| Jun-08-05 | | babakova: This game is featured in the life and games of Mikhail Tal and he says that black cant play 23...Rd6 on account for 24.Nh4 Rg8 25.Bd3+ f5 26.Bxf5+! I thought to myself, yeah that looks good... But then I saw the editors note which said "I cant see what white does if black simply captures the bishop"... First I became irritated because it seemed to me that 26...exf5 27.Re7+ Kh8 28.Qe5+ and black has to resign and that the editor is a patzer, surely Tal couldnt have overlooked something? Well we both overlooked 28...Rf6 and now its white who has to resign, the pawncapture simply makes way. Tal would have probably seen this had he been met by Rd6, but maybe he was lucky it didnt happen. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | mynameisrandy: Playing the French against Tal was just asking for execution. Look at his record in French defense games as white. This database shows 58 wins, 34 draws, and 7 losses out of 99 games. He wasn't nearly so good on the black side of the French but he played it so rarely that it would appear he only used it as a surprise weapon. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | Elvis in Chicago: the French just seems to go against the basic laws of chess: rapid developent and piece activity. I think the only reason some GMs play it is because the unusual pawn structure produces some errors on the white side, they are lulled into a sense of safety by having more space and better development. It seems to be a fundamentally weak opening for black. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | RisingChamp: Rather than that you seem to have a fundamentally poor understanding of chess. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | babakova: Bobby Fischer called the french antipositional, but he had relatively horrible results against it. Make no mistake, its quite playable. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | Runemaster: <babakova> <Bobby Fischer called the french antipositional, but he had relatively horrible results against it.>I think Fischer only said that about the Winawer variation of the French. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | khalil the King: I agree with babakova although fischer said this only about the winawer he still considered the french defense as an inferior method to counter 1.e4. I do agree with him and I I think that the best defenses for Black are e5 or c5 defenses. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | babakova: Yeah ,the winawer, I stand corrected. |
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| Jun-09-05 | | ughaibu: Game Collection: World champions play the French |
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| Jun-09-05 | | paladin at large: 24.....Rd6 does not work for Portisch, nor do any of the following moves with this rook. Would 24.....Rd7 with the aim of following up with Rdg7 have been a better defense than moving his pawns forward? |
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| Jun-09-05 | | babakova: 24...Rd7 looks like a big mistake because of 25.Bxe6 |
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| Jun-09-05 | | babakova: Obviously not 25.Rxe6?? and black wins with 25...Qxe6 |
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| Dec-26-11 | | ToTheDeath: Some nice murky complications in this game, typical of Tal. His notes always make it seem smoother and more clear than it actually is. |
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sac: 16.Qf4