Hey guys! What is the best first move for White if it is known that the opponent takes the first two French Defense moves under any circumstances?
1.d4 (or d3) e6 2.Bg5 d5 3.Bxd8
Of course, this is taking the "under any circumstances" premise quite literally and strictly 
Quite funny 
so I edited for better understanding: HE ALWAYS PLAYS FRENCH. He don't play any other openings. And he play these first two moves despite any circumstances except if White attacks Queen or King.
Have you tried the Kings Indian Attack?
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Have you tried the Kings Indian Attack?
👑
Thanks! I had considered King's Indian. So you say it work very well against French?
first two moves regardless of the circumstances, except if White attacks the Queen or King. ESS Costco
@1
Most testing is 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2510842
Also good is 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2479640
Nimzovich and Sveshnikov recommended 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1143260
King's Indian Attack 1 e4 e6 2 d3 works as well.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044267
Hey guys! What is the best first move for White if it is known that the opponent ALWAYS PLAYS French and takes the first two French Defense moves under any circumstances?
Nobody would play those two moves first under ANY (legal) circumstance. Otherwise, it would be 1.d4 e6 2.Bg5 d5 3.Bxd8.
In reality, it depends on your own opening. If you are a QP player, the Queen's Gambit Declined or Catalan (3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3)
If you are a KP player, 3.Nc3 against the French.
If you are a 1.c4 player, take your pick. Reti (1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 and 3.b3 or 3.g3) or QGD (1 c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4)
Have you tried the Kings Indian Attack?
👑
Thanks! I had considered King's Indian. So you say it work very well against French?
The Kings Indian Attack is mistakingly thought of as a good against anything Defense. In reality, it is only effective against two defenses.
It just so happens the French is one of them. The other is the Sicilian with 2...e6.
The critical factor for the KIA to work is Black's LSB is hemmed in behind his own pawns. If Black can play ...Bf5 or ...Bg4, the KIA is trash.
But with ...e6 on move 1, blocking his own bishop from coming out, the KIA is indeed a viable weapon against the French.
Thanks guys for the suggestions! Most of these are all great theoretical lines that I will fail to play because the opponent never go so theoretically correctly. He knows only first two-three French moves, so I wondering in whether there are better first 2 moves than e4 and d4, knowing that he will always go to e6 and d5 EXCEPT after 2.Bg5 or 2.Bb5.
I don't like French, because I'm Italian Game player and the French defense disrupts all white squared bishop ideas.
It turns out that my favourite piece in Italian Game is absolutely worthless in French defense. Maybe there is an ideal setup to remove these black pawns from my white square bishop diagonal to convert the game to one I'm familiar with?
ThrillerFan - many thanks for KIA explanation! I've never played KIA, so I'll have to try!
Have you tried the Kings Indian Attack?
👑
Thanks! I had considered King's Indian. So you say it work very well against French?
Yeah - The KIA rocks vs. French.
Here is how a normal KIA might play out!
Your opponent can try to get space.
Than you begin building up for King Side Attack.
In this game, my opponent messes up a little early so the full attack didn’t take place.
Usually, White pushes the F pawn and creates a long pawn chain towards enemy for big attack.
This game Black sort of messes up and the E pawn push turned out to be more devastating so it’s sort of good way to show how White has good ideas with either E or F pawn
The next example is if Black holds the tension!
White has plan of playing e5 in the next game.
The rule of thumb is if Black is playing a normal French set up.
The Kings Indian Attack is amazing!
A Normal French set up looks like below:
The Key thing to pay attention to is C Pawn!
Every French player will play e6 + d5, but where will they put C pawn is question.
When the French Player has C pawn on c5, It means the D5 square only has 1 Defender e6 pawn. This means a Light Square Bishop on g2 can be powerful because on g2 it can attack d5 and d5 pawn is more vulnerable! To win in chess, you want to attack your opponents weaknesses. If a pawn or square is weak or vulnerable, it is prefect target.
Let me show you a game where the Opponent doesn’t play a normal French!
Notice how I didn’t put my Light Square Bishop on g2!
I instead tried putting it on b5 because of the way my opponent played.
The goal is to make your pieces active!
You can see how after the trade of E pawns.
My opponent played b6 which made the c6 & a6 squares more vulnerable!
The move Bishop to b5 was very distributive move.
You can tell my opponent wasn’t very happy about playing the pawn move c6 which made his bishop on b7 look like tall pawn which is struggling to get active!
Than I began pressuring my opponent on that side of the board making it difficult for him to get his Light Square Bishop active!
I have to admit I was proud of the way I played the above game.
I might annotate the game one of these days because every single move I had seemed to have a purpose! I had a logical reason on why I played every move.
At 1 point in game, I even gave a pawn away, but I felt like it was okay move.
It gave me compensation and caused my opponent to feel pressured.
You can feel my opponents frustration in this game!
Which white bishop do you think is stronger when playing against French? I'm used to the light squared bishop being dominant in games against the black king, but here the most important diagonal is occupied... (?)
The next example is if Black holds the tension!
White has plan of playing e5 in the next game.
The rule of thumb is if Black is playing a normal French set up.
The Kings Indian Attack is amazing!
A Normal French set up looks like below:
The Key thing to pay attention to is C Pawn!
Every French player will play e6 + d5, but where will they put C pawn is question.
When the French Player has C pawn on c5, It means the D5 square only has 1 Defender e6 pawn. This means a Light Square Bishop on g2 can be powerful because on g2 it can attack d5 and d5 pawn is more vulnerable! To win in chess, you want to attack your opponents weaknesses. If a pawn or square is weak or vulnerable, it is prefect target.
Let me show you a game where the Opponent doesn’t play a normal French!
Notice how I didn’t put my Light Square Bishop on g2!
I instead tried putting it on b5 because of the way my opponent played.
The goal is to make your pieces active!
You can see how after the trade of E pawns.
My opponent played b6 which made the c6 & a6 squares more vulnerable!
The move Bishop to b5 was very distributive move.
You can tell my opponent wasn’t very happy about playing the pawn move c6 which made his bishop on b7 look like tall pawn which is struggling to get active!
Than I began pressuring my opponent on that side of the board making it difficult for him to get his Light Square Bishop active!
I have to admit I was proud of the way I played the above game.
I might annotate the game one of these days because every single move I had seemed to have a purpose! I had a logical reason on why I played every move.
At 1 point in game, I even gave a pawn away, but I felt like it was okay move.
It gave me compensation and caused my opponent to feel pressured.
You can feel my opponents frustration in this game!
Thank you! My opponent always plays c6! 
Here are some funny Diagrams which I want to show you OP.
I think the below Diagrams can help you figure out how to play your Light Square Bishop the most effective way possible.
The above position is kind of funny because I added tons of Bishops to it, but I think by adding all the Bishops. You can begin figuring out where your ideal Bishop spots are!
The Above Diagram shows the Triangle Pawn Formation.
The Light Square Bishop starts on f1 and it can move to all above squares.
What square is best?
What if I was to tell you Bishop on d3 is best square and Bishop on e2 is second best square.
Can you see and understand why?
- Bishop on b5 or c4 will just be captured
- Bishop on g2 can’t be captured, but look at it attacking d5 pawn defended by 2 different black pawns c6 + e6. It’s like trying to punch a rock. It’s just totally solid like granite which is why a Bishop on g2 wouldn’t be very good.
You can understand how looking at your opponent pawn set up.
It can tell you what to do!
If your opponent plays Triangle set up, You will know the d3 or e2 squares are the key spot for your Bishop.
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‘What about the below set up?
What if I told you Bishop on g2 is best spot.
Bishop on d3 is second best spot.
Bishop on e2 is third best spot.
The Bishop on c4 & b5 are actually bad locations.
Why?
Well a Bishop on c4 should be easy to see why it bad because enemy pawn can just take it.
What about b5?
The reason bishop on b5 is bad is because it allows your opponent to make a favorable trade.
Look at Black Bishop in below picture:
Black Bishop on c8 is attacking Blacks own e6 pawn & b7 pawns.
It’s like a prisoner trapped behind its own pawn set up.
‘The Black Bishop can only move to 1 square (d7 square)
‘It is a sad chess piece.
‘So image you playing your Bishop to b5 as white and doing check on enemy King.
‘What do you think Black will do?
They will block for sure!
Do you think Black wants to trade your rock star Light Square Bishop in exchange for his sad Imprisoned Light Square Bishop?
Of course! Black would love to make that trade.
Trading off your best piece for his worst piece would be small victory for him!
So you see the pawn set up can teach you what pieces are good and what pieces are bad.
‘It can teach you what pieces you should want to trade vs. the ones you absolutely don’t want to trade.
It can also teach you what squares to put your pieces on to get the most benefit from your pieces.
- Pawn Structures & Pawn Formations are extremely important in chess
A Great Chess player once said the following:
“Pawns are the Soul of Chess. It is they alone which uniquely determine the attack and the defense, and on their good or bad arrangement depends entirely the winning or losing of the game.”
- François-André Danican Philidor
I can’t help, but to admire the awesomeness of chess every time I read those words.
The Pawns are the Soul of Chess - It gets me very time!
It has been over 200 years since he said the above words and it still remains so true!
Philidor was a true genius ahead of his time!
The line he created is still played by strong chess players and the line is still named after him.
Philidor Defense!
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The OP of the thread is doing the right thing.
It is important to find a line to play against the French Defense because it is a well respected opening. You can’t underestimate the French because it is powerful.
I was mentioning pawn structures because it relates.
‘The French Defense has very unique pawn structures and formations and depending on how Black plays. It can be a Red Flag for White!
White can take advantage for sure!
Which white bishop do you think is stronger when playing against French? I'm used to the light squared bishop being dominant in games against the black king, but here the most important diagonal is occupied... (?)
@ROYAL-OP Between White's two bishops, the king's bishop, or "light-squared bishop", tends to be the stronger of the two. Yes, Black's pawn chain prevents the bishop from going to the a2-g8 diagonal where it attacks f7. So d3 is a good square for the bishop and a very effective diagonal, sometimes adding threats to h7.
@10
"It just so happens the French is one of them. The other is the Sicilian with 2...e6."
++ A third is Caro-Kann.
Fischer played more King's Indian Attack games against the Caro-Kann than against French.
@15
"Which white bishop do you think is stronger when playing against French?"
++ The light square bishop of course: it does not stand on the same color as the pawns on d4, e5.
"I'm used to the light squared bishop being dominant in games against the black king"
++ The bishop is useful at d3 or e2.
Here is an example game
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044346
Hey guys! What is the best first move for White if it is known that the opponent ALWAYS PLAYS French and takes the first two French Defense moves under any circumstances?