Saturday, May 15, 2010

Altounian-Shulman, U.S. Championship Round 2

This game highlights a major practical disadvantage of the French Defense at the international level: if White only wants a draw, it can be very hard to win.  In this game, Altounian is facing one of the world's strongest practitioners of the French, and he chickens out with the Exchange Variation.  

If you want to play the French against an amateur like me, this is less of a worry: check out John Watson's Play the French.

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