Originally posted by Wilfriedva it's not a standard form of notation,I guess the poster felt extremely lazy
For your information, I found the following:
Some texts, such as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, omit indication that any capture has been made. (For example, Be5 instead of Bxe5; ed6 instead of exd6 or exd6e.p.) When it is unambiguous to do so, a pawn capture is sometimes described by specifying only the files involved (exd or ed). These shortened forms are sometimes called minimal or abbreviated algebraic notation.
Originally posted by sonhouse Just goes to show you who reads books and who uses engines, eh.
All my old chess books are in descriptive notation. I have not read all my new books yet. However, the book "Lessons With A Grandmaster Enhance your chess strategy and psychology with Boris Gulko" is in algebraic notation and he uses the x for a pawn capture to a different file. John Nunn, Garry kasparov. Nigel Davies, and Israel Gelfer also use the x for a pawn capture to a differnt file in the books I have by them. So it must only be a few books that ignore using the x for a pawn capture to a different file. What chess books have you read that leave the x out for any captures?
Originally posted by kingshill I was surprised to find that currently the third most popular move in the French other than the Winawer (Bb4) and Classical (Nf6) is h6. This has scored quite well recently but here is a game that my son played yesterday in a IM tournament in Germany where he manages to take this variation down. Haven't had time to analyse it yet but this was not part of ...[text shortened]... 7. Kh1 Bd8 28. Rg1+ Kf8 29. Rh8+ Ke7 30. Bxf6+
Rxf6 31. Rg7+ 0-1
[/pgn]
When your son started the kingside attack with 17.g5, I did not see how it could work because Black seemed to have too many pieces to come to the defense. But as the position continued and I saw his very good move 22.Nxf7 things began to look more promising and after black takes the knight with 24...gxh6, your son showed how good his attacking skills are. A very good finish and I congradulate your son on his defeat of his higher rated opponent. You must be very proud of his play. I wish him continued improvement and even better games in the future.
Originally posted by ViktorN You often play f4, and answer f5 (or f6) with exf6, creating a hole on e5 and a backward pawn on e6. I won lots of games this way, just slowly crushing black in the centre, and when he tries to attack on the queenside, he gets mated on the kingside.
You haven't played against opponents that know French defense well.
Try that "recipe" against good French defense players and you will realise that Black gets plenty of counterplay for the weakness on e6.
French defense is one of the most dynamic openings but the problem is that demands very good understanding of the middlegame and the endgame it produces and excellent evaluation skills.If Black plays passively then e6 will be a weakness , light squared bishop will be the "bad bishop" and White will crush Black.But for a chessplayer that knows what to do , e6 will never be at any real danger and lightsquared bishop will be the main counterattacking piece.
In lower levels White scores much more wins than Black.White has of course much easier "mission" and if both don't understand the position White will win most of the times.But against a player that is familiar with the positions, French defense is one of the most difficult openings to play against.In many cases evaluating the position correctly seems like an impossible task as White seems to get clear advantage but Black is always with plenty of counterplay. Here is a game a friend(very strong master) played in a tournament.
[Result "0-1"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. f4 O-O 8. Nf3 c5 9. Nb5 Nc6 10. c3 f6 11. Bd3 a6 12. Nd6 {You might believe that white is better here but it's not} cxd4 13. cxd4 g5 {You might believe that this terrible k-side weakening is a mistake but it's not} 14. O-O gxf4 15. Qe2 fxe5 16. dxe5 Nc5 17. Rfd1 Bd7 18. Rac1 Nxd3 19. Rxd3 Be8 20. Nd4 Nxd4 21. Rxd4 {White has the "good knight" vs the "bad bishop" and Black's k-side is horribly weakened. You would expect that white is clearly better but careful examination of the position shows that Nd6 is actually harmless while Bd7 is going to be very dangerous once it gets to h5 and it is Black who will have k-side attacking chances.Seems unbelievable but White is the one that is in trouble here.} Qg5 22. Nxe8 {White decides not to allow the bishop to reach h5 as that would give dangerous attacking chances for Black} Raxe8 23. Rf1 h5 24. Rf3 Rc8 25. Qd2 Qxe5 26. Rdxf4 Rxf4 27. Qxf4 Qxf4 28. Rxf4 Rc1+ 29. Kf2 Rc2+ 30. Kf3 Kg7 {White has a lost endgame and resigned.} 0-1
Originally posted by Roper300 You haven't played against opponents that know French defense well.
Try that "recipe" against good French defense players and you will realise that Black gets plenty of counterplay for the weakness on e6.
....
{White has a lost endgame and resigned.} 0-1