French 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3?

So I decided to start learning an opening or two at some point, and decided the French Defense would be one I would try out.

The books all have it.  1.e4  e6 2.d4  d5

There's an occaisional variation mentioned, but that's the line the books say is the usual one. 

When playing blitz on chess.com, the most common second move I see is Nf3.  What's up with that?  Has some master found great success with that line, but my books are too old for it?  I just bought a book on the French Defense.  269 pages of French Defense.  I doubt I'll ever slug my way through it, but I thought I would try really studying one opening in depth, and seeing where it leads.  In all those 269 pages, published in 2003, they don't even mention the possibility of Nf3, or bother telling the reader how to reply.

So, am I just running into lots of players who don't know the "right" move, or has someone advanced some theory showing why 2. Nc3 is superior to what people did for the last 100 years?  And is there a better response than d5?

no, I think d5 is fine after Nf3 it will transpose into the normal french in alot of lines.

Nf3 offers two possibilities for black, d5 of c5, c5 transposes into a sicilian, d5 gives white an okay position against the french, and it usually leads to  the exchange variation. But 2.Nf3 should really tell you that white has pretty much no idea what they are doing, they were hoping for 1...e5

If you're playing very fast time controls online, people can be premoving or anticipating a different move and just plopping the knight on f3, as that's the main move against both 1...e5 and 1...c5, which are the two most popular responses to 1.e4

I played Nf3 by mistake in a blitz game once, I saw my opponent grab his e pawn and started going for my knight, I had already hit the clock before I noticed he had played e6 and not e5.

The pre-move probably explains a lot of it.  I hadn't thought of that. 

I play 2. Nf3 against the French all the time and follow with 3. b4 ( Wing Gambit) which I have played for years. Most people do respond with 2. d4 but 2. b3 and 2.Qe2 are also lines played by White

I play both the french and sicilian as black. When I play french I see 2 Nf3 often enough that I have bothered learning some of the theory on it. I also had a GM play 2 Qe2 against me but dont see that move much at all, certainly not as often as 2 Nf3. I almost never see 2 b3 but know it is an option as well. When I first take up an opening I usually try and learn the more unusual lines against it ( especially sharp gambit lines ) so that I wont be totally at a loss should I be faced with them in a serious game. Only then do I study the more normal/popular/theoretical lines. There are some strange gambit lines gainst the french such as : 1e4 e6 2d4 d5 3 c4 ?!   The books dont usually cover all possible lines, it would be nearly impossible to do.

Anyone care to give the 'normal' continuation after 2.Nf3?

Reb, I've played 2.Qe2 for quite a while vs the French, mainly because I haven't had the heart to learn how to play vs the French properly. Just recently I've been looking at the mainline 2.d4 and 3.Nc3 (I originally fancied 3.Nd2, but Black just has sooooo many options) and have figured out lines against 3...dxe4 (easy enough to get a decent game) and 3...Nf6 (I found another rare sideline that I like). Now only ...Bb4 to go.

That said, if 2.Nf3 gives a decent game that doesn't just transpose to mainline Frenches, I'd like to give it a go. Opinions on it then?

I guess you can go into the two knights french (1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3; possibly 3...Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 and more likely than not 5.d4 going into the Steinitz, I think. White aims to let his pawns be cleared away from d4 and e5 in order to put pieces there).

Or the Wing Gambit, 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e5 c5 4.b4!?

But then, I don't play the French from either side. Why am I discussing this? :-)

 I think many who play 2Nf3 intend to play the wing gambit and thats what I see a lot. However, some transpose into the exchange lines right away and some will play 2...d5 3 Nc3  , the two knights french.

Reb - any opinions on either the wing gambit or the two knights french? Sound, practical, bad?

 The 2 Ns is certainly "sound" but imo isnt as strong as other main lines for white. I think the wing gambit is "dubious" as there is a line for black that my database gives as scoring 70% for black ! This line is also highly recommended by GM Moskolenko in his book : The Flexible French

Reb--I am sure your files have my game against Dzndzi with the Wing Gambit--not sure if Chess.com db has it. It was the only opening I would not give up when he revamped my whole repertoire and looking at many of the lines he thought it was perfectly playable for White.

It is fairly easy to play though some of the declined lines are annoying to learn such as an early ...d4 . The move  order is important. The other hint I will give is the two best references for the Wing Gambit is a theoretical article in NIC 50 and Harding's book on the French Four gambits.

 I am not sure I have your game with Roman , would have to check.

The line Moskolenko recommends , and is the line that chess assistant gives 70% to black is 2Nf3 d5 3e5 c5 4b4 d4 !  This is an idea of Korchnoi's who is a french specialist and Moskolenko even dubs it " Korchnoi's wedge ".  My only problem with it is that the material covering it in his book is very skimpy. How have you fared in this line when strong players are on the black side ?

That is one of the lines I do not like to play against. I have never had it played against me in a tournament but have it played against me by Fritz in a G/30 (in serious study mode) and lost. 

I would have to look at my notebooks for further details, but I would play either Bb2 or b5 and not bxc5 (Korchnoi won nice game as Black in this against bxc5)

Incidentally, the Wing Gambit is scoring a healthy 56% from 1700 games in my database. Interesting.

Yes, i'm seeing the samething when I play the french alot of ppl are starting to play Nf3 and Nc3 on move to. I'm not really good at playing the exchange varition because it kinda looks like the russian game to me. So I started taking up the siciallan with c5 after white plays Nf3 or Nc3 on move two. So far I have gotten good results

You are correct 2...c5 can transpose into a Sicilian.

Not sure what data you are looking at to get your numbers, but a simple search through a modified Mega 2009 file has much different numbers. Note this is a simple search not taking into account date of games and ratings of players. I also did not incorporate my correspondence files but I do not think it would have mattered that much.

1. e4 e6 2 Nf3 d5 3 e5 scored about 47% and adding 3...c5 4.b4 scored about 57% so I beg to disagree with your statement : "2 Nf3?? is very poor "

white can play for a kings indian type set up like this