e4 e6
d4 d5
e5 c5
c3 nf6
nf3 qb6
a3 c4
nd2 na5
be2 bd7
0-0 nb3
nxb3 ba4 (!? ?!)

The first question I would ask, if I may, is what attracts you to this line as white against the French? Personally and for what it's worth as the Frenchee I would instantly take up your kind offer with 4...cxd and be quite optimistic as to my chances. One part of traditional French duties has immediately been accomplished with the tearing down of your central pawn at d4 vapourised and your advanced pawn is now unsupported and weak. I also have a resolved c-file half open for operations. Black has already at least equalised on move 4 from my viewpoint and would be happy to meet these all day long.

I am guessing that most French players you will ask fear Classical and Tarrasch variations much more than the Advance and as far as the latter goes this isn't a particularly dangerous variation for Black.

What does White do now? If White gets good piece placement in compensation for his broken centre and early queen development I could see some method but I don't see how that is possible really. Any Black deficiencies, actual or potential, seem to me the kind a good French player would be used to handling anyway in other variations such as in some lines an uncastled king, weakened light-squares on the king side, etc.

White on the other hand is pretty much commited to king side castling if he does so at all and Black is pretty solid in the centre at least with very active development. The h and f pawns can be very lively with setups like this posing questions to white's king side very quickly.

The games would be interesting but I think that most French players could respond on auto-pilot to this particular variation.

I Rabinovich vs Botvinnik, 1937

This game doesn't feature 4. Qg4, but White follows Nimzowitsch's idea of gambiting the d-pawn. It doesn't work well:

What an absolutely ridiculous statement... 3.Nc3, 3.Nd2 or 3.exd5 are all fine.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bd7 8.0-0 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Nc3

Now there are two main branches

a) 10... Qxe4 11.Re1 and there's another split:

a1) 11... Qd6 12.Nb5 Bxb5 13.Bxb5+ Kd8 and what's the correct move here? The game of the day has a very successful 14.Be3 followed by Rc1 and Bc5 to target the d6 queen, but there's also 14.Qh5 trying to induce a g6 weakness before 15.Qf3 or there's an immediate 14.Qf3 which if noting else prepares Bf4. All these seem reasonable, but I'd love to hear if anyone's done some analysis and has an argument in favor of one of these moves, or another.

a2) 11... Qb8 and again there's a branch, but I favor 12.Qf3 to the line 12.Nxd5 Bd6 13.Qg4 Kf8 14.Bd2 h5 15.Qh3 which I've never had success with so: 12.Qf3 Bc6 this isn't always played, but I've found it challenging in blitz. Any ideas?

b) 10... a6 11.Qe2 Ne7 is the move always analyzed, but I think it was Atalik who played 11... Rc8 and that seems more critical.

b1) 11... Ne7 12.Kh1 Nc6 13.f4 and the following is an example of my problems, but 13... Nb4 14.Rd1 (14.Bb1 looks ugly) 14... Bc5 when I'm not sure if I have an improvement upon 15.a3 Nxd3 16.Rxd3 Qf2 17.Qxf2 Bxf2 18.f5 which doesn't appear to be enough for white.

b2) 11... Rc8 12.Kh1 should I follow the same plan here? I have no knowledge of this position, it was just mentioned to me that 11... Rc8 was the key move for black. Any idea how to meet this and what black's plan might be?

ad a2) <11...Qb8 12.Qf3 Bd6 13.Qxd5 Bc6 14.Qh5 Nf6 15.Rxe6+ Be7 16.Rxe7+ Kxe7 17.Qf5> looks unclear to me

click for larger view

Due to black's unsecure there should be enough compensation for the exchange.

I suggest <a pre-French> for Yu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJYW... :D