Modern concepts in the Classical French

It is very hard to defend the French on the highest level. If you check out Negi’s book, you will realize that virtually every single mainline is refuted. Yet black is successful every once in a while, because white has to be precise and there are simply too many too many lines to remember. The biggest recent ideas for black where the high class waiting-move Be7, supporting the pawn on c5 with b6 and leaving the knight on c8. In this game Blübaum comes up with a new move-order, which seems to be known to both players, and they quickly agree to a draw. The big question is if Caruana held back the refutation, because revealing the secret simply wasn’t worth it.