After what has been a very busy summer, I am writing a six-part article to prepare an opening repertoire for both Black and White in the French Defense. Before going through what each section will cover, let me give you a little history and background.
The French Defense got its name from a correspondence match between London and Paris. Chamouillet, one of the players on the Paris team, convinced the others to play this line, and the Paris team won. The opening remained a rare bird for the rest of the nineteenth century as 1...e5 retained the popularity because opening theory was not established like it is today with computers. However, in modern times, the French Defense is the second most popular response to 1.e4, trailing only the Sicilian in popularity.
From my own personal experience, while I may have learned how to play the game at the age of eight in 1983, I didn't get seriously involved in studying books until 1995, and while I was studying beginner level books on strategy and tactics, I was playing what came naturally to me since I knew nothing about openings at the time. I was playing what felt right and natural, and one day asked if what I played had a name, and low and behold, it was the French Defense, and so I established my interest in the French Defense in a similar manner that a baby determines if it will be left- or right-handed. While I played my first tournament in 1996, it was March of 1997 that I regularly got involved in tournament chess, and while I played other openings for brief stints, my primary defense for my first 10 years of competition against 1.e4 was the French Defense. Then came 2007. A number of new ideas came up for White in the Advance Variation, and it was starting to cause just as many headaches for Black as 3.Nc3 has. 3.Nc3 has always been considered the main line, and White's best shot at an advantage. This caused me to go through an eight year drought of not playing the French Defense, and going with other openings from 2008 through 2015. Then came 2016 and I started playing the French again, particularly after finding a slightly offbeat line against the Advance Variation, and since playing it, I have either won or drawn every game in which I was on the Black side of the Advance Variation. Now that I am older, being in my early 40s rather than 20, I don't see myself discontinuing the French any time soon, if ever!
There are a number of players at the GM level that played the French Defense heavily, and many cases their entire life. I would recommend looking at their games. These include Mikhail Botvinnik, Viktor Korchnoi, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Evgeny Bareev, Nigel Short, and Igor Glek. As for the White side, the biggest advocate of the line I am going to recommend for White would be, by far, Evgeny Sveshnikov, and I would recommend looking at his games if you are an e4 player.
So let's take a brief look at what the future articles will cover. The first five articles will cover the repertoire for Black with the French Defense. They will be covered in the order of importance based on my own personal view of how easy or how difficult it is to fully equalize, starting with the easiest and finishing with the most critical lines. Then, part six will cover a complete repertoire for White on beating the French Defense. Let's have a look at them now:
Part One: This article will cover the Exchange Variation. I can hear the groans already. Oh my god, the dreaded, boring exchange variation! Not all success comes with excitement. You will have plenty of opportunities to show off a bunch of thrilling victories in the French Defense, but in this case, I am going to advocate a very solid line that immediately equalizes for Black, and rely on White to implode. Most of the people reading this article are not grand masters over 2600, and so don't go thinking that White's going to play the perfect game. If he does, you take the draw, but odds are, he won't play a perfect game unless he is a 2600 player, in which case, it would be a moral victory for just about anybody reading this. I will show an excellent game that I played as Black that remained symmetrical into the double-digits against another expert that I then won because of understanding many of the minute details. In addition, more minor options for White will also be covered.
Part Two: This article will cover the Tarrasch Variation. The Tarrasch seems to be all the rage when it comes to coaches recommending a variation to their students on how to beat the French. I will show you once again that, like the exchange, an understanding of ideas should get you an equal game, and if White doesn't know what he's doing, you'll win more than you won't. Many of my games from the Black side of the Tarrasch in 2017 have been published in previous articles. I will be showing games from much higher level competition where Black plays the lines I will recommend and you'll soon feel that the Tarrasch is a non-issue, just like the Exchange.
Part Three: This article will cover the King's Indian Attack. For those that don't know the theory, this is a very tricky variation, and there are many places for Black to go wrong as some of the ideas aren't as clear cut as they are in the Exchange or Tarrasch. It will take a lot of studying to master the line, but in the end, Black should be able to equalize here as well.
Part Four: This article is when we start getting into the most critical third move for White, 3.Nc3. Against this, I am going to recommend the more sane 3...Nf6 over the wild Winawer, which is 3...Bb4. While 4.exd5 will transpose to the Exchange Variation, there are two very critical moves that White can play. The first is 4.Bg5, which will be covered in this article, against which I am going to recommend the MacCutcheon Variation.
Part Five: This article will cover the second half of 3.Nc3 Nf6, namely the Steinitz Variation, which is 4.e5. I feel this is the most critical line you will have to face, and through coverage will be given when we get to this point.
Part Six: This article will shift to covering how to beat the French Defense, which I am going to recommend the Advance Variation. I am a firm believer that it is the only option White has aside from 3.Nc3 in order to get an advantage, and 3.Nc3 is very dense in theory, whereas the Advance Variation is more about understanding the ideas rather than knowing reams of lines.
So now I will bet a number of you are asking yourself "so what am I supposed to do against the Advance Variation when I'm Black? That is what I am going to cover here. It is the only real offbeat line that I am going to recommend, and it is the line that ultimately caused me to bring the French Defense back as my primary weapon against 1.e4.
So without further ado, let's take a look at what to do against the Advance Variation.
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3
We have the starting position of the Advance Variation of the French Defense. Black has a few options here. The main response here is, by far, 4...Nc6, with a number of options at move 5. The second most popular response is what is known as the Wade Variation, which is 4...Qb6 followed by 5...Bd7, intending 6...Bb5 and looking to trade the Bishop. The center is complete shut down, and so play will be a little slower and Black can use this argument to spend the time to attempt to get rid of the bad Bishop. That said, I don't trust this system at all, and the main lines with 4...Nc6 appear to give White an advantage, and have viewed it this way now for the last 10 years when a lot of the recent ideas in the Advance French came about in 2007, almost all of the new ideas being for White. All of these lines will be covered in Part Six.
The little-played line that I am going to recommend is similar to the Wade Variation, but it won't involve misplacing the Black Queen.
4...Bd7 5.Nf3 a6
So we now have the starting position of the line I'm recommending against the Advance Variation. The idea is simple. Black is using the basis of the center be closed as a way of figuring that he has time to exchange off his Bad Bishop without falling too far behind in development.
It should also be noted that this position can also come from a specific line of the O'Kelly Sicilian, namely 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.c3 e6 4.d4 d5 5.e5 Bd7.
I am going to cover three games and a game fragment with this variation. The first game and the game fragment will illustrate what can happen if White blindly tries to expand on the Queenside like he often does in the main lines. However, it can mean trouble for White in this variation. The first game and the game fragment will cover lines where White tries to expand on the Queenside, and yet all it does is gets him in trouble. The second game will cover 6.Be2 and the last game will cover White's best move, 6.Bd3.
Part 1: White Expands On The Queenside
A game that I played against Emily Hu in the Washington, DC area will illustrate why Queenside expansion is not a good idea in this line. As will be seen in Part Six, the early a3 idea, looking to expand with b4, works best when Black has already placed his Queen on b6.
Cherry Blossom Classic, Round 6
W: Emily Hu (1862)
B: Patrick McCartney (2063)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Bd7 5.a3
Better is to play 5.Nf3.
5...a6 6.b4 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb5 8.Bxb5+
This does double Black's pawns, but it also exposes White to tactics based on the Rook on a1 being unprotected.
9.Nc3
One might think that White has just blundered, but actually, it's a mistake later on that give Black the opportunity at a big advantage. The position, despite the temporary pawn loss, is still equal.
9...Bxb4 10.Bb2 Bxc3 11.Bxc3 Nc6 12.Ne2
Once again, 12.Nf3 would be slightly better
12...Nge7 13.Qb3 Qb6 14.Rb1 O-O
The correct move. Trying to hold the pawn with 14...Na7 is clumsy. Black goes for activity over material.
15.Qxb5 Qxb5 16.Rxb5 Rxa3 17.Rxb7 Ra2 18.f3 Nf5
Black has a very slight, nagging advantage due to the the more active position and arguably better minor piece as the Bishop on c3 is pretty bad.
19.g4?
This, however, is a major error. White was likely afraid of 19...Nh4, thinking that 20.Rg1 was too passive, but in reality, Black gets nothing special as a result of that. It's not like castling is a necessity for White at this point. Of course, 20.Kf2 would drop a pawn to 20...Nxg2. However, since 20.Rg1 would work fine against the artificial threat, White should instead play more actively with 19.Rc7! This puts the Black Knight in an awkward position. He could retreat with 19...Nfe7, but all advantage is lost then. 19...Na5?? loses to 20.Ra7 and 19...Nce7?? loses to 20.g4. Best for Black would be 19...Na7 when 20.Rc5 holds Black's slight edge to a bare minimum. After the move played in the game, Black is close to winning.
19...Ne3?
Oh no! Black misses the opportunity and the position is once again roughly equal. Winning is 19...Nh4! White has no defense.
A) 20.Rf1 Ng2+ 21.Kf2 Nf4 22.Re1 Nd3+ -+
B) 20.Kf2 f6 21.Ra1 Rxa1 22.Bxa1 fxe5 -+
C) 20.f4 Ng2+ 21.Kf1 (21.Kf2 Nxf4) f6 22.Rc7 fxe5 23.Rxc6 exd4 24.Bb4 Ne3+ 25.Ke1 Rb8 26.Nc1 Nc2+ -+
20.Kf2 Nc4 21.Rhb1
White should first play 21.Rc7, gaining a tempo on the Knight. The position is still equal, but it would complicate matters for Black.
21...Rc8
Black ceases all hopes for White at victory.
22.f4 f6 23.exf6 gxf6 24.Rd7 Ra7 25.Rxa7 Nxa7 26.Rb7 Nc6 27.Ng3 Nd6 28.Rd7 Rd8 29.Rc7 Rc8 30.Rd7 Rd8 31.Rc7 1/2-1/2
While this case of dropping the b-pawn wasn't totally fatal to White and White's mistake came later in the above game, the following game fragment will show you that White isn't always that lucky when Black pulls off the trap, and actually, the above example was the exception, not the rule. The following game was played just a week and a half later.
Tuesday Night Action 33, Round 5
W: David Blackwelder (1695)
B: Patrick McCartney (2066)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Bd7 5.Nf3 a6 6.a4
Here White tries to outright stop Black from trading the Bishop off, but there are other problems that White is going to encounter here.
6...Qa5
Re-instating the threat, and moves like 7.Na3 don't work here because of 7...Qxa4 where if White tries to use the same pin on Black, he will be up a healthy pawn after 8.Qxa4 Bxa4 9.Nb5 Bxb5 10.Bxb5+ Nc6.
7.dxc5
So White tries to keep Black occupied by capturing, forcing Black to take with the Queen, and then chasing the Black Queen away. Little does he know that expanding like this on the Queenside in this specific situation is causing more harm than good for White.
7...Qxc5 8.b4 Qc7
So White has succeeded in keeping the Bishops on the board. That said, he now has a weak pawn on c3. His d4-pawn is no longer there to cover e5, so he has to use his pieces to cover it. He is also severely lagging in development, and then there are numerous tactical tricks, one of which he falls for shortly.
9.Bd3 Nc6 10.Qe2??
White must play 10.Bf4 here, but already his position is a mess. The problem with the Queen move is that she needed to baby the Bishop on c1 until either the Bishop or the b1-Knight moved. Now we have tricks again on b4!
10...Nxb4! 11.cxb4 Qxc1+ 12.Qd1 Qxd1+ 13.Kxd1 Bxb4
And now with Black up two pawns for zero compensation, the rest of the game was meaningless. I will save White the embarrassment and just say that Black mated White on the 43rd move.
Part 2: White plays 6.Be2
So now we are moving on to the line with 6.Be2. There is nothing systemically wrong with this move, but it does give Black exactly what he is looking for. Here I am going to cover a game that I played in late July that well illustrates what Black can achieve in this line.
Master Trek, Round 1
W: James Dill (1931)
B: Patrick McCartney (2057)
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Bd7 5.Nf3 a6 6.Be2 cxd4
It is important to throw this move in first. Note that before now, it would be too early to take on d4 because then White can place his Knight on c3, preventing Black's bishop from going to b5. That said, Black should do it here because unlike the previous game where White has advanced b4, the c3-pawn would not be weak if White were to trade on c5, and with no light-squared Bishop, if Black were to win the pawn on e5, he could be opening himself up to a weakness on e6, and so Black would rather have the open c-file and the d4-pawn as a fixed weakness rather than a semi-open c-file with an e5-target. This also prevents any c4 ideas in response to the Bishop going to b5. When we get to Part Six, we will see this idea of advancing the c-pawn to c4 in the Wade Variation.
7...Bb5
So what we have can be viewed as the starting position of the 6.Be2 variation. Here White has a critical decision to make. He can continue with development by castling and allowing Black to take on e2, which is probably White's best idea, or he can capture on b5, which does double Black's pawns, but comes at a price. The opening of the a-file for Black does expose White to tactics on b4, and so moves like a3 by White won't prevent anything. More importantly, the argument against exchanging on d4 too early for Black is that it opens up the c3-square for the White Knight. Often times it is viewed that Black should wait to trade on d4 until the White Knight has moved to d2 or a3. But in this case, it was best for Black to trade, and another downside to White doubling the Black pawns is that ...b4 can come at just about any point in time, removing the White Knight from his desired square.
In the game, White went with the better plan and continued to develop.
8.O-O Bxe2 9.Qxe2 Nc6 10.Nc3 Nge7 11.Bg5 Qb6 12.Bxe7
Trading off the dark-squared Bishop for a Knight can't be recommended here. White is allowing Black to have his good Bishop with no opposition. Better here was 12.Qd3 with a level position.
12...Bxe7 13.Rfd1 O-O 14.Rac1 Rac8 15.b3
This move is almost never good in the French Defense, and it certainly isn't good here. White should probably have played 15.Rc2 followed by moving the Queen to cover the d4, probably by going to e3, and then double up on the c-file. In other lines, when you see White expand on the Queenside, you see the pawns on a3 and b4, dark squares, which prevent activity from Black's dark-squared Bishop, which is his good Bishop. With Black's pawns on light squares, it doesn't make sense for White to put his on light squares, especially with his opponent having an unopposed dark-squared Bishop. The dark squares on the Queenside are now extremely weak for White, and Black takes full advantage of it.
15...Ba3 16.Na4 Qa7 17.Rc3
Once again, the Rook should have gone to c2.
17...b5 18.Nc5
This move loses material. Relatively best was 18.Qc2 Ne7 19.Nb2 Bb4 20.Rxc8 Rxc8 21.Qb1, but the advantage still belongs to Black. Note that the immediate 18.Nb2 fails to 18...Nxd4!.
18...Nxd4 19.Nxd4 Rxc5
Also possible was 19...Bxc5 20.Rdc1 b4 21.R3c2 Rc7 followed by 22...Rfc8, but taking with the Rook seemed safer. Both are winning for Black.
20.Rh3 Rfc8 21.Qh5 h6
With no dark-squared Bishop to contend with to sacrifice itself on h6, Black's King is perfectly safe.
22.Ne2 Rc2
The best moves are moves that attack and defend at the same thing. The attacking nature of this move is obvious, but what isn't quite as obvious, and White missed it in the game, is that this move also defends h6 until the Knight moves.
23.Qg4 Bc5
Black ignores the threat on h6 by posing larger threats of his own. Two of White's pawns are now hanging, and Black threatens to take the White Knight, removing the piece that is pinning the g-pawn to the King, if White tries to take on h6. Clearly White missed this.
24.Rxh6?? Rxe2 25.Qxe2 gxh6 0-1
The fact that Black's King is slightly exposed is no match to being down a whole piece, especially with very little material left on the board. White decided to throw in the towel.
Part 3: White Plays 6.Bd3
So now we come to the "main line", if there is such a thing. This is White's best response in this variation. I am going to show a game played at the Australian Masters in Melbourne in 2005 that illustrates how Black should react to this line. And actually, this game started out as an O'Kelly Sicilian, which as mentioned earlier, can directly transpose to the line we are covering.
2005 Australian Masters, Round 4
W: William Jordan (2304)
B: Peter Froehlich (2367)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.c3 e6 4.d4 d5 5.e5 Bd7 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb5
So we are at the starting position of the "main line". There is one major difference between this line and the line we covered with 6.Be2. White is able to avoid the Bishop trade!
8.Bc2! Bb4+ 9.Bd2 a5
Once again, Black tried to egg White on to take his Bishop and open up the a-file for his Rook. With the Knight coming to c6 and possibly the Queen to b6, the doubled pawns, once again, would not be a real weakness for Black.
10.Nc3
Black now has a critical decision to make. There are two decent moves here for Black. I am going to recommend the one that is slightly less common that is played in this game.
10...Bxc3
The more popular move is 10...Ba6, but White is going to force Black to trade the Bishop for the Knight anyway. Why waste time retreating? In the game R.Siddharth - N.Sanjay, Vizag GM Open, Round 10, Visakhapatanam, IND, White put his Bishop pair to good use and scored the victory after 10...Ba6 11.a3 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Qc7 13.Ng5 Nc6 14.Qf3 h6 15.Qh5 Nd8 16.Nh3 Ne7 17.Nf4 g6 18.Qh3 Ndc6 19.Rc1 a4 20.Bxa4 Bc4 21.Bc2 Rxa3 22.Nd3 Qa5 23.Bb1 Qb5 24.O-O Nxd4 25.cxd4 Bxd3 26.Rc7 Bxf1 27.Qxa3 O-O 28.Rc1 Nc6 29.Rxf1 Nxd4 30.Bd3 Qb3 31.Qxb3 Nxb3 32.Bxh6 Ra8 33.Rb1 Ra3 34.Kf1 d4 35.Bc4 Nc5 36.Bd2 Ra4 37.Bb4 Ne4 38.Bd3 1-0.
11.bxc3 Nd7 12.Qb1 Ba6 13.Bxh7 Nb6
Trying to trap the Bishop with 13...g6 is not a good idea. Black is not fully developed, and his King will be severely exposed, and at no cost to White as he'll get three pawns for the Bishop. In fact, here White would be completely winning after 14.Bxg6 fxg6 15.Qxg6+ Kf8 16.Ng5 Qe8 17.Nxe6+ Ke7 18.Bg5+ +-.
14.Bd3
White gets nothing out of 14.Bxg8 Rxg8 15.Qh7 Rf8 16.Qxg7 Qc7 17.Qg4 (17.Qg5 Qc4 18.Qe3 Rg8!) Na4 18.Ng1 Nb2 19.Ne2 Nd3+ 20.Kf1 Qb6 with an equal position. After the game continuation, Black's response offers White another pawn, and accepting it leads to a fairly lengthy forced sequence.
14...Nc4 15.Bxc4 Bxc4 16.Qxb7 Rb8 17.Qc6+ Kf8 18.Bc1 Nh6 19.Bg5 f6
White has forced Black to expose his King, but it's not like White's is any safer.
20.Qc5+ Kg8 21.exf6 gxf6 22.Bxh6 Rxh6
After all the fireworks, White has a slightly better position, but his advantage is no more than the slight advantage White gets from the main line of any normal opening and Black's position is still manageable.
23.Nd2 Bd3 24.h4 Kh8 25.Rh3 Bf5 26.Rh1 Rc8 27.Qa3 Qg8 28.g3 Bd3 29.O-O-O a4 30.Kb2 Qe8 31.Ka1 Qb5 32.Rhe1 Bc2 33.Rc1 Bf5 34.Re3 Rh7 35.f3 Rb7 36.g4 Bh7 37.c4 dxc4
Both sides have continued to play really well, but now Black has a major threat with 38...c3, which tactically defends against moves like 38.Rxe6?? since 38...c3 39.Ne4 (attempting to block the Bishop on h7 from eyeing b1) fails to 39...Qb2+ 40.Qxb2 cxb2+ 41.Kb1 bxc1=Q mate. However, White ends up choosing the wrong way to prevent ...c3 by Black, and the game ends abruptly.
38.Rec3??
Correct was 38.Ne4 e5 39.d5 with an equal game. Note that if Black attempts to build up on b1 with the move 38...Rcb8, White can easily stop the threat with 39.Ree1 and any push of the c-pawn by Black will be captured by the White Knight, and so the tricks on b2 are no longer there like they would be in the lines where ...c3 was allowed.
38...Rcb8 0-1
However, now the Rook on c3 can't come to the rescue of the King by covering the b1-square again. White can only prevent immediate mate by throwing a piece away on b3, and even then, the prevention is only temporary, and so White Resigned.
This concludes this article on the introduction of what is to come, and this interesting, offbeat line for Black against the Advance Varition. At the bottom of each article, I will include links to the other parts of the article. I would recommend saving at least one of them to your favorites so that it will be easy to access, and then you can use the links at the bottom to navigate from article to article.
Links to the rest of the articles.
Part One: The Exchange Variation
Part Two: The Tarrasch Variation
Part Three: The King's Indian Attack
Part Four: The MacCutcheon Variation
Part Five: The Steinitz Variation
Part Six: Beating the French with the Advance Variation
