I wanted to share a game I played against my friend badivan here at redhotpawn. My opponent told me that normally Black would avoid the poisoned pawn in the Winawer and prefer to castle. I am of the opinion that the poisoned pawn in the Winawer french is easy to play as the moves would flow naturally. Please comment on the game as any improvements for either Black or White will be greatly appreciated.
Boy that's a poorly played game by white there. This is a special case of the French Winawar called the Poisoned Pawn variation 13 Rb1? Looks like a questionable move, I like 13 Nxc3 is would have saved him from the knight sac there later in the game. I think how he got into trouble is he opened up the center and personally in this variation I like to keep it as closed as possible because you cant castle do to the open g and h files as long as the center is closed your king is safe uncastled and black has given up nothing for two not so useful files.
Originally posted by NorrisB Boy that's a poorly played game by white there. This is a special case of the French Winawar called the Poisoned Pawn variation 13 Rb1? Looks like a questionable move, I like 13 Nxc3 is would have saved him from the knight sac there later in the game. I think how he got into trouble is he opened up the center and personally in this variation I like to keep ...[text shortened]... closed your king is safe uncastled and black has given up nothing for two not so useful files.
Thanks for your insight 🙂 On move 13 by White the main alternatives are:
a) 13.Rc1
b) 13.Nxc3
c) 13.Qxc3
I do like 13.Rb1 as this move is usefull in preventing a Qb6 by Black. Though, I believe that the position is unclear afterwards. When I was younger a move I used to play as White was 13.Ng3 but... 13.Nxc3 is very interesting as Black almost must play 13...a6
Originally posted by NorrisB Boy that's a poorly played game by white there. This is a special case of the French Winawar called the Poisoned Pawn variation 13 Rb1? Looks like a questionable move, I like 13 Nxc3 is would have saved him from the knight sac there later in the game. I think how he got into trouble is he opened up the center and personally in this variation I like to keep ...[text shortened]... closed your king is safe uncastled and black has given up nothing for two not so useful files.
I think you are on the money with regard to white's play, but 13. Rb1 isn't the culprit here. That move is the 3rd most popular in the position and scores over 60%, with Cuban GM Lenier Dominquez Perez being its most popular exponent.
He wins a lot with it-here's a game of his against GM Alexander Grischuk. It's a blitz game, but both players were rated 2719 at the time, which seemed too poetic to pass up!
Playing through it, it seems like a great example of white's opportunities in the line.
Wow! A rush of adrenaline! What a nice game... I believe that Black had a draw somewhere when he could have done a perpetual... Thank you for sharing that game with me. I believe the plan with g3 is sound but needs better execution. In particular I didn like badivan's exchange of his light squared bishop
I think white made a couple of basic blunders, namely failing to activate his bishop on c1 and the Knight had no scope to advance. Later in the game, white did not realise the significance of the b1 h7 diagonal and could have blocked it instead of pawn grabbing.
If there was a plan, white should have used the b file, activated the bishop and knight and created some threats against blacks king.
Winawer French game
02 Sep '11 14:09
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