The Great Pawn Hunter
Chess Tutorial

French Winawer - Poisoned Pawn Variation

In the Winawer, Black trades his King's bishop for a knight on c3 doubling White's pawns on the 'c' file. Since White has the two bishops, an advantage, Black must try to keep the White bishops at bay. Black can do this by closing up the center with the pawn push 'c4'. Or, Black can hold the tension in the center and play against White's weak doubled pawns on the 'c' file. Now, if Black chooses to close up the center and alleviate the tension there, White is free to move around the board. If Black attacks the King's side then White is free to move his pieces there to defend it. So, if you can, try to keep the tension as long as you can before closing it up. A good rule of thumb is to make White commit his Queen's bishop to the center behind the pawn chain and then close it up.

After the question of the center has been taken care of the next question becomes 'Where do you castle? Is it King's side or Queen's side? Well, it all depends where your pawn breaks are (levers) in the position. If you want to use your pawns in an attack, you probably won't want to castle to that side of the board since your king will be exposed when the pawns move forward. Since Black has a pawn break on f6 and the chance to open the center, Black has the option of King's side castling with piece play or Queen's side castling with the Queen's bishop protecting the weak pawn on the half open 'b' file and a pawn storm on the King's side. It is all a matter of taste.











(19) Ionov,S (2551) - Sergienko,S (2387) [C18]
RUS-chT St Petersburg (8), 23.05.1999
[Fealy,Manus]

1.e4 e6 French Defense
2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Winawer pawn structure
6...Ne7 7.Qg4 Poisoned pawn variation
7...0-0 8.Bd3 Nbc6 9.Qh5 Ng6 10.Nf3 Qc7 11.Be3 White has the two bishops so black wants to close the center to restrict them. However, Black waits to close the center until White has committed his bishop with Be3.
11...c4 12.Bxg6 fxg6 13.Qg4 Bd7 14.h4 White has more space on the King's side and has more troops (force) on that side so he seeks to open up the flank. There are two ways to do this....with pieces or with pawns. Since the center is closed and his king is safe, he throws a pawn forward to try and pry open the flank.
14...Rf5 15.h5 gxh5 Black will try to make trades to lesson the severity of White's King's side attack.
16.Rxh5 Rxh5 17.Qxh5 Rf8 18.Qh3 Rxf3 Here Black makes a fine positional sacrifice with his rook. He wants to lesson the number of attackers on the King's side. He also realizes that the White rook is not in the game and that his bad bishop can become active on the g6 square.
19.Qxf3 Be8 20.Qh3 Qd7 21.a4 Bg6 22.Kd1 Na5 23.Bc1 White's bad bishop is heading for an active post outside the white pawn chain. This is a common maneuver in the Winawer.
23...Bf5 24.Qh4 h6 25.f3 Kh7 26.Ra2 Qe8 27.Ba3 Qg6 28.Qf2 [ 28.g4 Bxc2+ 29.Rxc2 Qd3+ 30.Rd2 ( 30.Kc1 Qf1+ 31.Kb2 ( 31.Kd2 Nb3+ 32.Ke3 Qd3+ picks up the rook and the white pawn center starts to crumble.) 31...Nb3 with a checkmate on a1) 30...Qxc3 with compensation for the bishop; Psakhis recommends 28.Bb4 Qxg2 29.Bxa5 Qxf3+ 30.Kc1 Qf1+ 31.Kb2 Qe2 32.Qh1 b6 33.Bb4 a5 34.Ba3 Qxc2+ 35.Ka1 Qxc3+ 36.Bb2 and White's seems to hold on]
28...Qh5 29.Bb4 Nc6 30.Qe1 Qh2 31.Qf1 h5 now it is Black that has the greater forces on the King's side. So, he seeks to open up that flank.
32.Ba3 h4 33.Kc1 Qf4+ 34.Kb1 Qd2 35.Qh1 h3 a subtle way to stop up an attack is to get your opponent to close it up with one of their own pawns with a blocking sacrifice!
36.gxh3 Qxc3 37.Bc5 b6 38.Bd6 Nxd4 39.Qd1 Qb3+ 40.Rb2 Bxc2+ the White pawn structure is shattered. So Black seeks to trade everything off and cash in on the weak pawns.
41.Qxc2+ Nxc2 42.Rxb3 cxb3 43.Kb2 Nd4 44.Kc3 Kg6 45.Bb8 Nc6 46.Bd6 Kf5 the Black king will go to f4 and collect the pawns with a fine positional win. 0-1



*** Note: IM Danny Kopec mentions in his pawn structure video that Korchnoi's success as Black with the Winawer in the 1980's has caused many players with the White pieces to avoid it. In current years, there have been many Grandmasters to champion its cause. GM McDonald mentions in his book Concise Chess Openings that many grandmasters, including GM Khalifman, the Fide World Champion in 2000, like to maintain the tension with 5)... Ba4.

Copyright © Manus Patrick Fealy 1994-2004



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