Beauty and Madness

Hallo guys

I just happened to play a game I consider a real masterpiece, from a pure aestethical point of view.
de.lichess.org/jJX7S1oFCHbc
It is not the first time for me to have a similar game, since i really studied my openings well to become IM, but it still has an impact of harmony for me to still play this positions and I wanted to sahre it with you. Notice how the game contradicts a lot of the traditional chess paradigms (king in the middle, placement of the pieces, bad bishop,...) and still black has an amazing well round up position during the whole game (that's why a love french btw).
Also kudos to my opponent, it was a 3 min game so he is not to blame (I have a lot more experience in the position), with more time we could have kept the status quo for another 20 moves before finally someone would have gotten strategically ahead, here after he blundered a3 it was over (really unfortunatelly)

Enjoy chess! :)

Haha, I have you to thank you for getting me into this. If you recall we played a game before in a similar Bg5/Bb4/e5/h6 line in the french, but where I played more dogmatically and commented that white felt already mediocrish pretty fast.

I checked out some of the games in this main line and they are indeed just beautiful in how bizarre they are, and led to me picking it up. Doing much worse against you, but much better overall. Like you mentioned there's a lot of recurring themes and ideas, and working things out in 3 minutes is a little tough, but still an incredibly fun and interesting opening to try to pry through.

Nice game guys!

I just love the MacCutcheon, having picked it up a couple of years ago via the "Playing the French" book from Quality Chess. So much of it is so counter-intuitive.

Have you seen this game? The king walk from f8 to c7 is just great.

en.lichess.org/q5JJGIWN/black#28

And this is the favourite game I've played in the line - not technically as good as the game you played but the mate is fun!

en.lichess.org/mIkiEQD4/black#74

Have u analyzed lines where black plays Rh7 instead Rg8? I have found them enjoyable.

en.lichess.org/VhKIMTNIynTA

Yeah Mr. Pants, i remember our last encounters where you suffered a bit aswell. And to be honest, I can understand why white wins this against average players (you need to know some ressources), but with the right ideas i cannot find anything for white in these positions (after c4), and black has even 2 options (against the threats): either Ne7-f5, and later maybe g5, or the kingsmarsh to c7 like this game. Moreover I may tell you my knowledge- the reason I would play in my league only g6 against my oponents (no Kf8!) is because white has the small annoying reply Bd2-c1! after which I consider white to be better. After g6 it is less chances for black to win and overall a draw, so I don'T expect it to occur at all, but I believe you would have more fun with white against g6 at least

About Rh7- the whole purpose of Rh7 is the prophylactic of g4-g5 (mostly after white played h5), in our case it didn'T happen at first, and 2nd, then black has to wait/offer draw since he cannot improve his position. It does have a reason, but in the occuring position I had the possibility to improve my pieces (and didn't need to hide my king on g8), so Rh7 was out of sight.
And of course, the famous game depicted in the french book. Alas, like I said, I am afraid Kf8?! is a mistake due to Bc1 so we won't see the line rise anytime soon

@IM Strategymaster Interesting, thanks! Just got the book open and it does mention Bc1 but only very briefly (page 403) - the line given goes 9.Bc1 c5 10.Bd3 Nxc3 11.dxc5 Qa5 with a transposition to 9.Be3 lines after 12.Bd2.

and that line looks equal to me

@NM BigH And me - though I guess there may well be something else in there somewhere.

BTW I'm feeling a bit under-powered in this thread - need to find myself a few rating points and a title! :)

Blitz yes. It made your opponent think for 30 seconds on move 18 i think. Anytime you can make your opponent calculate for 30/3min then you're doing something right. I guess I would ask myself if I would play this position if I was 1 game away from being a GM. Would I play this position if all I needed was a draw. If you said yes to both of them then the position needs to be looked at more.

Why is it only worth looking at if you would even play it if you only need a draw? It might not be the opening to play for draw but that doesn't make the opening bad or even uninteresting.