2017 Land of the Sky XXX Round 2 Anton Taylor, 1916 - Michael Guthrie, 1757 French: Wing Gambit (C00)

2017 Land of the Sky XXX Round 2 
Anton Taylor, 1916 - Michael Guthrie, 1757 
French: Wing Gambit (C00)

1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e5 c5 4. b4 cxb4 5. a3 bxa3 6. Bxa3 Bxa3 7. Nxa3 Bd7

I have been looking at this gambit and up until now this has been the accepted mainline. It isn't common for masters to gobble the extra pawn so the pool of games in the database drops significantly after move 5. Anyway, there are three choices here c3, c4, or d4. Looking back on this game c4 seems the most active reply but my choice is in the database (but trades away the best piece, the queen's knight. 8. Nb5 Bxb5 9. Bxb5+ Nc6 10. Nd4 Ne7 11. c3 O-O 12. Bxc6 Nxc6 13. Nxc6 bxc6 14. O-O Qc7 15. d4 Rfb8 16. f4 c5? Here is where my opponent begins to play inaccuratelybymissing the point of my previous move. 17. f5! and white achieves equality. the simple g6 or Qc8 removes all of the White counterplay on the previous move. 17. ... c4 18. f6 g6 19. Qd2 Qd8 20. Rf3?

Komodo 10 really hates this move. At the time I was trying to ignore the threat of the advancing past pawn and throw everything at the Black king. I see now that the best white can hope for here is to use the threat of queen and pawn mate (on g7) to tie down the Black queen and then set up an "Alekhine's Gun" against the extra pawn. A balanced position is the result and probably a drawn rook and pawn ending. 20. ... Kh8 21. h4 Qg8 22. Kf2? I made this move in order to play Rh1 but this was white's last chance to tie down the black rooks before they get loose from the pawn and create an advantage. 22. ... Rb7! The power of this move was what I missed when followed by Rab8. Here the weakness of Rf3 becomes clear, the white rooks are uncoordinated and hopelessly so. 23. h5?? There is not enough time for this to be an effective method of attack but there is nothing better than committing to the bad plan that White started by playing Rf3 earlier. 23. ... g5 White is completely lost after this. 24. h6 Rab8 25. Ra2 Qg6 26. Rg3 Rg8 27. Rb2 Rxb2 28. Qxb2 Qxh6 29. Qb7 g4 30. Re3 Qf4+ 31. Ke2 g3 32. Kd2 Qf2+ 33. Re2 Qf5 34. Kc1 Qf1+ 35. Kd2 Qa1 36. Qxf7 Qb2+ 37. Kd1 Qb1+ 38. Kd2 Qd3+ 39. Ke1 Qxc3+ 40. Rd2 Qc1+ 41. Ke2 c3 42. Rd1?? Ra2 is the most logical reply but the text was the only chance to potentially slip away ... although there is really no chance as White's king gets caught out the open in numerous variations. Qc2+ 0-1

My conclusions from this game is that the wing gambit is just a bit lacking in bite against black. There are some exploitable tactics. It may be a viable option against class players in G/30 or faster time controls. However, with an hour it isn't quite there and I would have to do a lot more study in the line before I could use it with competence.

Here is the real problem. I have no real response to the French, at least none that are satisfying to me. This goes back to the opening repertoire questions I have already brought up. It may be best to look at the black side of the french. That way I can potentially use the french as a surprise weapon in the future. That's not at the top of my chess srudy to-do list but it is on there.