Adventures in the Tarrasch French: Guimard Variation

The Tarrasch Variation of the French Defense is considered "the master choice" by Richard James of chessKIDS academy, and it was Ian Nepomniachtchi's weapon of choice in his win against Ding Liren in Game 7 of this year's FIDE World Chess Championship.

For all my experience with the French Defense, I have yet to win or draw a game as Black when faced with the Tarrasch Variation. The losing streak includes two recent games where I sought to surprise my opponents with the lesser-known Guimard Tarrasch, which I've been exploring as part of an extensive Lichess study on the French Defense. Those two games, where I went wrong in them, and what improvements can be made for the future are the focus of this report.

---

Game 1: gilangilan vs. physics2112 (Correspondence, 20 October 2023)

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. Nd2 Nc6
4. Ngf3 Nf6
5. e5 Nd7
6. Bd3 Nb4
7. Be2 c5
8. c3 Nc6

Readers will note that the two images above show identical positions. The first image is from my Lichess study and was adapted from a Jonathan Schrantz YouTube video on the Guimard Tarrasch; the second image is from a Correspondence game played on Chess.com earlier this month against a friend who lives a short walk from my neighborhood.

The Tarrasch Variation of the French Defense starts after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2. Black typically plays 3...Nf6, the Closed Tarrasch (37% of games), or 3...c5, the Open Tarrasch (32%). Filtering the Lichess database for Rapid and Correspondence games at 1800+ rating, 3...Nc6, the Guimard Tarrasch, accounts for only 4% of games. The Main Line (47%) and objectively best continuation for White in the Guimard is 4.Ngf3, as played in both my games. 4.c3 is also popular (39%), but in this line after 4...e5 Stockfish says Black is equal and the database indicates Black goes on to win 51% of the time. After 4...Nf6, the Main Line continues 5.e5 -- White attacks Black's knight on f6 -- followed by 5...Nd7. 5.Bd3 is premature and ill-advised for White because of 5...Nb4 attacking White's bishop. With Black's knights on c6 and d7, White has numerous ways to continue. 6.Bd3 is what I faced in the first game.

Lichess database: Guimard Main Line, move 6

What Jonathan Schrantz recommends in his video, and what I played in Game 1, is 6...Nb4, forcing White's bishop back and using the tempo after 7.Be2 to attack White's d-pawn with 7...c5. It turns out, however, that while ...Nb4 is the correct move after 5.Bd3, a slightly better reply when White delays developing the bishop to d3 until move 6 is 6...f6, triple-attacking White's pawn on e5. Stockfish evaluates the position after 6...f6 at +0.7 for White at depth 30, whereas 6...Nb4 gives White an advantage of +0.8.

It gets more interesting when considering how play could continue after 6...f6 versus after 6...Nb4. After 6...f6, White's best move is to capture with 7.dxf6 (+0.8), after which Black recaptures with 7...Qxf6 and White's advantage is +0.6. However, White has also tried 7.Ng5 (+0.6), in which case Black's best reply is not to capture the hanging knight (+2.3) but to take a pawn with 7...Ndxe5. The problem henceforth is the evaluation is inconsistent from move to move. Best-move play continues 8.dxe5 fxg5 (+0.8); and after White checks with 9.Qh5+ and Black blocks with 9...g6, White captures with 10.Bxg6+ and Black forfeits castling rights by moving his king with 10.Kd7. The engine's evaluation of +0.9 after move 10 suggests Black is in a dangerous position but can survive.

9. 0-0 f6
10. Re1 fxe5
11. Nxe5 cxd4

Back to my game, Gilangilan continued 8.c3, attacking my knight, and I resumed my pressure on White's center with 8...Nc6. After 9.0-0, the engine's top three moves are 9...a5 (+0.65), 9...Qc7 (+0.67), and 9...Be7 (+0.69). Thinking this was the right time to attack White's center from the kingside, I went with none of those and instead played 9...f6 (+0.84). After 10.Re1 (+0.60), I executed my threat from the previous move, capturing in the center with 10...fxe5. The engine slightly prefers the move order 10...cxd4 11.cxd4 fxe5, but both are around +0.6 for White. White replied 11.Nxe5, correctly recapturing with the knight rather than the pawn, and the next move was where I made my first real mistake of the game: 11...cxd4 (+1.6).

The rationale behind my capture on d4 consisted of two considerations: after 12.cxd4 Nxd4 I would be up a pawn, or after 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.cxd4 I would have a superior center. What I failed to appreciate was the vulnerability of my uncastled king and the extent to which my underdeveloped back rank made me inflexible and slow to defend. With White's bishops and queen ready to deploy on the kingside and his rook enjoying a semiopen e-file, my king was exposed and restricted, i.e. a fat target. What the engine wanted on move 11 was 11...Ndxe5, presumably to maintain control over d4 with the other knight and to make the d7 square available for my king should it need to make a run for the queenside. Capturing on e5 also had an added benefit of tempting White's d-pawn to the e-file, reclosing it and thus reducing the activity of White's rook on e1.

---

Game 2: Jonduff vs. physics2112 (Blitz, 24 October 2023)

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. Nd2 Nc6
4. Ngf3 Nf6
5. e5 Nd7
6. c4 Nb4

After the usual French Defense moves 1.e4 e5 2.d4 d5, White played 3.Nd2 and we were officially in Tarrasch French territory. I replied 3...Nc6 to take us into the Guimard sideline, and White continued 4.Ngf3. I replied 4...Nf6, prompting 5.e5, which in turn prompted 5...Nd7.

Then White surprised with 6.c4 and I was out of prep. Had this been a Rapid game, I might have tried to calculate my best move; instead, I made the mistake of forcing prep onto the wrong position with 6...Nb4. What I was hoping for with my last move was 7.cxd5, which would allow 7...Nxd5 and potentially 8...c5.