a weak e5 pawn to target, while creating a long-term passed pawn at d5. Alternatively, by taking on f6, White retains a pawn on d4 controlling key squares, and leaves Black with an awkward backward pawn on e6.

Pawn structures in the French are crucial

Can I ask what was the point of 12. h3? Was it necessary for tactical reasons? All I can see is that it weakened the pawns around the king and allowed Bxh3.

This hindsight thing is great😏

Originally posted by hedonist
Can I ask what was the point of 12. h3? Was it necessary for tactical reasons? All I can see is that it weakened the pawns around the king and allowed Bxh3.

This hindsight thing is great😏

The idea of 11. ... h6 was so I could play 12. ... Qf7, protecting the pawn on d5 and so making the e5 break more likely to work. I'd seen this idea in a couple of Grandmaster games.

Before playing h6 I had to calculate that Black wasn't losing tactically after 12. Ng4 Qf7 13. Bxh6. I decided that it still seemed OK for Black after 13. ... e5 as the knight on g4 is attacked.

I think White saw this too and so played 12. h3 to protect the knight when it went to g4. If White had managed to get this in my queen would not have been able to go to f7 because Bxh6 wins and I would have had real problems forcing e5.

After 12. h3 I decided that I had to play 12. ... e5 immediately as after my initial plan of 12. ... Qf7, 13. Ng4 seemed to keep a real grip on e5. I could see that I was losing the b-pawn, but if White grabbed that then it looked like I had tactics based on Qe5 (threatening mate on h2) which forced White to weaken his kingside pawns considerably. However as it turns out Qe5 would have failed because White has Qd5+ and after the queens come off White wins the exchange.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
The idea of 11. ... h6 was so I could play 12. ... Qf7, protecting the pawn on d5 and so making the e5 break more likely to work. I'd seen this idea in a couple of Grandmaster games.

Before playing h6 I had to calculate that Black wasn't losing tactically after 12. Ng4 Qf7 13. Bxh6. I decided that it still seemed OK for Black after 13. ... e5 as the knig ...[text shortened]... ould have failed because White has Qd5+ and after the queens come off White wins the exchange.

Thanks for that. And also for the h6 move that I forgot to ask about.

Just that these kind of moves I see every day at lower club level(my level) and a lot of the time they do more harm than good. I guessed there had to be a reason for them, but I couldn't see it.

Thanks GP and FL