Paris Called and They Want Their French Back

On November 17, I played round of the Fall Challenge tournament in Arcadia. Having lost two games in a row (see my previous posts), I knew I would be paired way down and so it proved. I faced off against Kyle Li, rated 1592, and scored one of my quickest ever wins in rated play.

I hadn't played Kyle before but, as a kid, one could assume he might be slightly underrated as many of them are. Also, many of the kids are quite tactical and revel in obtaining positions where there are opportunities for combinations. Funnily enough, Kyle, who had black, played the normally solid French Defense against me but came badly unstuck after barely more than a few moves.

As the game only lasted 11 moves, there is only one diagram given below.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 

We have a McCutcheon variation of the French, quite standard and nothing unusual yet.

6. Bd2 Nfd7 7. Qg4 g6 8. Bd3 Nc6?

This is a serious mistake. 8. ... c5  is the most common move and has been played a number of times by Grandmasters. In the position above, I had to decide whether to play it safe with something like 9. Nf3  or go for the kill by sacrificing on g6. I knew black had already made a mistake and decided he needed to be punished for it. The computer actually prefers 9. Nf3, giving white a decent advantage (although the text move should also be a bit better for white with best play by black).

 9. Bxg6

It turns out that this wasn't as crushing as I thought at the time. Fritz says that black should sac a piece back in the following line: 9. ... Bxc3 10. bxc3 Ndxe5 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. Bxf7+ Nxf7. This is still better for white but not by much because black has equalized the material and it's not clear if white's king wants to be on the kingside (where black could exploit the half open g file) or the queenside (which has a shattered pawn structure). Note that 9. ... Bxc3 10. Qxe6+ Qe7 11. Bxf7+ Kf8 12. Bxh6+  is also interesting but costs white a piece, although he does get three pawns for it (and black's king would be very exposed).

9. ... Rg8?? 10. Qxe6+ Ne7?? 11. Qxf7# 1-0

Here is the complete PGN:

[Event "Arcadia Fall Challenge"]
[Site "Arcadia"]
[Date "2014.11.17"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Hayes, Matthew"]
[Black "Li, Kyle"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C12"]
[WhiteElo "2133"]
[BlackElo "1592"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[EventDate "2014.11.17"]
[EventRounds "6"]
[EventCountry "USA"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. Bd2 Nfd7 7. Qg4 g6 8. Bd3 Nc6 9. Bxg6 Rg8 10. Qxe6+ Ne7 11. Qxf7# 1-0