Is the French Defense going out of Fashion?

[Kevin Thurlow]

I am reminded of a Civil Service vs RAF match, where one of the RAF players turned up late (volcanic ash on the Northern Line perhaps), and rushed straight to his board to blitz out a few moves to catch up on the clock. After a while, he got up and spoke to a team-mate, and said, "The old boy I'm playing seems to know the Milner-Barry Gambit rather well."
"That's because you're playing Milner-Barry..."

A rather chastened and white-faced aviator returned to the board to meet his doom.

[Alan Walton]

I have been doing my best to help keep it out of fashion by playing 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 - my opponents groan every time I uncork that one - not the best line for white by any means, but it means you can play without having to conceed the horrendous positional weaknesses that white is normally forced into accepting to play one of the sharper main lines. Also, French players really hate to see the exchange so you get to put them on the psycological back foot right from the start - especially if you keep playing on and not accepting the draw, that makes them even more annoyed and liable to lash out in desparation to get a good game.

Personally, I love playing against the French exchange, there are alot a sharp lines that Black can play into, also due to white having the first move black can react more proactive that white normally can.

Another point, is that normally it is the weaker player who plays this as white, and therefore the better technique of the stronger player normally prevails

[Jonathan Rogers]

Korchnoi blamed his reluctance to play the French for his defeat to Karpov in 1974. He lost game 2 with the Dragon and game six with the Petroff, and wrote something like "it was good that I then settled on the French, an opening that Karpov and I could have analysed together without him ever getting a significant advantage".

And indeed he didn't lose another Black game in that match. But the lesson did not stick. He played other defences in 1978 and 1981 again and lost games in his other main lines (Open Lopez, Petroff again, "that" Pirc).

[James Pratt]

Korchnoi never really trusted his own opening judgement thus using his seconds defences. The Dragon from Sosonko, the Caro-Kann from Seirawan, the Pirc from Keene, the Fre d from Murej (LOL). He criticised Moles for errors in his Batsford Winawer. I'd like to know where they are, won't you?

As to the original question, Karpov Tarrsch put the French out of commission, even at sub-club level I inhabited. Not sure now.

[Graham Borrowdale]

"As to the original question, Karpov Tarrsch put the French out of commission, even at sub-club level I inhabited. Not sure now."

To some extent I would agree, but only if white can play at Karpov's level and does not die of boredom before black does. At club level I find 2d3 to be the most popolar choice for white, followed by the advance variation. I last got to play the Winawer about 4 years ago.

[John Upham]

I'd like to ask those who play the French what they feel are the advantages of it over the Caro-Kann?

[Mike Gunn]

1. There are more traps in the Caro ... remember how Kasparov lost to Deeper Blue? The French is definitely more solid.

2. There is no risk of black's WB being harrassed by annoying moves such as g4.

3. There are more opportunities to display tenacity and bloody mindedness in the French (IMHO, of course).

[Alan Walton]

Personally, I feel there is more dyanmic play in the French itself.

I also believe that there are more lines available in the French for branching off.

At my club we have a strong correspondence player who has very good opening knowledge, and he also believes that the Caro is a rather boring opening

Although admittedly my knowledge of the Caro is limited, and the views of somebody like Keith Arkell would be a appreciated

[matt_ward]

Hello, I do somewhat feel maybe I should start playing the french again, I do believe perhaps it is under- rated, I did use to play it as black and cannot really remember a justified reason for giving it up think probably I just wanted to try a new repertoire.

Also Simon, if sometime your able to get a copy of your DVD within a week or so I will happily purchase it from you on club night. I might start playing the french again, due to its somewhat unique feel about it. It always use to feel right me playing it, it's totally different to alot of openings I feel as your not actually giving any risk and as Simon Williams said you can make it aggressive, positional, and tactical.

I hope that just maybe it will get experimented at the Anand- Topalov World Championship match it would be great to see. Although I doubt it will! My personally most feared variation of the french is whites advance variation getting the "Bad Bishop".

Matt.

[Alan Walton]

My personally most feared variation of the french is whites advance variation getting the "Bad Bishop". Matt.

Matt, it is very rare that you get the "bad bishop" in the advanced variation, this normally occurs more frequently in the Steintiz and Tarrasch variations

[matt_ward]

Well Alan, I must be playing it wrong thats all I can assume. My favourite variation is possibly the Winawer 3. Bb4, I have had some success with this line.

Matt.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I disagree with the comment above re the Exchange Variation - I have used it on occasion as a "surprise" weapon in the past, but never scored that well with it. Indeed, whilst many may groan *some* French players like playing against it more than any other line ...

The Exchange is of course most interesting

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... index.html


I suspect you're right btw but if anything you probably understate things.

There may well be quite a few people who don't play the French because of the possibility of getting an exchange. However if you talk to people who actually play the opening I suspect you might begin to discover that the idea that 'all' 'most' or even 'many' French Defenders hate the exchange is actually a myth.

See John Cox's comment to the first post in the series linked to above.

Personally I'm hoping that at least 85% of Simon Williams' DVD is going to be devoted to this fine sub variation.

[Jonathan Bryant]

My personally most feared variation of the french is whites advance variation getting the "Bad Bishop".

Do you mean you fear as Black you fear getting a bad bishop on c8? If this sort of thing worries you you probably shouldn't be playing the French in the first place. Chances are in the French you will have a rotten bishop for a while. It's the price you pay for the advantages of playing 1. ... e6 as opposed to 1. ... e5. It's what you do with the position that matters.

I haven't played the French so much this year but that's got nothing to do with the light-squared bishop ... it's because people stopped playing the Exchange against me.

[Joey Stewart]

But, in all seriousness, do you lot not find that some of the main line theory gives black far too much of a nice position with good counterchances at any moment - you have to be some sort of tactical animal to be able to make much of it as white as it seems to require near constant application of pressure to prevent black from either nicking some of the centre pawns or, worse still, getting a counterattack.