A Nice Win in the French

An oft-successful trap of sorts in the 3...Nf6 Tarrasch.

There was a reasonably strong open event in Chicago this weekend, and one of the games from today’s action (possibly yesterday’s by the time I finish this post) was an impressive victory by the player who wound up winning the tournament (or at least tying for first). This was his victory in round 4, and it shows that while 3…c5 may be the coin of the realm when it comes to GMs facing the Tarrasch (3.Nd2 vs. the French), White doesn’t have to go too far wrong to experience serious problems when facing 3…Nf6. White’s losing move in this game had been played in at least 30 prior games, and I strongly suspect that White has made the same error in many closely analogous positions as well.

So if you’re a French player and have not been enjoying your pet opening take it on the chin recently (especially in the line Gukesh played against Ding in game 13 of their match, and repeated twice by Carlsen against Nepo in the CCT Final and again in the World Blitz), then hopefully this will cheer you up a bit. (Not completely, since those games were with 3.Nc3. But then again, I offered some suggestions in earlier posts against that as well.)