French Defense

Originally posted by Wilfriedva
it's not a standard form of notation,I guess the poster felt extremely lazy

yes it is

Originally posted by Wilfriedva
it's not a standard form of notation,I guess the poster felt extremely lazy

For your information, I found the following:

Some texts, such as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, omit indication that any capture has been made. (For example, Be5 instead of Bxe5; ed6 instead of exd6 or exd6e.p.) When it is unambiguous to do so, a pawn capture is sometimes described by specifying only the files involved (exd or ed). These shortened forms are sometimes called minimal or abbreviated algebraic notation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_notation_(chess)

Originally posted by queenabber
yes it is

ok then,it's a standard lazy form of notation 😛

Originally posted by Wilfriedva
ok then,it's a standard lazy form of notation 😛

Right on! 😏

Originally posted by RJHinds
Right on! 😏

Actually I would argue than
4....de is both more elegant and truer to the principles of alebragic notation.

It is perfectly clear a capture has taken place as how else does a pawn change file?

The use of " x" is just a sorry throwback to descriptive notation

Originally posted by queenabber
Actually I would argue than
4....de is both more elegant and truer to the principles of alebragic notation.

It is perfectly clear a capture has taken place as how else does a pawn change file?

The use of " x" is just a sorry throwback to descriptive notation

Just goes to show you who reads books and who uses engines, eh.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Just goes to show you who reads books and who uses engines, eh.

All my old chess books are in descriptive notation. I have not read all my new books yet. However, the book "Lessons With A Grandmaster Enhance your chess strategy and psychology with Boris Gulko" is in algebraic notation and he uses the x for a pawn capture to a different file. John Nunn, Garry kasparov. Nigel Davies, and Israel Gelfer also use the x for a pawn capture to a differnt file in the books I have by them. So it must only be a few books that ignore using the x for a pawn capture to a different file. What chess books have you read that leave the x out for any captures?

Originally posted by kingshill
I was surprised to find that currently the third most popular move in the French other than the Winawer (Bb4) and Classical (Nf6) is h6. This has scored quite well recently but here is a game that my son played yesterday in a IM tournament in Germany where he manages to take this variation down. Haven't had time to analyse it yet but this was not part of ...[text shortened]... 7. Kh1 Bd8 28. Rg1+ Kf8 29. Rh8+ Ke7 30. Bxf6+
Rxf6 31. Rg7+ 0-1

[/pgn]

When your son started the kingside attack with 17.g5, I did not see how it could work because Black seemed to have too many pieces to come to the defense. But as the position continued and I saw his very good move 22.Nxf7 things began to look more promising and after black takes the knight with 24...gxh6, your son showed how good his attacking skills are. A very good finish and I congradulate your son on his defeat of his higher rated opponent. You must be very proud of his play. I wish him continued improvement and even better games in the future.

Originally posted by ViktorN
You often play f4, and answer f5 (or f6) with exf6, creating a hole on e5 and a backward pawn on e6. I won lots of games this way, just slowly crushing black in the centre, and when he tries to attack on the queenside, he gets mated on the kingside.

You haven't played against opponents that know French defense well.
Try that "recipe" against good French defense players and you will realise that Black gets plenty of counterplay for the weakness on e6.

French defense is one of the most dynamic openings but the problem is that demands very good understanding of the middlegame and the endgame it produces and excellent evaluation skills.If Black plays passively then e6 will be a weakness , light squared bishop will be the "bad bishop" and White will crush Black.But for a chessplayer that knows what to do , e6 will never be at any real danger and lightsquared bishop will be the main counterattacking piece.
In lower levels White scores much more wins than Black.White has of course much easier "mission" and if both don't understand the position White will win most of the times.But against a player that is familiar with the positions, French defense is one of the most difficult openings to play against.In many cases evaluating the position correctly seems like an impossible task as White seems to get clear advantage but Black is always with plenty of counterplay. Here is a game a friend(very strong master) played in a tournament.

Originally posted by Roper300
You haven't played against opponents that know French defense well.
Try that "recipe" against good French defense players and you will realise that Black gets plenty of counterplay for the weakness on e6.
....
{White has a lost endgame and resigned.} 0-1

Wow. Those two pawns didn't move the whole game.