GameKnot: Chess related, Discussion on the French Defense

Chess related: Discussion on the French Defense

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nathanman22
22-Sep-12, 12:38

Discussion on the French Defense

I recently have started using the French Defense and have liked my results. I would be interested in knowing some thoughts and some good lines for this defense. How has it worked for you?

-nathanman22

tactical_abyss
23-Sep-12, 09:43

The French,to play or not to play?

The French Defense is definitely one defense nathan,that you want to explore.I'm glad to see you are getting good results so far.My opinion varies on the FD,as opposed to others.Many strong players avoid the FD,some do not.I tend to avoid the FD for reasons that would differ from yours.It many times IS a struggle to unblock blacks Queen Bishop and when I am playing opponents using a FD,most of my opponents are 2300-2500+,so they are playing much more perfectly than say,your opponents would play,so I tend to go more by "stats",than perhaps you would....and blacks stats average less wins than white.Overall,in one of my databases and out of about 3,853 games played,white wins about 41.3%,black wins 32.8% and there is about a 26% in draws.But that dosen't mean that YOUR results will tally with the stats,since your opponents may NOT have not alot of experience playing from the white side against the FD,so,at your level,I would definitely advise exploring the FD.

But,needless to say and FYI...the stats further break down with some of the main variation to(and i'm going to give some possible secrets here):

Winawer Var:42% white wins,29%black wins,29% draws
Advance Var:38% white wins,35% black wins,27% draws
Exchange Var:25%white wins,32%,black wins,43%draws
Main line(4.e5):40%white wins,29%black wins,31%draws
Tarrasch Var:40% white wins,25%black wins,35%draws.

So by stats,the Exchange Var comes in first place for black wins,it appears,atleast in the database above.But,oddly enough,it has been used as a drawing tool,depending upon which subvariational line is used.
As to which ones to initially study or play?My suggestion would vary with others but I would say that the Winawer Variation is a great start,since it is a battle between Bishops Vs Knights and space vs structure.This will expose your weakness or strengths with your Bishop play vs your opponents knight.3....Bb4 also pins the Knight at c3 and threatens to capture it.My favorite,however,is the old Maccutcheon Variation which has renewed interest,especially on the club level at the Marshall.....4.Bg5,Bb4!?...has renewed possibilities and does fairly well at the club level.

Keep in mide that even though the FD may temporarily lock in your QB,the key is of course,unlock it as soon as possible,perhaps with Bb7 or perhaps Ba6,or else,it will be your problemchild thoughout the game.But the advantage to the French which is not always well known is that it atleast temporarily blocks the "threat"of Blacks weakest square on the board:
The f7 square....where white many times will concentrate its offensive forces to bear down on that square in other variations.So the FD tends to be a good defense against f7 square offensive from white.Also keep in mind,if you do not already know this...Generally speaking,white will tend to attack on the King side while black will mostly attack on the Queen side.

So,some variations will tend to draw more than others,some are lively and more active,and others remain "unsolved"as I would place it,like the Burn variation and is very "quiet" but with solid structure.White gets spacial advantage,but black can counterplay with c5.

tactical_abyss
23-Sep-12, 10:00

Deleted by tactical_abyss on 23-Sep-12, 12:58.

tactical_abyss
23-Sep-12, 12:58

correction above:
"since your opponents May not have alot of experience playing from the white side"

and the Exchange variation AND the Advanced variation appears to have the highest Stat wins for black.I mentioned just the Exchange Var.

and I meant to say that the Alekhine-Chatard Attack,(not the Burns) with 6.h4 remains somewhat unsolved.Black may take the pawn on g5 for equalization or simply readjust with either 6....a6 or f6 or c5 with unclear play.Burns Variation however,is an excellent variation as well.

Should have proofread,just doing it from my memory which is getting bad!Too much Guinness!

ganstaman
23-Sep-12, 18:26

The French has been amazing for me. I started using it years ago and haven't been able to play anything else since (I've tried, but the French calls to me). Except in the Exchange Variation, all the positions resemble each other and have common themes, so it's easy to get a lot of practice to learn how to play them.

Nimzowitsch played the French positions very well from both the white and black side. I always recommend checking out his games to help get the idea of what's going on (without getting bogged down in modern theory). Here's a link to his games in the French that he's annotated: www.chessgames.com

rockall
23-Sep-12, 21:43

Thanks Joe and Jason

Thanks for the interesting comments and link.

potus
24-Sep-12, 07:22

www.qualitychess.co.uk

The above is a link to a discussion on the French

ganstaman
24-Sep-12, 08:34

tactical_abyss: ".My favorite,however,is the old Maccutcheon Variation which has renewed interest,especially on the club level at the Marshall.....4.Bg5,Bb4!?"

I missed this before. The MacCutcheon is my favorite as well. Well, at least I picked it first and have enjoyed it a lot.

One thing you'll find with the French is that you will get cramped and you will get attacked, but the positions can be incredibly resilient and provide a counter-attack, or can at least allow you to lock everything down and get a draw. You have to be fearless sometimes because you are setting your king up for some tactical deaths.

tactical_abyss
24-Sep-12, 08:52

Thanks ganstaman,
Yes,the mac var is a good one since it gives no absolute advantage to either side.The Ale-Chat var I like because of unexplored areas similar to the Trompowsky.But you said it....the French can and has many drawing themes,especially when locking everything down,which is the case many times.The problem on GK atleast for me is that playing an opening defense like the French,WILL lead to more draws than not....and I prefer opening defenses with higher win stats.See,most of my opponents will be less rated than me,so a draw,while ok,will always cost me rating points.So my logic based upon a better winning strategy,is to actually avoid the FD.
My goal is to reach the top 10th place,and theoretically playing the FD at this time atleast,is NOT the way to go.But thats me,not the next guy.I always will suggest to all to explore the FD,for it is very rich in,as you say,counter attacking possibilities and at the very least,will train a player to become a better defensive player....all positive values in the game.

thereaper1
24-Sep-12, 22:31

I know a lot of people who greatly dislike the French defence and so opt to avoid it by playing the exchange variation, since a lot of French defence players don't like the exchange variation very much. I used to do this as well, but then I decided I didn't like playing to draw so I opted for a different strategy. I've now taken up the Tarrasch since to me it seems to give white a small but safe advantage which is just how I like to play, and if they avoid lines where they are left with an isolated pawn to play against white gets an easy open free flowing game where I don't really think that black can try too hard for a win since in such cases white moving first seems to tell. As well as this the other main idea of the Tarrasch is to prevent a lot of blacks bite is the ...c5 counter play.

Incidentally I found out recently that I actually used to play a lot of the French defence as black by transposition and had good results with it, I even in some of my earliest games played a straight out French defence and had good results without even knowing I was playing the French, this was before I knew much opening theory and yet I once even had a completely winning position against a >1800 player!

thereaper1
24-Sep-12, 23:23

Infact here is a recent example of what I mean about white getting an easy game, though given my opponent made several unnecessary concessions.

game

6...Qd7!? is not actually as bad as it appears, it's a move that recently came up and featured in the latest or second latest issue of new in chess and came with some interesting analysis, though to be honest I think would prefer to place my queen on d8 or a5 if I was black. However since the LSB will develop via b7/a6 and the knight will not go to d7 the move may be alright.

Notice whites very slightly better activity and free easy piece play is probably what prompted blacks decision on move 18 to play ...Bxe5?! Freely giving up the bishop pair, it is hard for black ( at this level anyway) to come up with a constructive plan whereas whites very slight edge looked as though it was going to eventually tell with black being in danger of eventually being gradually steamrolled by a number of small advantages culminating for white.

On move 23. I could have won a pawn by first playing Bxf6 followed by 24.Bxh7 however I felt that black got play for the pawn and I decided It was better to maintain the bishop pair and keep the pressure by Qe5 which keeps black bottled up. So why did black play 22...Kf8 then? Well look at the position and suggest the best move and plans for black, it's more difficult than it looks. The problem is that although black is still objectively perfectly fine in this position there is something about whites position is just I don't know.... easier? Black should look to trade off one of whites bishops but how does this get done? Maybe black should play for some form of minority attack on the queenside? But again is this so easy, such a thing would take time and gives white a free hand in the centre and on the kingside.

24.Qg3 leaves white with a nearly winning position however it turns out that Qg5 instead should have been decisive.

After that black was mainly defensive and although the position still looked perfectly fine somehow white just took over the initive and made it tell

I'm not saying the French defence is bad or anything I'm just saying that one should be careful not to allow white to leave black in a difficult to plan position, and this of course goes for a lot of black openings since white moves first black needs to be careful about getting content which can lead to a similar situation in which white may gradually almost imperceptibly gain a slight edge.

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