Defense Against 1. d4 for French Players

I play the French Defense against 1. e4 and the better players in my club try to avoid it against me, because I usually get a better game with it.

I play a Rubinstein variation proposed by Purdy with Be7. 

I have had a lot of problems with a defense to 1. d4.  I started out with the Nimzo-Indian but found it too locked up and I usually got into trouble.

I have played the Benko Gambit with good results, but my opponents don't let me play that by not playing c4.

What do you folks suggest?

Same problem for me. Im always trying to beat Queens gambit opening. But no way. I tried many defense. KID,Slav and more. But just want to know if there is defense like kann or french against d4

Well if you like the French Defense.

You can try 1...e6 against 1.d4

If they play 2.e4 than you can go for a French with 2...d5

If they play 2.c4 than you can try a few different lines:

Queens Gambit Declined

Dutch

Nimzo Indian Defense

Queen Indian Defense

Which Dutch gives the best tactical chances, Classical, Leningrad or Stonewall?

And what works if they don't play c4?  I have a problem with my opponents playing things like, Nf3 and Bf4 to avoid the Queen Gambit lines.

@Eyechess. I play the french too against 1.e4. If you want a similar game you can play the Queens Gambit Declined which is similar to the french in a lot of ways. This is Purdy's suggestion too. But if you prefer playing the Benko and if white tries to avoid it with 1.d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 you can play the Blumenfeld gambit wih 2...e6 3.c4 c5 4.d5 b5. It is not as sound as the Benko but is more than playable at our level.

Since we're club players, people don't play proper openings. That being said, a repotiore is nice to have. 

Systemic openings 1... g6 and ...b6 are easy to learn, easy to play. Owen's (b6) recently became a fun weapon for me for a while.

The Caro-Kann and French positions are very similar, have you considered 1. d4 c6!?, allowing a slav with 2. c4 d5 or a Caro-kann if 2. e4 d5.

A personal favorite of mine is the Dutch, as a surprise weapon. I'm was board 2 for my team at a state tournament, and my opponent told his teammate to "never move your f-pawn" before the game started, so I was compelled to pull it out haha.

These are all just ideas obviously, I prefer sharp tactical play. Good luck finding a pet opening!

If white plays something like the Colle or London, you can either play the mainlines or play a Queens Indian structure which would restrain a later e4 by white.

Haha good timing :P

Leningrad is my favorite, and the lines that Nakamura has played if you want example games. The bishop is both a strong attacking piece as well as defensive.

Classical is solid, albeit a little bland. Semi-open positions.

The Stonewall Dutch can be good if you like playing in closed positions. Personally, I can't stand them so I've nearly dropped all games with it. However, that bad light squared bishop has some fun manoevuers since it's closed and you have the time to waste.

If you plan on testing out the Dutch, take a brief glance at a Staunton Gambit line, just so you aren't blown off the board by being bamboozled.

The move 2.c4 is considered to be one of the most challenging moves to face as black.

If they don't play c4 than you can play normal.

The move 2...d5  or 2...Nf6

I myself have never been a fan of the Dutch.

However, I know people who like the French often play the Dutch as well.

I think the other moves are better.

Well that is if you play 1...e6 of course.

 Well, like others, I actually do play 1 ...e6 to 1 d4.  But it should be noted that I am a patzer and that I only play this in blitz games (and perhaps the odd rapid one).  I've never participated in a physical tournament, but I'd very much like to eventually, if time and money permit.

If you like your french, then dont hesitate : classical dutch!

Simon Willimas made a very good video series about it.

The first one :

https://www.chess.com/video/player/the-classical-dutch---part-1

After watching all these videos (5), u will have a good repertoire against d4.

He also proposes English defence (1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6) which can be played either on 1.d4 and 1.c4.

Very similar to classical Dutch.

Useful to have a look on both, to get some good ideas, great work from the english GM.

Be careful, when u want to transpose into a french by playing 1.d4 e6, U cannot play Leningrad because U don't play e6 in Leningrad (not usual).

Classical Dutch is really easy to learn and understand, few variations to watch, ideal weapon!

Playing 1.d4 e6 is perfectly good, have played it for years. Against 2c4 there are independent lines after 2...Bb4ch, which I quite like. They are similar to Bogo and Nimzo Indian in themes but avoids more main line theory. Eingorn covers these in "Solid rep for black". Doesn't recommend rubinstein though, but his other suggestions could be useful. Personally think the rubinstein is think but the standard Nb-d7 is much better than Purdy's Be7. Not sure if the OP will like 2...Bb4ch, can play whatever prefers against 2c4. Against 2Nf3 c5 gives nice options. Have to be prepared to play some e6 sicilian in theory, which is fine for me. In practise those only ever had one person playing e4 in OTB games. Against 2Bf4 can play again 2..c5 3e3 then 3...pxp 4pxp Qb6 attacking b2 is an independent idea, or can play more standard positions with Nf6, and d5.

I always tell people that the most similar defense to the French is the King's Indian Defense.  Both feature blocked centers, and both involve the exact same concept.  Attack on the side in which your pawns point!

Note that playing openings with similar concepts to them will lead to greater success than openings with similar pawn structures for one side.  People make the mistake of pairing up the QGD and French, or Caro-Kann and Slav, or Pirc and King's Indian, because they want to claim it's the same pawn structure.  The problem is, it's not the same pawn structure.  Chess has 16 pawns on the board, not 8!  Saying the French is just like the QGD is like saying that 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 is the same as 1.d4 h5 2.Nf3 a5 3.e3 g6 4.Bd3 b6 5.c3 Rh7 because WHITE'S PAWNS are in the same place.  Uhm...the play in these two scenarios would be NOTHING ALIKE!  Same thing goes for QGD vs French, KID vs Pirc, Slav vs Caro-Kann.

French players should take up the King's Indian Defense!

Can you not see how they are extremely alike?

• Already mentioned the Pawn Pointing Theory for blocked centers
• Both cases Black is dealing with a bad bishop, so Black's downfall is the same even.  If you can deal with the bad bishop in the French, you should understand how to handle the bad bishop in the King's Indian.  Doesn't matter that one of them the bad bishop is the LSB while the other is the DSB, it's still the same concept.
• Both involve a high degree of tactics
• Both involve a safer king for Black than most other defenses, like the Najdorf or the Leningrad Dutch

@Thrillerfan, ok you convinced that KID is more similar to French. Even then how do you suggest one learn the KID. There is everything from the Saemisch to the Classical to prepare for and it is indeed one of the most complex openings. I have attempted to learn the KID as I play french as black. But the theory to learn was way more than that the french defense needs( I do not play the Winawer, Maccutchon,etc which has theory a lot).

I actually have started playing KingsIndian, less experience with it than  1.d4 e6. ThrillerFan does have a point. You can learn conceptional ideas for KingsIndian in same way as any other opening. Gradually build up knowledge of concrete lines. You only need to know details at same level as ability of opponents. If they know more, you will likely lose, like any other opening  but you will learn something. 

The KID really is effective at beating lower rated opponents. In most lines the first six or seven moves are the same for black. Can have a good look how ambitously or otherwise the opponent is playing and keep a very flexible position. 

For the OP playing the rubinstein, the Queen's Gambit accepted might be the most similar. In both temporarily give up the centre and attack it later, typically with c5. There is a limit to how well these similarties work. You just have to explore the possibilities a  bit.

At your level, you don't need to know every line of the King's Indian Defense.  A simple repertoire would work.  I would suggest "Play the King's Indian" by Joe Gallagher

http://www.amazon.com/Play-Kings-Indian-Complete-Repertoire/dp/1857443241/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1455896801&sr=8-2&keywords=King%27s+Indian+Defense

Keep in mind, it's no different than any other opening.  In the French, you need an answer to each of these:

2.d3 (King's Indian Attack)

2.Nf3/3.Nc3 (Two Knights Variation)

2.Nf3/3.e5/4.b4 (Wing Gambit)

3.exd5 (Exchange)

3.e5 (Advance)

3.Nd2/Nc3 (Your 3...dxe4 does cover both of these, but note the number of lines above that you have to know).

With the King's Indian, what makes it look so daunting is that Black actually has options, unlike the French.  In the French, when White exchanges, Black has no good move other than 3...exd5 (3...Qxd5 is bad for Black).  When White advances, Black has no good move other than 3...c5.  Etc.

With the King's Indian, what gets people is that against the Saemisch, there are a number of good moves.  6...Nc6 (The Panno), 6...c5 (The Main Line), 6...e5 (The Old Classical Line), 6...c6 (usually combined with ...a6 and ...b5), etc.

Guess what?  You only need to know one of these!  Same thing goes with the Fianchetto Variation, you don't need to know the entire Fianchetto, you need 1 variation!

I don't normally advocate repertoire books because they narrow one's mind, but the King's Indian is one of maybe 2 or 3 exceptions all told because it's an opening where Black has a lot of "choice" in the matter.  It's not completely driven by what your opponent plays.  A repertoire book would solve this problem.  Then, once you have gotten comfortable and have played it for 3+ years or so, there is lots of room to expand knowledge within the King's Indian that you have no reason to start playing other defenses.  Just play different lines in the King's Indian when you get stronger.

And even if you did try to learn all of Black's options, most lines are extremely similar, unlike say, the Najdorf Sicilian where one slight difference in moves by White or Black changes the entire dynamics of the game.  The exception would probably be the Four Pawns Attack, but that repertoire gives you a viable solution to that!

It's about 200 pages - far more managable than trying to learn the entire opening, which would be more like 3000 pages.

I do like the KID.

However, I do believe against the Fianchetto Variation it is in black's best interesting to play a Gruenfeld instead of the normal KID set up.

The Fianchetto Variation really does make the KID very uncomfortable.

There are lots of ways to play KID style against fianchetto too. At the moment like the Qb6 line in following game.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070662

It shows typical way can study KID. First find out that the typical plan of blocking centre and playing for attack with f5-f4 etc doesn't work against fianchetto line. Then look at old games taking on d4, and pressuring e4 in nb-d7 line. See how more recent games of Kasparov, for example, with Qb6 improve on this idea by pressuring d4, and b2.

After playing games can check how you did in works of theory like Quality chess's book on fianchetto line for black, if feel like it. Certainly don't look at that 700+ page thing first though.

I've been playing e6 against 1d4 on and off for a while. Here's why I prefer it to another main option, the KID:

1/ I would rather transpose into a French than face the KID mainlines. Subjectively, because I like playing the KID from the white side and objectively because I think the French is better against 1e4 than the KID is against 1d4/c4 lines.

2/From what I've seen of the KID exchange, I rather face the French exchange as black - and this may be subjective, but I always think white is in "zugzwang lite" when playing the French exchange.

3/ relating to 1/, although, if I knew my opponent was a "boring 1d4" player I would retrospectively favour the KID, the trade off of not so dynamic 1...e6 repertoire makes up by being more solid IMO against enterprising 1d4/c4 players who go for it. I "prefer solidity with chances" rather than "good play against boring d4 players/on the backfoot against enterprising players". Wether it would be worth learning the KID as a weapon against KNOWN "Boring 1d4 London System Players etc" is an interesting question - Do I learn/practice a separate system just to punish these people ?

4/ As mentioned elsewhere on the thread, 1d4 e6 gives options like the Dutch, Nimzo and English Defence.

5/Bits and pieces...Playing 1d4 e6 black avoids KIA formations which may be under rated from the white side. After 1e4 e6, 2b3 looks a promising idea for a white club player with short time control.

Just a note...

Even if we tell 1.d4 e6 is logical since u play french and white could tranpose into it, i noticed that it almost never happen...

Thats a bit normal but i think its not a problem.

By playing this move order, u avoid many tranpositional tricks.

For instance on dutch : 1.d4 f5 u have to reckon on Staunton gambit, 2.Bg5, 2.Nc3, and even 2.g4 (or 2.h3 first).

These weapons (which are very tricky), cannot be played with the move order 1.d4 e6.

Some possibilities if White wants to play his weapons against dutch (one of the above) :

1.d4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 and white will tranpose into a french this time with d4.

1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 f5 3.Bg5 trying to play like 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 but here u can try 3...Be7 with idea 4.Bxe7 Qxe7, followed by Nf6 and your plan will be d6-e5. Important not losing f6 knight, u control e4 square and u prevent e4. Thats one of the main ideas of Bg5, controlling e4 square to play e4, for example : 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 Nf6 3.Nc3 (transposing into 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bg5, but 3.Bxf6 is another annoying option) e6 4.e4 with active play for white.

In general terms, if u play a dutch and white succeed playing e4 soon, u can have trouble. With 1.d4 e6 move order, this possibility is avoided.