Call the Expert F**K All Others

Recently a young guy asked me to look at one of his games where he played the French Defence. The opening probably should be called The German Defence instead since almost everybody in German clubs play it. If I'm correct only three players in the Clark Co. Chess Club play the French: Parker, Vela and myself. As for myself, I haven't played it much at the club, but now that will change as I see the merits of using this opening due to its solid, sound and flexible nature.

I don't consider myself as an "authority" or expert on the French Defence, but I know a thing or two about the opening, but I decided not to mention this to him. You might could say this was my test for him to see how receptive or open he was to ideas--a test he would fail with flying colours. Shortly before we sat down, I observed that he was frantically dailing the cell phone number of the "expert" who was supposed to meet him at the club to discuss the game. If I didn't know better I would have assumed he was dialing 911! It seemed as if his life depended on it.

The following moves were made: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Bd3, entering the Barry Milner Variation of the French Defence as shown in the diagram below:

In the position above, White offers a pawn for initiative and development. In my opinion, Black has little to fear from this line as long as he has a little opening knowledge.

The game continued: 6...cxd4 7. cxd4 Bd7 8. Bc2?!

Now I explained that White's last move, 8. Bc2?! is a loss of a tempo and it's basically an unnecessary change in White's plan. In effect, White is admitting that his gambit plan is bad--a bad thing expecially only one move later! Suddenly I felt as if I was "talking to a wall." He didn't appear to be listening. I've seen this occur many times over my lifetime. I'm not sure if there is a term for this, but it's human psychology. Most people will blindly listen to the "expert" and ignore all else, even if the expert is wrong. For more info query "The Milgram Experiment" on google. I think he finally got it, but it took a lot of explaining.

I suggested that White play 8. 0-0 instead which really is just the main theoretical variation. Then he responded that Black can just take the pawn with 8...Nxd4 9. Nxd4 Qxd4 10. Nc3 and we arrive at the following position:

Black has two main replies: 10...Qxe5 or 10...a6. So, he played 10...Qxe5 saying "The Expert" gave it his stamp of approval. Well, the move is actually playable, but I certainly would not advise a lower-rated player to play this move without knowing the variation. It's just too complicated. What may be good for the expert may not be good for a lower-rated player. It depends upon your style, ability or skill level. I demonstrated this (although not perfectly) by chasing his queen for about 5 or 6 moves following 11. Re1 Qb6 and 12. Nb5!.

I explained that 10...a6 is the easiest and safest way to play this line. It prevents and Nb5 or Bb5+ ideas and is much easier to play if you are a lower-rated player. He refused to accept this simple, basic idea.

Later in the game he was faced with two choices: activating a rook before it gets trapped in a passive position or move a knight. He decided to move the knight and I had to explain that rooks must be activated. It's like having a shotgun nearby when your home is invaded and instead of unlocking the cabinet to get your shotgun, you grab the slingshot. Woudn't your odds of survival greatly increase with that shotgun? I think so. If took a lot and I mean a lot of effort explaining this before he finally got it. At least I hope he got it.

The moral to the story is: Everybody has ideas and even lower-rated players can see things in a very interesting way sometimes. You should learn how to open your mind and searh for ideas from others not just from "The Expert." I don't know if he learned anything, but I learned that it's a waste of time helping some people.

BOTTOM LINE: The path to improvement "Enlightment" is opening your mind.