A nice and well presented video. Regretfully I disagree with you on certain points, although ...Qd8 and ...f5 were certainly very nice moves and I'm sure you've showed the ideal way to play a French game for black.

3. ...e6 though has to be a poor move. You've transposed into a standard French advance where white has played f4 with you having less options than you normally have. You could've obtained the same position without the standard bad bishop problem. Therefore 3...e6 can't be good.

a3 isn't a strange move btw, as it plans on playing b4 for white, grabbing space on the queenside. This is a standard plan in the advanced French, although I don't think it was played at the right time here.

Overall white played really bad moves. g4 is completely untimely, not being able to play h3 makes it pointless and gave you the option to correctly counter on the kingside. a3 isn't well planned and allowing Nb3 was unnecessary (he should've played b4).

I don't know about the Tal gambit declined. Has to be playable, but white should be able to do better if you play it like this.

I disagree that 4...e6 is a poor move. But as I say in the video, 4...Bf5 and 4...Bg4 are both very fine moves. At the time of the game I just felt that 4...e6 was the right move for me.
Allow me to quote Jeremy Silman regarding the 4...e6 move:
"Black decides that this simple move assures a favorable French Defense. And he’s right!"

Out of interest, instead of 4...e6, would you then prefer 4...Bf5 or 4...Bg4?

Hmmm interesting! So if white plays f4 early in the French it's actually not at all good for him? Proves once again I know nothing about it. The database however gave some nice results for white with the plan c3, Na3-c2, d4.
I think I'd rather play my bishop to f5 though, as I also do this in the Slav nowadays. Can you explain what happens if black would actually do this? I'm really wondering why Silman wants us to play 4. ...e6 here! Is it just a target there and therefore compensation to white who's playing a French structure without black having the bad bishop?

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The funny thing is u make it seem like u have an advantage from a perfectly level position. It seems like ok -white plays f4, its an inferior move, now I can win the game this way, but there really wasnt anything black did that made white lose the game.

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Gunnar I hope for you that you were very drunk... Completely retarded and unnecessary posts. Don't let it get to you Claus, every place has it's rotten apples...

RAU4ever, it's not that Silman "wants us" to play 4...e6
He just comments that the move is ok. He believes that 4...Bf5 and 4...Bg4 are just as good.

After 4...Bf5 black plans exactly the same setup as in the game: e6, Qb6, Nh6-f5, Be7 except that he has to play h6-Bh7 or Bg6 to make space for the knight to f5.
Silman gives this sample game:

"4…Bf5 5.d3 e6 6.h3 h5 7.g3 Be7 8.Bg2 Qb6 9.Nc3 Nh6 10.Ne2 0-0-0 11.a3 Bg6 12.c3 c4 13.d4 Na5 14.Nd2 Nf5 15.Kf2 f6 and Black had an obvious advantage and went on to win in V Riego Prieto – R Araya, Pan American Championship, 1987."

Ok, thanks! Interesting stuff.

Yes I was ... And Im glad Claus didnt report me.
Claus ur a very good annotator, and a solid player with good positional understanding. I was totally out of line, of course u can´t cover every possibility in a short video.