Advantages and disadvantages of French Defence Opening

Greetings chess players!

I've always loved to play the French Defense and I can say I am quite comfortable with it. This is because I like to play solidly and deny white to pursue any aggressive plans while slowly improving my positional.(Dont bother searching fr my ratings as this is a new account. The old one was disabled.) I have done some studying on French Defense mostly on the Advance Variation and Exchange Variation. I know the disadvantages and advantages of this opening, but I just want the public opinions on this. So chess players, whats your opinion on:

1. The advantages and disadvantages.

2. Do you like playing this opening? And why?

3. Do professionals (GMs IMs) play the French anymore?

4. Any alternatives to French Defense Opening that is just as solid as the French?

Thanks all.

The French is without doubt my least favourite opening.  Bar none.  As White, I get a blocked position where none of my pieces can do anything, my plan is not obvious and a muddled middlegame leads to a draw.  As Black, I just lose.

The main advantage of the French, I believe, is how it teaches blocked positions, typical pawn structures and and pawn levers.  These will help your entire chess game, not just the opening.  My main struggle has generally been mistiming my pawn breaks, so playing f6 too early or too late, that sort of thing.  If I played the opening more, maybe I'd understand and improve, but I dislike the opening so much that I cannot even stomach that thought.

There are many White 1.e4 players who think the same as me, so the French can be a useful psychological weapon.  Just be prepared to face lots of exchange variations.

disadvantages: it's kind of gay
advantages: it's kind of gay

I recently switched to the French after years of playing the Sicilian. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. In 4 USCF rated games, my results have been +2-0=2, and every game has been fun. 

By the way, I have not learned any variations. Rather, I studied an out of print book, “Mastering the French”, which shows the basics of handling the pawn structures that arise from the opening. This approach seems to me to be the best way to begin studying an opening.

3500 rated stockfish likes french!

 Oh no, Stockfish march 26 version switched to ..1. e4, e5 now. French seemed bad, 

Note .SF switched back to french again in higher depth, XD

I used to play the French but didn't have the skills to utilize my Bad Bishop, so I switched to the Caro-Kann and enjoy playing it. I've lost one more than I won with it on chess.com, but the losses were due to middlegame mistakes, not the opening.

The advantages and disadvantages seem to be well covered so far. How do I like this opening? In the past I played the French Defense a lot, but I have since then switched; the reason that I switched is because I did not like the space disadvantage and I felt like I kept repeating theory (rather than some ideas of my own) - of course, some people may thrive in this position. Therefore, I prefer other openings (but I still respect this opening).

Your 3rd point asks of its popularity. I find the French Defense to be less common at GM and IM level and more common around 2000 rating. Of course, this is not to say that some strong titled players do not use this opening (several do use it) - I simply find it less common. Why is it not too common at this level? I do not know; maybe a titled player can answer this. My guess is the lack of space that I often encountered, but I may be wrong.

Finally, the alternatives - other than e5 I am guessing? Personally, I find the Mexican Defense (Tango Variation) to be a solid change of pace. Ironically, this too loses in popularity among high level players as well. However, this opening is about as respectable as the French Defense; both of these openings should be taken seriously. 

However, if the French Defense is in your realm of habit - then by all means, continue to play it. I would like to see how others respond to all 4 prongs to your question

I read from the book " A Rock Solid Chess Repertoire for Black". This books describes the French in detail and since reading the book, I have only used French openings against 1.e4. Maybe you can have a look. Here is the link :https://books.google.com.my/books/about/A_Rock_Solid_Chess_Opening_Repertoire_fo.html?id=M1I_XwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y&hl=en

1. e4 e5 maybe good for some, but I rarely play it. This is because it would normally lead to an open game were tactics and threats are preseny early on. Imma just take your advice and keep on playing the French. Thanks!😁

Thanks for the link. I’ll check it out. I also have Uhlmann’s book on the French, but right now I’m focused on increasing my general chess abilities, especially calculation of variations. The first book in Yusupov’s course is helping tremendously in that effort. At some point it will be time to focus more on openings, but I’m not there yet.

Hi guys.

Just a quick update. I switched to Sicilian Defence for use against 1.e4  and have never regretted. Although there are A LOT of variations to be learnt (ECO B00 to B90!!!) I am glad that I found an opening that not just allow Black to equalise but also to fight for a win. I find that the French is too passive. No wonder GM nowadays doesnt use the French!

Regards 

Kai

I play in a league where many of the strongest players seem to prefer the French to the Sicilian. A frequent criticism of the French is that it allows the Exchange variation. I've seen our club board one consistently beat white players who use this.

The French is a the ultimate counter punching defence IMO. In order to try for a win white has to make concessions. I'm returning to the French after playing the Sicilian, which I still like. The thing is 1e4 players usually try and win the game as opposed to the anemic 1d4 London grandpas. It's when white 'pushes' that black has his chance. Bobby Fischer who always pushed to win often found the French pushed back.

A curious statistic is I do better as black than white with this defence. The French is a tough nut to crack.

One word about the Exchange. After a pawn has been exchanged and the king file open, the position displays a symmetry that is not too different from the starting position. As has been said the French Exchange may also contain in its stats many 'GM' draws.

french is very rich. while it does not have as many variations as sicilian, it is prob a bit more forgiving. you can adopt the french and play it many different ways and be a nightmare to prepare agaisnt.

also, the french is as resilient to unorthodox white replies as black can get. he can virtually always aim for e6 d5 and nf6. virtually all white attempts for white to get funky immediately equalize or worse. if you are comfortable transposing to the owens defense sometimes, your arsenal becomes that much more versatile and deadly. (not a bad antidote for early nc3 sidelines either).

a good french can slow down the game and drown even the finest of tacticians.

kasparov-ivanchuk 1995 is as good endorsement as the defense can get in creating a total swamp.

Wow thanks for all of your inputs! 

I think it is also important for chess players to widen their opening repertoires. For the past few years whether in tournament play or online Live chess I've always restricted myself to the French whenever 1.e4 is played. Now I am improving and trying to learn more than one opening.  

Regards 

Kai 

The French tempts White players into a false sense of security. That is why most of them play over-commitial 2.d4, creating target for the lunge of the "c" pawn. Afterwards White is forced to defend the center, or even worse, to over-extend yet again with f4 after the "d" pawn is gone. In short, it would be a perfect defense, were it not for 2.d3! and for a more tactically sophisticated alternative - 2.Qe2!!

Me too!  Wait, I do play it all the time!  As a long time French player, please, play the Exchange against me.  Below is my assessment of the 5 responses to the French, in order of least to most useful for White:

3.exd5 - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Play this move against me!  Black has 2 results.  Win or Draw!

3.Nd2 - I have tried playing 3...Nf6 again off and on, but Black seems to have problems, but 3...c5 is totally dead equal!  ZERO advantage for White!  My second favorite response to face!

2.d3 - The King's Indian Attack is tricky, and interesting if White plays it right, and requires VERY CAREFUL play by Black, but he should be able to equalize if he maintains accuracy

3.e5 - The Advance is actually pretty annoying and a difficult line for Black.  He needs to be able to break up White's center, but it has to be done in such a way that White can't just simply take on c5 and f6 at times when Black is forced to recapture both with a piece (hence why early ...cxd4 responses are common in the advance) and allow White to blockade d4 and e5 with pieces, most preferably his two knights!  White's advantage is not as great as after 3.Nc3, but this line causes many headaches for Black.

3.Nc3 - White's best move, but there is about 10 times the theory on this than there is on 3.e5, which is why I see 3.e5 the best practical weapon for over the board play, but in correspondence, I recommend 3.Nc3!

For those interested, I am one of the writers for the blog at www.charlottechesscenter.org (click on Blog in the menu bar).

From August to November 2017, I wrote 7 very deeply analyzed articles on the French, providing repertoires for White and Black, and then starting in February or March of this year I've been writing a series called "The French Connection" (there are 6 articles thus far, 4 wins for Black, 2 for White), which analyzes both master and amateur games based on many ideas in the French.  Some follow in line with the repertoire, some don't.

I remember an old action movie titled the French Connection, lol.

The funny thing is, I mentioned it in the very first one of the six published so far!

2.d4 c5

3. c3  

Enters the Advance Variation. White do not have any weakness imo.