1.e4   d5   2.e5 This transposes to a good variation of the French Defense 2... c5   3.c3   Bf5 With the bishop outside the chain 4.d4   e6   5.Nf3   Nc6 I want to inflict him with a weak d-pawn. But first I position my pieces towards d4. 6.a3 Later he told me that this move is crucial. He plays this always against Fritz and wins often with a crushing attack (do you listen, J'adoube?). With my new acquired knowledge from Yassers book it just looks like a waste of time. With such a closed center, it is logical that white attacks on the kingside and black on the queenside. 6... cxd4   7.cxd4   Nge7 Because the center is closed, my king is save in the middle. 8.Be2   Qb6   9.O-O   Be4 This idea I got from Yassers book: trade the defenders of d4 while making room for Nf5 as extra attacker. I used to play Bg6 here, leading to a very slow game. 10.Be3   Bxf3   11.Bxf3 I used to have a lot of respect for the bishop pair. But since the center is closed he cannot do anything with them. 11... Nf5   12.Nc3   Be7   13.Qa4 My mouth dropped open from astonishment. What is SHE doing here at the wrong side of the board? Without the new acquired knowledge I wouldn't have noticed how silly this is. 13... O-O   14.Ne2   Rac8 The queenside is blacks natural side to attack. 15.Rfd1   Nxe3 The positional idea is to inflict him with 3 pawn islands while I have 2, to create a difficult to defend e pawn and to break his bishop pair. 16.fxe3   Bg5   17.e4 Desperation. 17... Nxe5   18.Kh1   Nxf3 Time to simplify. I don't want an endgame with different colored bishops. Plus I want to expose his king. 19.gxf3   dxe4   20.fxe4   Qxb2   21.Ng1 It's all over. 21... Bf4   22.Nf3   Rc3 Rook c2 is even better. 23.Rdf1   Rxf3 0-1