Tactical oversights by the Canadians - and some commentary

[Hugh Siddeley]

Pascal resigning on move 14...? Often when facing solid openings, like the London, or Burn variation of the French as Pascal did, "the only reaction really is to hunker down, recall the Russian mantra that it is easier to win from an equal position than a bad one, and resolve to make like Capablanca if necessary." quoted from John Cox in his book Dealing with d4 deviations by Everyman Chess.

C'mon Pascal we know you can do it! Why do you think Anand isn't playing in this Olympiad? He saw the pairings with the Canadians in the 1st round and ran away, not wanting a repeat of the beating you gave the current World Champion at the last Olympiad. He was ducking you man I'm telling ya. :)

We're having a tough time in French's this Olympiad. I don't know what the stats are but I think we've lost every game so far in a French Defense, either colour, and French Defense-like pawn structures (see Zugic-Hussein). Is this an indication to some separatist movement, freaking out against the French? Because we Canadians are both English and French. I see TRR and Noritsyn playing the English... with better results :)

Even Duncan Smith can see this:
"Pascal and Hazel both got overambitious perhaps simply miscalculating and seeing a win that wasn't there. Hazel was in good shape before the sac."

Indeed Hazel had a very comfortable position before the sac. I'm guessing she just missed ...Rf7 which defended the Ne7.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Tactical oversights by the Canadians - and some commentary

We're having a tough time in French's this Olympiad. I don't know what the stats are but I think we've lost every game so far in a French Defense, either colour, and French Defense-like pawn structures (see Zugic-Hussein). Is this an indication to some separatist movement, freaking out against the French? Because we Canadians are both English and French. I see TRR and Noritsyn playing the English... with better results :)

I've found the French Tarrasch to be a reasonable choice for white against the French Defence. It seems either black attempts the limp draw line or white gets decent chances.

I dont like the variation where white plays exd5.