"2:18 My opponent's opening was a success...". The French is passive initially but offers good counterattack chances if you have the stomach to endure white's space advantage.
I play the French because I enjoy e4 openings more than d4 ones from the Black side. Also, I play the Dutch and e6 helps me avoid all the annoying gambits and sidelines that 1.f5 runs into. By the way, your opponent is booked up from a Chessable course called The Aggressive French. I recognize this line from the course. It's a great course, you should check it out.
I am using The Aggressive French on Chessable and enjoying it. In the game above black surprises with the Guimard, a variation which almost made be NOT buy the course but it turns out to be one of the things I really like about it.
surprisingly unbreakable on any elo (recently played in the world championship), gives aggressive options for black, gives positional options with queens on the board, allows to exchange pieces in some lines and go for positional endgame grinding - just like any other 'serious' opening for black
Ironically, your favorite, the Caro-Kann, I almost never lose to- find it extremely easy for white. Find the French a lot tougher, think it all is just personal preference!
I play the French because it is all that remains of the big 4 against 1.e4 after I eliminate 1...e5 with nothing but pain for many moves to come, and eliminated 1...c5 because at the club level this should be renamed the Alapin variation, and 1...c6 because again it seems like black is in for long term struggling, and that leaves only the French. I have tried all of the tier 2 opening and understand why they are tier 2.
I recently switched to other options but I played French a lot with good success because I like playing strategically and it covers up some of my tactical weaknesses. And it works very well against very young talented players in OTB tournaments who struggle a lot more in closed positions.
The guy played a second-rate sideline of the Tarrasch and lost in the middlegame, yet somehow this makes an entire opening complex bad in your eyes? Is this some kind of joke?
I think the best explanation for playing the French came from Fabi during his analysis of Game 1 of the WCC on his C Squared podcast- if you're armed with world-class preparation, you can fight and have interesting imbalances. For all of us without world-class preparation, I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm a Sicilian player with black, so I've dabbled in some Alapin lines that can transpose to the advance French in quick games. I would get interesting, complicated, and sharp positions right up until I miss some tactical maneuver and get blown off the board.
French is actually truly underrated opening against 1.e4 since a lot of 1.e4 players don't study theory against the French as deeply as against Sicilian, 1...e5 or Caro-Kann. From my experience, almost nobody goes for the critical 3.Nc3 and even if they enter the Winawer, they almost always choose a rather harmless sideline to avoid theory battles. Also as some other people said, it offers you some flexibility since you are able to play 1...e6 against other first moves, because you are comfortable with the French. #frenchforthewin
The French is a rich strategic opening and offers a lot of variety within each lines so you can easily switch up lines if you fear preparation. Plus it's a deceptively good opening, played by many World Champions on and off (see last WCC). Additionally white players find it annoying!
I don’t think you’re asking the right question. The French is solid in a passive/static kind of way and your opponent did not lose out of the opening. The real question is why they would have 16 minutes remaining on move 17…
I scored about 30% OTB with the caro and have recently changed to the French. I score 70% online in around 50 or so games and have won both my OTB French games recently
I've played the French off and on. It gives you solid positions with good endgames or wild and crazy positions. Unlike the Caro Kann, there's not a million sidelines you should know with it. And if you follow good model players with the French, you should be ahead of the white player at club levels.
The reason that I play the French Defense is simple: No matter what my opponent plays on the first move, I always respond with Black 1. ... e7-e6! since I play in a team.
I have a Fide Elo around 2100 and play the French about 2 years now, it's the best choice for me. I played e4 e5, where white had too much good choices, so I switched to sicilian sveshnikov - too many forced draws. Then switched to Caro Kann, but really in every variation, white can put on pressure and has a small edge... mainly in the advanced. In the French Defense, black has many different options in every system, with many chances to play for the win - even in the exchange. But never play Winawer! Steinitz is better.
Yeah as @alexanderkononov1862 said, there are lots of sicilians. You have a higher FIDE rating than me so I assume you tried others but if you were inclined towards the imbalances of the sicilian there are many great lines to choose from. Full disclosure, I am a French hater and so I am only trying to twist you away from it hahaha
Agree with not playing the Winawer. In corr. games I scored 50% with it - I lost half of the games and drew the rest. As White I have fine results with 4.e5.
I played the French Defense because I wanted to reach the Classical Dutch via 1.d4 e6. As WCh Alekhine said: "Holländer müssen gute Franzosen sein." But I've always feared 3.Nc3 against the French, while having good results with it as White. Nearly a year ago I gave up the Dutch though and hence the French.
I do not personally play the French but I’m aware of its upsides: even though it is claimed to be a very solid opening it has 2 key characteristics that make it good and fun in my opinion: 1. In many lines the position does not allow easy trades of pieces, making the middle games very interesting and complex 2. Due to the first moves there is nearly always a pawn imbalance (chains of pawns such as c3 to e5 for white and f7 to d5 for black) This 2 characteristics make for complex middle games and interesting endgames which more often than not lead to 3 results games !
French is solid, reasonably easy idea, pour pressure on the white pawn structure. A lot of games i end up a pawn up as black due to an error by white. I am only 1500 elo but yeah i like it. White messes up more than black and im sure at higher elos there is other stuff i dont understand.
In the French defense, I think black has always a lot of different options that are viable : if you take as example the Tarrash variation, black can go for Nf6, c5, Nc6, dxe4, Be7 ... and it's the same in most of variations.
[Retyped] (Currently 2100 ccom rapid) I play the French because I get clear pawn breaks and central targets, it avoids what players are most familiar with as White, and I'm used to it & have performed pretty well with it. For my own purposes, I'm significantly more comfortable with an Advance French setup as Black than with a 1. d4 game. I would certainly recommend the French to intermediate players who want an alternative to e4 e5; not many of their opponents will know how to face it, and White's center can crumble quickly. I understand your view if you personally score very well against the French, but of course, people who consistently play it are probably succeeding or at least achieving comfortable positions with the opening themselves. It had a winning record in the latest WCC, as others have mentioned, so it's more than viable even at the very top level. To switch things up, I'm thinking of trying the Sveshnikov, but it might be difficult as I generally learn openings by acclimating to ideas and not by memorizing lines.
The Tarrasch, Winawer, Advanced, Classical are all interesting to play. But white players at my level really love the exchange variation for some reason.
I play the French because it's like the Caro-Kann except up a tempo and you get to keep the bishop pair. Also because I enjoy closed positions, and the Exchange French is worse for white than the Exchange Caro or Open Sicilian, etc.
i don't play the french much but if i saw that my opponents plays the tarrasch then i would play it any day. No one is scared of the tarrasch since almost everything equalizes for black. I highly recommend trying the advance french with the milner barry gambit. I get so many easy wins and it is really uncomfortable for black to play.
I usually play the alekhine defence and there's a line that often transposes into the steinitz french, i like the solid structure and future plans of the opening. As white i like to play the traditional colle system so I'm used to setups with a "bad" bishop for a time.
That's not true, I'd go back to the French if I could get the exchange in every game. The key for Black is to handle the c-file differently than White, push his pawn if White plays Nc3 and play Nc6 if White plays c3. And if White plays c4 you enter the Monte Carlo variation which is quite interesting.
I used to play the French, but switched to the Caro-Kann because (1) I like having a functional light-squared bishop, and (2) every time White plays the Exchange Variation, I die a little more on the inside. If I know that my opponent won't play the Exchange, I don't mind having the French as a backup. The Rubinstein Variation is pretty solid.
The exchange is fine for black. You can play for a win by unbalancing the position, rather than going for a copycat variation. Just needs more preparation than it is often given
Because of Ding Liren. Even though he came in second this year, hes proven to me that it succeeds at the highest level. He didnt lose because of the French. He had 1 draw and 1 win. He lost because he blundered an end game.
Instead of a3 the better move was Be2 preparing to bring the d2 knight to f1 and then to e3 simultaneously protecting the d4 pawn with the queen on d1,I also play the Tarrasch watched your French defense playlist and learnt the Tarrasch lines. But of course a3 might have been a move not saying it was completely wrong. 😅
I will often play french against a lower rated opponent (say -200 points). Without failure they will make positional concessions/mistakes from early on that I can play on for an easy game without having to calculate a single line - what a dream! It feels like I'm just letting my opponent beat themself sometimes. I also get the feeling lower rated opponents are more comfortable facing e4e5 or sicilian and that's where majority of their opening knowledge/understanding lies. I will also sometimes use it against higher rated opponents if I want to create chances in an imbalanced game like a Winawer, particularly if I can know to expect that line and prepare something tricky there. More generally I enjoy playing closed positions where there are some complex strategic imbalances - and the French is great for that! I will avoid playing french altogether if I see my opponent frequently plays 3. exd5 :P
The point of A3 against the french is to play B4 against C5. Since there was no C5, as black was trying to rush f6, I believe, strategically, you should have focused against the E6 pawn with Bd3, castle and Re1. You played A3 too fast and soon realised it was a waste of time. No need to study openings in deep unless you are a GM, Stephan. Just a little more time thinking and your position would be way better. Love your content, keep it up.
As a french player (I'm not french, I just play the opening), the way your opponent played it seems absurd to me. C5 is the main break, you don't go Nc6 before C5 unless you have a very good reason.I don't know the line he played, but having seen the game, I don't feel like he justified it well enough. Full disclosure, I'm an e4 player as white, King's Indian as black against anything except e4, and I have a style that's the polar opposite to yours. I like attacking, I like initiative, tension in a position, so on. I play the french because, exchange aside, I find that it railroads white the most and leads to the most dangerous counter-attacking options as black against e4. I'm near your rating (2200+ on lichess rapid, not quite 2300 yet). Every other black response to e4 has some asterisk: - Sicilian - too many viable anti-Sicilians, too much theory in sidelines, gives white too much play in general imo. I'm more afraid of the Grand Prix, Alapin or Smith-Morra as black than I am of the open. - E5 - Great and what I played for a while, but just like in the sicilian, white has too many options to have a game "to their liking". I love the e5 mainlines in the Italian and Spanish, but some Scotch side-lines or tricky gambits really get on my nerves. I still play it sometimes, as I play e4 as white, but I have to be in a specific mood. - Caro-Kann - Absolute punching bag. I have like a 65% winrate against the Caro as white, 80% in my pet lines. Few things give me more joy than seeing a Caro on the board as e4, there are so many variations where the attack just flows easily that I could not play it as black. It also helps that most Caro players play it because they're unambitious, afraid of theory and just want to get out of the opening "safely" - which, unless they know theory or give me some major concessions, I won't allow them to do because their opening is too chicken. - Pirc - fun sometimes (I'm a KID player as well so there is some overlap) but too dangerous. Unlike the Caro it poses some counter-attacking chances, but it's also easy to attack as white - other random stuff like the Nimzowitch, Modern, Owen's Defense, Alekhine doesn't feel critical enough So that's why "not" the other ones. Why the french? - The French is fundamentally a counter-punching opening. I dislike it when people describe it as "trench warfare" because it's not, not really. It's a game of initiative. - I don't think you realize how big of a deal it is that the c5 break comes sooner in the French than in the Caro. As a Caro player, you wouldn't be asking this question if you understood. The extra time allows the white player to mount an attack against the Caro, but their only chance to do that in the French is if they allow their center to collapse or essentially concede the queen-side. - As white, the two openings I find the most challenging to crack down are the French and e6 Sicilians - The french mainlines are sharp and either give black a lot of initiative or can easily win material if white doesn't know what they're doing. Some of the most popular aggressive lines against the French are gambits. - The only "anti-Frenches" are the King's Indian Attack, the Exchange (or stuff that transposes to the Exchange like 2. Nf3) and the odd Bd3 systems, all of which equalize easily for black. What other opening can say the same? - So with sharp mainlines and inoffensive side-lines, white is essentially rail-roaded. Either they try to fight for an advantage and give me a position that I'm comfortable in, or they give me easy equality and an open game. As black, that's the dream. I sort of prefer playing against e4 than against d4, because if I can force a french, then I already know it will be a comfortable position. When people play 1. Nf3 or 1. C4, anything can happen later.
I play the french because it gives me a clear plan in most positions and the kind of sharp play that i like. I think it fits me better than the caro-kann since i feel the earlier c5 push limits my opponents options.
I had a phase where I loved the the French because people didn’t know how to react to it but I realise now that the French defence is so cramped and its better to play the Sicilian because it has the same ideas for challenging d5 but opening up the queenside more before e6,d5 ideas and similarly carokann over Scandinavian because gambiting and pushing d5 early is kind of dubious.
I'm french so obviously had to try it out, and turn out except the exchange variation, the defense is pretty interesting with a clear plan for black in any lines: play the LSB and play for e5 at some point. furthermore there's plenty of decent side lines to throw your opponent off guard . I often hear about the caro being the "better french without the LSB issue" but c6 does lose a tempo compare to the french where c5 is played immediatly plus the LSB issue is a temporary issue: cause once its solve the position is neither equal or better for black .
Not a French player, but a 1. E4 player. A well prepared French player (which most aren't) will get a good position that they know a lot more about than their opponent. Lots of imbalance and can be sharp.
A 2000 rated Player tought me chess and he always plays french by now i have Played aproxamitly 500 otb games against him and we play french back to back now i am 1800 fide and its the only opening i can poay well
Hehe, mogao bi na hrvatskom ali ću na engleskom radi ostalih ljudi.. So why I play the French, to explain that I will go line by line, every serious approach for white.. 1. King`s indian attack, I don`t think its that scary since it doesn`t put any serious pressure on black center and black can arrange their pieces however they want without any trouble.. 2. Exchange variation, it is a bit boring, but it is by far easier to play and get imbalances with black than against exchange Slav, for example in the French version you can easily create imbalances by playing c5 as reccomended by Giri, there are also some other ways, so you can definitely play for a win even agaist that.. 3. Advanced, I personaly think that the advanced is not that practical for white since black has a lot of setups against it, also black has a lead in developement and can apply a lot of pressure against d4 very quickly 4. Nd2 (Tarrasch) I think that it isnt that scary, Nd2 is a passive move and black can play c5 immediately, 3..Nf6 is not that logical since white gets a better version of the advanced, but still playable 5. Nc3 with Bg5, this is a legit line, 3.Nc3 is offcourse the only serious move against the French, I play 3.. Nf6 against it, so against 4. Bg5 black has a line with de4 Ne4 Be7 Bf6 gf6 Nf3 f5 which is very dynamic and interesting for both sides, black has to know his stuff but such is chess.. 5. Nc3 with e5, offcourse the Steinitz, the most dangerous weapon for white, but still, black has a lot of choices and white has to be ready for a lot of them, its a very complicated position where both sides have their chances as seen in a couple of WC games And there is also the Winawer which I never liked, but also perfectly fine, and you can also play the Winawer in many different ways.. Also interesting point is that white does not have a line where he or she can play for easy slight advantage, and people like doing that these days, it is always complicated in french, no escape from that, there is no 2 knights Caro version where white is a bit better without knowing much, or 4 knights Scotch against 1.. e5.. so to summerize, I played a lot of different openings with black, and there is no opening where you can be better after 10-15 moves as frequently as in the French, may be tough to belive but in my experiances it is excatly the case.. Hope it helped..
I play the French Sicilian aka the French but better, and I too question why play the pure French. Strategically it's the same with a C4 break, but you're not nearly as susceptible to a kingside onslaught from White. With the Taimanov it becomes much more difficult for white to get a strong pawn on E5 to start an attack, and if they do it's often an improvement from blacks perspective over the mainline French.
I like playing the french im around 1900 and i feel like white players at my lever when they face the french they feel like they always have to attack and "prove" their position which makes them either sac pawns and pieces incorrectly or spend a lot of time searching for moves that aren't there. I mean don't get me wrong lots of time they sac all their pieces and mate me but its rarer especially in rapid time controls. Btw nc6 before c5 is insane to me like i know its probably fine but still
First we make fun of an opening after move 1 and 7 moves later we are worse against the not so good 3... Nc6 variation. 😂 French is no worse than for example Caro-Kan even though the Bc8 sometimes can get bad. The idea is to quickly attack whites center with pwans and knights and solve the bishop later on. Caro-Kan is imho more boring and the pawn on c6 is not optimal when you often anyway must play c5 and first then the knight can go to c6. Both openings is ok and the game is normally not won in the opening. The French has occured in the two last WCM's, Caro-Kan not I think? Openings come and go.
I play the French, Scandinavian, and the Dragon Sicilian. I used to play the Pirc but never really liked it. Why do I play the French? Because I got problems. Now you know I got problems, and you might have a problem over this chessboard because I don’t play it cupcake-style
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
"2:18 My opponent's opening was a success...". The French is passive initially but offers good counterattack chances if you have the stomach to endure white's space advantage.
Ding Liren played it in the world championship and won - is that not motivation enough?
I play the French because I enjoy e4 openings more than d4 ones from the Black side. Also, I play the Dutch and e6 helps me avoid all the annoying gambits and sidelines that 1.f5 runs into.
By the way, your opponent is booked up from a Chessable course called The Aggressive French. I recognize this line from the course. It's a great course, you should check it out.
I am using The Aggressive French on Chessable and enjoying it. In the game above black surprises with the Guimard, a variation which almost made be NOT buy the course but it turns out to be one of the things I really like about it.
surprisingly unbreakable on any elo (recently played in the world championship), gives aggressive options for black, gives positional options with queens on the board, allows to exchange pieces in some lines and go for positional endgame grinding - just like any other 'serious' opening for black
0:00 The french defense is so bad
5:00 I could be much worse here
🤣
LMAO
Stjepan could be trolling us.
I play the French because if I have to suffer might as well make my opponent suffer as well
Play it against me and I'll rejoyce.
Ironically, your favorite, the Caro-Kann, I almost never lose to- find it extremely easy for white. Find the French a lot tougher, think it all is just personal preference!
I feel the same way.
I play the French because it is all that remains of the big 4 against 1.e4 after I eliminate 1...e5 with nothing but pain for many moves to come, and eliminated 1...c5 because at the club level this should be renamed the Alapin variation, and 1...c6 because again it seems like black is in for long term struggling, and that leaves only the French. I have tried all of the tier 2 opening and understand why they are tier 2.
I play the French defense because I'm a masochist.
I recently switched to other options but I played French a lot with good success because I like playing strategically and it covers up some of my tactical weaknesses. And it works very well against very young talented players in OTB tournaments who struggle a lot more in closed positions.
The guy played a second-rate sideline of the Tarrasch and lost in the middlegame, yet somehow this makes an entire opening complex bad in your eyes? Is this some kind of joke?
I agree. NC6 is weird I think
he's been destroying the french and calling it bad for a long time, not just this game
I think the best explanation for playing the French came from Fabi during his analysis of Game 1 of the WCC on his C Squared podcast- if you're armed with world-class preparation, you can fight and have interesting imbalances. For all of us without world-class preparation, I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm a Sicilian player with black, so I've dabbled in some Alapin lines that can transpose to the advance French in quick games. I would get interesting, complicated, and sharp positions right up until I miss some tactical maneuver and get blown off the board.
French is actually truly underrated opening against 1.e4 since a lot of 1.e4 players don't study theory against the French as deeply as against Sicilian, 1...e5 or Caro-Kann. From my experience, almost nobody goes for the critical 3.Nc3 and even if they enter the Winawer, they almost always choose a rather harmless sideline to avoid theory battles.
Also as some other people said, it offers you some flexibility since you are able to play 1...e6 against other first moves, because you are comfortable with the French. #frenchforthewin
The French is a rich strategic opening and offers a lot of variety within each lines so you can easily switch up lines if you fear preparation. Plus it's a deceptively good opening, played by many World Champions on and off (see last WCC). Additionally white players find it annoying!
I don’t think you’re asking the right question. The French is solid in a passive/static kind of way and your opponent did not lose out of the opening. The real question is why they would have 16 minutes remaining on move 17…
I scored about 30% OTB with the caro and have recently changed to the French. I score 70% online in around 50 or so games and have won both my OTB French games recently
I've played the French off and on. It gives you solid positions with good endgames or wild and crazy positions. Unlike the Caro Kann, there's not a million sidelines you should know with it. And if you follow good model players with the French, you should be ahead of the white player at club levels.
I haven't watched to the end yet but was there 17. Bg5 with a skewer?
Another game you overcame the problem of an opponent playing instantly.
The reason that I play the French Defense is simple: No matter what my opponent plays on the first move, I always respond with Black 1. ... e7-e6! since I play in a team.
I have a Fide Elo around 2100 and play the French about 2 years now, it's the best choice for me.
I played e4 e5, where white had too much good choices, so I switched to sicilian sveshnikov - too many forced draws. Then switched to Caro Kann, but really in every variation, white can put on pressure and has a small edge... mainly in the advanced.
In the French Defense, black has many different options in every system, with many chances to play for the win - even in the exchange.
But never play Winawer! Steinitz is better.
Agreed on all except not playing The Winawer. Quite a lot to be prepared for but can be fun. 😙
You do know that there are other sicilians
Yeah as @alexanderkononov1862 said, there are lots of sicilians. You have a higher FIDE rating than me so I assume you tried others but if you were inclined towards the imbalances of the sicilian there are many great lines to choose from. Full disclosure, I am a French hater and so I am only trying to twist you away from it hahaha
Agree with not playing the Winawer. In corr. games I scored 50% with it - I lost half of the games and drew the rest. As White I have fine results with 4.e5.
I played the French Defense because I wanted to reach the Classical Dutch via 1.d4 e6. As WCh Alekhine said: "Holländer müssen gute Franzosen sein."
But I've always feared 3.Nc3 against the French, while having good results with it as White.
Nearly a year ago I gave up the Dutch though and hence the French.
I do not personally play the French but I’m aware of its upsides: even though it is claimed to be a very solid opening it has 2 key characteristics that make it good and fun in my opinion:
1. In many lines the position does not allow easy trades of pieces, making the middle games very interesting and complex
2. Due to the first moves there is nearly always a pawn imbalance (chains of pawns such as c3 to e5 for white and f7 to d5 for black)
This 2 characteristics make for complex middle games and interesting endgames which more often than not lead to 3 results games !
French is solid, reasonably easy idea, pour pressure on the white pawn structure. A lot of games i end up a pawn up as black due to an error by white. I am only 1500 elo but yeah i like it. White messes up more than black and im sure at higher elos there is other stuff i dont understand.
In the French defense, I think black has always a lot of different options that are viable : if you take as example the Tarrash variation, black can go for Nf6, c5, Nc6, dxe4, Be7 ... and it's the same in most of variations.
[Retyped]
(Currently 2100 ccom rapid) I play the French because I get clear pawn breaks and central targets, it avoids what players are most familiar with as White, and I'm used to it & have performed pretty well with it. For my own purposes, I'm significantly more comfortable with an Advance French setup as Black than with a 1. d4 game. I would certainly recommend the French to intermediate players who want an alternative to e4 e5; not many of their opponents will know how to face it, and White's center can crumble quickly. I understand your view if you personally score very well against the French, but of course, people who consistently play it are probably succeeding or at least achieving comfortable positions with the opening themselves. It had a winning record in the latest WCC, as others have mentioned, so it's more than viable even at the very top level. To switch things up, I'm thinking of trying the Sveshnikov, but it might be difficult as I generally learn openings by acclimating to ideas and not by memorizing lines.
The Tarrasch, Winawer, Advanced, Classical are all interesting to play. But white players at my level really love the exchange variation for some reason.
0:00 Why do you play the French?
2:20 My opponent's opening was a success.
I love playing Dutch, caro khan and french as those openings are pretty unexpected against any beginner player.
I play the French because it's like the Caro-Kann except up a tempo and you get to keep the bishop pair.
Also because I enjoy closed positions, and the Exchange French is worse for white than the Exchange Caro or Open Sicilian, etc.
i don't play the french much but if i saw that my opponents plays the tarrasch then i would play it any day. No one is scared of the tarrasch since almost everything equalizes for black. I highly recommend trying the advance french with the milner barry gambit. I get so many easy wins and it is really uncomfortable for black to play.
I usually play the alekhine defence and there's a line that often transposes into the steinitz french, i like the solid structure and future plans of the opening. As white i like to play the traditional colle system so I'm used to setups with a "bad" bishop for a time.
The possibility of entering exchange french makes the french unplayable
That's not true, I'd go back to the French if I could get the exchange in every game. The key for Black is to handle the c-file differently than White, push his pawn if White plays Nc3 and play Nc6 if White plays c3. And if White plays c4 you enter the Monte Carlo variation which is quite interesting.
I play the a French because I play the Euwe and Fort Knox variations and actually have fun
I used to play the French, but switched to the Caro-Kann because (1) I like having a functional light-squared bishop, and (2) every time White plays the Exchange Variation, I die a little more on the inside.
If I know that my opponent won't play the Exchange, I don't mind having the French as a backup. The Rubinstein Variation is pretty solid.
The exchange is fine for black. You can play for a win by unbalancing the position, rather than going for a copycat variation. Just needs more preparation than it is often given
Because of Ding Liren. Even though he came in second this year, hes proven to me that it succeeds at the highest level. He didnt lose because of the French. He had 1 draw and 1 win. He lost because he blundered an end game.
Yes. And in the drawn exchange variation, game 5, Ding was much better, but chose to simplify, rather than press his advantage.
Actually 2 draws and 1 win.
Dang, didn’t you miss a fork and a skewer? Yikes. Congrats on the 3rd win in a row tho!
Instead of a3 the better move was Be2 preparing to bring the d2 knight to f1 and then to e3 simultaneously protecting the d4 pawn with the queen on d1,I also play the Tarrasch watched your French defense playlist and learnt the Tarrasch lines. But of course a3 might have been a move not saying it was completely wrong. 😅
Je joue la Française parce que j'adore le subtil art de souffrir, ''French school of suffering"...
I will often play french against a lower rated opponent (say -200 points). Without failure they will make positional concessions/mistakes from early on that I can play on for an easy game without having to calculate a single line - what a dream! It feels like I'm just letting my opponent beat themself sometimes. I also get the feeling lower rated opponents are more comfortable facing e4e5 or sicilian and that's where majority of their opening knowledge/understanding lies.
I will also sometimes use it against higher rated opponents if I want to create chances in an imbalanced game like a Winawer, particularly if I can know to expect that line and prepare something tricky there.
More generally I enjoy playing closed positions where there are some complex strategic imbalances - and the French is great for that! I will avoid playing french altogether if I see my opponent frequently plays 3. exd5 :P
The point of A3 against the french is to play B4 against C5. Since there was no C5, as black was trying to rush f6, I believe, strategically, you should have focused against the E6 pawn with Bd3, castle and Re1.
You played A3 too fast and soon realised it was a waste of time. No need to study openings in deep unless you are a GM, Stephan. Just a little more time thinking and your position would be way better.
Love your content, keep it up.
As a french player (I'm not french, I just play the opening), the way your opponent played it seems absurd to me. C5 is the main break, you don't go Nc6 before C5 unless you have a very good reason.I don't know the line he played, but having seen the game, I don't feel like he justified it well enough.
Full disclosure, I'm an e4 player as white, King's Indian as black against anything except e4, and I have a style that's the polar opposite to yours. I like attacking, I like initiative, tension in a position, so on.
I play the french because, exchange aside, I find that it railroads white the most and leads to the most dangerous counter-attacking options as black against e4. I'm near your rating (2200+ on lichess rapid, not quite 2300 yet). Every other black response to e4 has some asterisk:
- Sicilian - too many viable anti-Sicilians, too much theory in sidelines, gives white too much play in general imo. I'm more afraid of the Grand Prix, Alapin or Smith-Morra as black than I am of the open.
- E5 - Great and what I played for a while, but just like in the sicilian, white has too many options to have a game "to their liking". I love the e5 mainlines in the Italian and Spanish, but some Scotch side-lines or tricky gambits really get on my nerves. I still play it sometimes, as I play e4 as white, but I have to be in a specific mood.
- Caro-Kann - Absolute punching bag. I have like a 65% winrate against the Caro as white, 80% in my pet lines. Few things give me more joy than seeing a Caro on the board as e4, there are so many variations where the attack just flows easily that I could not play it as black. It also helps that most Caro players play it because they're unambitious, afraid of theory and just want to get out of the opening "safely" - which, unless they know theory or give me some major concessions, I won't allow them to do because their opening is too chicken.
- Pirc - fun sometimes (I'm a KID player as well so there is some overlap) but too dangerous. Unlike the Caro it poses some counter-attacking chances, but it's also easy to attack as white
- other random stuff like the Nimzowitch, Modern, Owen's Defense, Alekhine doesn't feel critical enough
So that's why "not" the other ones. Why the french?
- The French is fundamentally a counter-punching opening. I dislike it when people describe it as "trench warfare" because it's not, not really. It's a game of initiative.
- I don't think you realize how big of a deal it is that the c5 break comes sooner in the French than in the Caro. As a Caro player, you wouldn't be asking this question if you understood. The extra time allows the white player to mount an attack against the Caro, but their only chance to do that in the French is if they allow their center to collapse or essentially concede the queen-side.
- As white, the two openings I find the most challenging to crack down are the French and e6 Sicilians
- The french mainlines are sharp and either give black a lot of initiative or can easily win material if white doesn't know what they're doing. Some of the most popular aggressive lines against the French are gambits.
- The only "anti-Frenches" are the King's Indian Attack, the Exchange (or stuff that transposes to the Exchange like 2. Nf3) and the odd Bd3 systems, all of which equalize easily for black. What other opening can say the same?
- So with sharp mainlines and inoffensive side-lines, white is essentially rail-roaded. Either they try to fight for an advantage and give me a position that I'm comfortable in, or they give me easy equality and an open game.
As black, that's the dream. I sort of prefer playing against e4 than against d4, because if I can force a french, then I already know it will be a comfortable position. When people play 1. Nf3 or 1. C4, anything can happen later.
He did justify it well enough. He rushed with f6 and was able to get opening advantage (or at least equality) way early.
Not always you go for C5.
I play the french because it gives me a clear plan in most positions and the kind of sharp play that i like. I think it fits me better than the caro-kann since i feel the earlier c5 push limits my opponents options.
I had a phase where I loved the the French because people didn’t know how to react to it but I realise now that the French defence is so cramped and its better to play the Sicilian because it has the same ideas for challenging d5 but opening up the queenside more before e6,d5 ideas and similarly carokann over Scandinavian because gambiting and pushing d5 early is kind of dubious.
I play the french because originally it pushed me to play positions i used to be bad at and it seems to annoy people
French is very solid🤷🏻♂️
I'm french so obviously had to try it out, and turn out except the exchange variation, the defense is pretty interesting with a clear plan for black in any lines: play the LSB and play for e5 at some point. furthermore there's plenty of decent side lines to throw your opponent off guard . I often hear about the caro being the "better french without the LSB issue" but c6 does lose a tempo compare to the french where c5 is played immediatly plus the LSB issue is a temporary issue: cause once its solve the position is neither equal or better for black .
Majority of people at my level don't know how to play against the French. If they go for the advance variation they're toast.
interesting analysis cheers. At move 20 you could have pinned the rooks
Not a French player, but a 1. E4 player. A well prepared French player (which most aren't) will get a good position that they know a lot more about than their opponent. Lots of imbalance and can be sharp.
A 2000 rated Player tought me chess and he always plays french by now i have Played aproxamitly 500 otb games against him and we play french back to back now i am 1800 fide and its the only opening i can poay well
Hehe, mogao bi na hrvatskom ali ću na engleskom radi ostalih ljudi..
So why I play the French, to explain that I will go line by line, every serious approach for white..
1. King`s indian attack, I don`t think its that scary since it doesn`t put any serious pressure on black center and black can arrange their pieces however they want without any trouble..
2. Exchange variation, it is a bit boring, but it is by far easier to play and get imbalances with black than against exchange Slav, for example in the French version you can easily create imbalances by playing c5 as reccomended by Giri, there are also some other ways, so you can definitely play for a win even agaist that..
3. Advanced, I personaly think that the advanced is not that practical for white since black has a lot of setups against it, also black has a lead in developement and can apply a lot of pressure against d4 very quickly
4. Nd2 (Tarrasch) I think that it isnt that scary, Nd2 is a passive move and black can play c5 immediately, 3..Nf6 is not that logical since white gets a better version of the advanced, but still playable
5. Nc3 with Bg5, this is a legit line, 3.Nc3 is offcourse the only serious move against the French, I play 3.. Nf6 against it, so against 4. Bg5 black has a line with de4 Ne4 Be7 Bf6 gf6 Nf3 f5 which is very dynamic and interesting for both sides, black has to know his stuff but such is chess..
5. Nc3 with e5, offcourse the Steinitz, the most dangerous weapon for white, but still, black has a lot of choices and white has to be ready for a lot of them, its a very complicated position where both sides have their chances as seen in a couple of WC games
And there is also the Winawer which I never liked, but also perfectly fine, and you can also play the Winawer in many different ways..
Also interesting point is that white does not have a line where he or she can play for easy slight advantage, and people like doing that these days, it is always complicated in french, no escape from that, there is no 2 knights Caro version where white is a bit better without knowing much, or 4 knights Scotch against 1.. e5.. so to summerize, I played a lot of different openings with black, and there is no opening where you can be better after 10-15 moves as frequently as in the French, may be tough to belive but in my experiances it is excatly the case..
Hope it helped..
8:20 after 16... Rd8 you had 17. Bg5 and could take a rook. But you missed it :(
bruh why do you trade rook?? I thought u have 2000 Elo
I play the french because sometimes my Alekhine transposes into the Steinitz French:D
I play the french because it is more agressive than the carro and I like the positions
i love the french because both sides often get what they want and the game is unbalanced and fun
I play the French Sicilian aka the French but better, and I too question why play the pure French. Strategically it's the same with a C4 break, but you're not nearly as susceptible to a kingside onslaught from White. With the Taimanov it becomes much more difficult for white to get a strong pawn on E5 to start an attack, and if they do it's often an improvement from blacks perspective over the mainline French.
I play the french because i am a dutch defense player so its good to know the french
They even share a border!
I play it because i play it until I was 12 and its the only thing I ever learned
I like playing the french im around 1900 and i feel like white players at my lever when they face the french they feel like they always have to attack and "prove" their position which makes them either sac pawns and pieces incorrectly or spend a lot of time searching for moves that aren't there. I mean don't get me wrong lots of time they sac all their pieces and mate me but its rarer especially in rapid time controls.
Btw nc6 before c5 is insane to me like i know its probably fine but still
I play the french because i despise the caro kann and I like bullying my opponents.
I really doubt the endgame is winning,at best you'd need to play extremely well
I play the French because I don’t play Nc6 before c5 holy hell
point is to push e5 with this line, not c5
tbh stepan let black get everything he wanted from this kinda second-rate sideline tho
I play the French because… wait I don’t play the French
I only play the french cus my clown opponents think they can get away with it
clean up the mouse and it will work fine, buy another otherwise
lol because of ding liren
First we make fun of an opening after move 1 and 7 moves later we are worse against the not so good 3... Nc6 variation. 😂
French is no worse than for example Caro-Kan even though the Bc8 sometimes can get bad. The idea is to quickly attack whites center with pwans and knights and solve the bishop later on.
Caro-Kan is imho more boring and the pawn on c6 is not optimal when you often anyway must play c5 and first then the knight can go to c6.
Both openings is ok and the game is normally not won in the opening. The French has occured in the two last WCM's, Caro-Kan not I think? Openings come and go.
I play the French, Scandinavian, and the Dragon Sicilian. I used to play the Pirc but never really liked it.
Why do I play the French? Because I got problems. Now you know I got problems, and you might have a problem over this chessboard because I don’t play it cupcake-style
lol
because the Caro-Kann is even worse.