[Event "French Defence - McCutcheon Variation: 6.Bd2 Intro"] [Site "https://lichess.org/study/ZkaQEUd4/a21V0Qnl"] [Result "*"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "C12"] [Opening "French Defense: MacCutcheon Variation, Lasker Variation"] [Annotator "https://lichess.org/@/chessentialsBLOG"] [UTCDate "2023.02.10"] [UTCTime "11:52:23"] [Source "https://lichess.org/study/ZkaQEUd4/a21V0Qnl"] [Orientation "white"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. Bd2 { Last but not least, this "obvious" move, defending the c3 knight and breaking the pin, is the most common move in this position. } 6... Bxc3 { Now it is not possible to jump with the knight to e4, but Black now takes on c3 and claims that this is quite decent with the bishop on d2 as it will be hit with the knight irrespective of how White recaptures. } 7. bxc3 { White more or less always captures with the pawn, as taking with the bishop has some concrete drawbacks. } (7. Bxc3 { It seems sensible to keep the integrity of the pawn structure, but after } 7... Ne4 { Black gains an annoying tempo on the bishop and intends c5 next. Note that } 8. Bb4 (8. Bd2 c5 { Might also be playable, but here White's center is under more pressure as White lost a lot of time with the bishop. }) 8... c5 { Is perfectly acceptable for Black and it leads to almost immediate equality. }) 7... Ne4 { A start of the very big and important theoretical variation that is explored more deeply in the detailed analysis provided below. } *