
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Recently I began to overhaul my opening repertoire which has more holes in it than swiss cheese, and one of the openings I direly need to revisit is my reply to the French Defense. Over the years I have played a variety of lines, all with fairly scant study and just some ideas and general moves. Time has taught me to avoid the most cutting-edge variations unless I plan to play chicken with my opponent and hope he swerves from the collision before I do.
One of my needs, like so many non-professionals, is a solution that will not demand I check the databases every week to see if a critical move has been played, or some line been refuted. This approach is actually in line with what many top grandmasters do, in which they depend more on their deeper understanding of the opening they are playing, than on a smashing novelty to win it right in their home preparation.
Among the two DVDs released by ChessBase using their newest interactive video technology, is Sergey Tiviakov’s The French Defence. 3.Nd2: a complete repertoire for White. Sergey Tiviakov is a well-known top pro on the circuit of opens, and easily one of the most successful as well. One of the potential advantages I perceived in him is that his repertoire will have been designed to not put him unnecessarily in harm’s way, and leave enough leeway to be able to fight for a win against the lower-rated masters he will face time and time again.
The very opening video, introducing his plan and why you should consider following his suggested lines comes with a rare pedigree that goes far beyond his admittedly high rating: extremely impressive results. Tiviakov informs us that he has played 219 times against the French Defense using 3.Nd2 with an amazing 138 wins, 75 draws, and only 6 losses. I know that when he said that my eyes widened, and my back straightened, as if the secret to such successful results were about to come out of my computer’s loudspeakers. He promises not only to share his choice lines and ideas behind each and every one of them, but assures us that he has taken care to include databases with many commented games to make sure the buyer of the DVD has everything he needs to successfully deploy 3.Nd2.
Aside from the usual links to games and videos, there are some new ones to supplementary material
The question immediately came to mind: how complete is it really beyond the obvious video material? At the top of the table of contents are a few links one normally does not see:
Clicking on Database reveals a truly huge database of over 300 thousand games employing the French Defense (not only 3.Nd2), including many that are deeply commented.
A view of the list of over 300 thousand games employing the French Defense, including not only comments by Tiviakov, but Carlsen, Kasparov, Anand, Caruana and many more.
Here is an example from the database with Tiviakov’s own comments:
The link with Tiviakov’s games shows his personal record with 3.Nd2, putting away any doubts as to his claimed results. There is even a selection of games by Georg Meier facing 3.Nd2 as black, though a word of warning: all his games are there, including ones when he was still a budding eleven-year-old junior. In case you wonder whether he has a similarly huge score but with black, he does not. He has a very slight plus but mostly due to his strength of play.
The videos start by covering the more offbeat replies, showing not only how to play against them, but also why they are deservedly rare guests except for the gluttons for punishment. In fact, he explains that while he knows how to play against them, he never actually faced them all. We are then shown the many main lines, and a few surprises do begin to materialize. With such a huge score, one would understandably be expecting to be shown the many ways White is left between comfortably ahead to outright winning, but it is nothing of the sort. In many cases, Black is able to achieve complete equality and the grandmaster does not try to smokescreen the truth of the matter: he knows of no way to secure an advantage. Still, the white player does not need to be overly concerned, since equality does not mean a draw, and there is plenty of room and play to fight for the initiative.
Sergey Tiviakov presents one of the key lines against 3.Nd2
Although the author promises a complete solution against the French, and he certainly delivers, he is up front on what the player needs to know in terms of middlegame play in order to handle the resulting positions. The French Tarrasch, arising after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.ed ed 5.Ngf3 Nf6 will often lead to isolated d-pawn situations, a very thematic middlegame situation and independent study of how to best handle these situations can only be a boon to the 3.Nd2 player. Tiviakov declines from suggesting any particular works, but a quick search in the ChessBase Shop of the word ‘isolated’ unearthed two DVDs dedicated to the subject: Daniel King’s Power Play 6, which covers it among others, and above all Adrian Mikhalchishin’s Winning Structures that is devoted to the isolani.
Finally we reach the interactive videos, which are essentially video versions of the quiz questions of yore. The first comment worth pointing out, is that they are not easy, so do not be put off if you fail to find the grandmaster’s solution. In fact, even he fails to find the best move as seen in the second quiz where I came up with the same solution as Tiviakov, but it is labeled as variation. The best answer is still the winner, and he not only breaks down why it is superior, but how the game ended.
Sergey Tiviakov makes his compelling case for adopting 3.Nd2 against the French
After finishing the DVD, my question was not whether I could recommend it, but to whom. Sergey Tiviakov comes with a winning pedigree the likes of which very few can claim, and this gives him added authority far beyond his lofty Elo. He is clear and easy to understand, and all his recommendations are as honest as can be, never promising a magic bullet. Some of the technical material will be outside the understanding of players rated below 1800, and the quiz questions are downright tough. Still, I can recommend this to players rated even 1600 simply because the lines he guides the student to play all lead to balanced positions with little to no risk of losing in the opening, and plenty of play to go for the win if desired. It is hard to go wrong with that.
'The French Defence. 3.Nd2: a complete repertoire for White' can be purchased in the ChessBase Shop