1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. Ngf3 Nc6 5. c3 dxe4 6. dxe4 e5 7. Bc4 White normally plays gh3 and Bg2 in this line against the French but Blacks set up of Nc6 and e5 is designed to meet this. The c3 and Bc4 approach is the right one in this case. 7... Bc5 8. O-O O-O 9. b4 Bd6 10. Re1 Qe7 Fritz isn't much help in these positions! DB felt this was inaccurate and at the post mortem we thought 10. h6 was more relevant. Key squares here are f5 and d5. h6 fights for control of d5 by preventing Bg5. 11. Nf1 Bg4 Nf1 is playing for control of d5/f5 - Bg4 is just asking for whites next. 12. Ne3 Be6 Now after 12... Nxe4 not 13. Nxg4 which gives Black lots of play after Nxc3 but(13. Nd5 Wins cleanly.) 13. Nd5 to the point this knight is heading for f5 now 13... Bxd5 14. exd5 Nd8 15. Bg5 h6 White has the 2 bishops and a space advantage - however Black has plenty of potential if he can just get in e4. 16. Bh4 c6 17. Nd4 Qd7 if 17... cxd5 18. Bxd5 is good, the other weak square f5 is beckoning 18. dxc6 bxc6 19. Bxf6 gxf6 20. Qh5 there is no good defence now - if the knight isn't taken it comes to f5 with huge threats 20... exd4 21. Qg6+ Kh8 22. Qxh6+ Kg8 23. Re4 It wasn't really necessary to calculate the mate before move 20 - at the very least white has the draw - it wasn't hard to guess that there would be more though! Fritz finds a mate in 6 from here! 23... Ne6 24. Rg4+ Ng5 25. Qg6+ 1-0 [Duncan Dicks]