French Defense Help

Hello. Recently I've been focusing on learning the French Defense as black in response to 1. e4. In fact, it's the only defense I play against white when they open 1. e4. I've played many games using it, watched every youtube video and chess.com videos, done the chess mentor lessons, and memorized the main line and variations.

Unfortunately, there isn't many Chess.com resources on French Defense main line themes and strategies as black. I really need help learning how to transition into the middle game as black with the French Defense and forming a plan.

I'm having difficulty with it. If my opponents plays properly it will end up as a very closed middle game and I can't find any tactical or positional ideas.

Can anyone recommend some resources to help me learn themes/strategies as black using the French Defense?

Here's an example of a closed position that can result from me playing the French Defense, any advice?:

that position is indeed confusing...and I think it's gonna come down to a pawn storm race.why not post the whole game so we can better help u?

ur free to join my French Defense group...where we discuss stuff like this

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/french-defense

The ...f6 break is thematic. Without it, black gets no play at all.

I have some help for the french defense. don't play it.

also, capturing white's d pawn with your c pawn would be more normal.

there are quite a few groups for the french defence, i'm a member of this one http://www.chess.com/groups/home/french-defense-fanatics

Hello Brose,

I would STRONGLY recommend the book winning with the french by Uhlmann. Watson also has a great book BUT its a repertiore book so very focused on theory of a particular line. Uhlmann book will teach you to UNDERSTAND the french on a broad scale. using it for now and once you are done with it grab the watson book on the french. 

http://www.amazon.com/Winning-French-Openings-Wolfgang-Uhlmann/dp/0805039066

also if you do decide to continue to play it, I would advise not just focusing on typical black plans and ideas, but learning about and being aware of all the sharpest most critical lines, white can play against it and knowing exactly how to play against them. if you don't do this, you will inevitably experience much frustration. many people know smashing attacks against the french like the back of their hand, and if you are unaware then...

uhlmann i think was just about the best french defense player, you know what he stated once after losing a game to karpov "I will never play the french defense again!)

I'd never advance the c pawn, much rather exchange it.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

Well, considering the kings are castled on different sides...perhaps an attack on white's kingside?

I know very little about the French though, I'm learning the Tarrasch..

Another good book on the French (out of print) is Psakhis's The Complete French.

That position looks strange. What happened to the black c-pawn?

Basically the comment on the need for a f-pawn break is thematically correct. There are two main breaks against white's center: c5 & f6. If both are gone, you have a passive & cramped position.

Very good books out there on French.Moskalenko's 2 books , Flexible French and Wonderfull Winawer are among the best.

Ullman's book is also very good.Watson's  book(play the French) is  good but not really necessary , avoid it unless you are a collector

The book that you will find very helpfull is Dangerous Weapons:The French as it deals with very interesting lines that others don't bother.All lines in this book can become very good surprise weapons.Half of the book though is for white.

A few quick thoughts on the above position before I have to rush off to work:

The center is locked so play will be on the wings.
It looks like White has a slight edge.
Your likely one pawn break, if the time is right, is probably with f6.
White might be looking to play for a c4 break.
With your pawns being on light squares, your light-squared bishop is your "bad" bishop, and you should look to exhchange it if you can.
Likewise with your opponent's light-squared bishop.  That's his good bishop, and so try to take this if you can.
Your pawn on b3 actually looks like a weakness to me... I think it's too far advanced and now needs to be defended by pieces.  If you can, I'd try to advance the a pawn to a4, to help defend it, if White allows you to do that.
Normally when castling Queenside, against a King that has castled Kingside, you will want to storm his kingside with your pawns.

Play White from that position against a strong engine (Houdini, Stockfish, Critter, etc.) and watch carefully what it does and how it beats you.

The French is a lot of fun.  I've had many great games playing the French.

Again avoid books with a lot of theory when starting out. Moskalenko book is interesting and quite good but its a repertiore book much like Wastons book on the french and it tries to provide a specific opening reply. Ulhmann's book is french in general. Psakhis book on the french is good. He also published a french series in the last few years that is quite good too covering the main french variations, they are probably a good follow up after the Winning with the french book. The two will give you more than adquate understanding of french and closed positions.

Is there a certain time limit I should use when playing against a Chess Engine? For example, I use WinBoard and Fruit 2.1. If I were to set up the position and then play against the chess engine, should I set the game up as 5minutes, 10minutes, 15minutes, etc? I'm kind of new to chess engines and am a little bit confused on how to properly use them to analyze positions.

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could answer this question or give me any tips on using chess engines in WinBoard to analyze positions, it's been bugging me for some time now.

A book that may be just what you are looking for is Tactics In The French by Gennady Nesis.  It briefly covers the variations, but goes into the resulting middlegames and deals with middlegame features (undermining, removing defenders, etc.).  IMO, it's actually more of a middlegame book than an opening book--it's just that all the examples come from the French Defense. Hope this helps.

I often find myself doing this:  Rather than actually "play" a game, with the clocks running, I simply set up a position and then jump into analyze mode. 

I don't look at the analysis... I concentrate on the board and make my move against the engine.  I give the engine just a few seconds to analyze the position and then I glance up in the Engine Output pane to see the best move.  I then make that move for the engine myself, on the board. 

Then it's my turn again and the process repeats... I do not look at the analysis, but make my move at my leisure, after studying the position.  Then I give the engine a few seconds to think... etc.

The advantage to this method is that I can think for as long as I want, without my clock running out.  I can take a break and answer the phone or whatever. 

If I were to give myself, say, an hour of time, sure, I'd be fine, but the engine will also have an hour of time, and if it has this much time it will often take a long time to move against me, which is unnecessary.

And another option is to edit your WinBoard ini file and add the option

/firstTimeOdds=2

for example.  What this means is that the first player / engine will have twice as much time as the second player or engine. 

So if your initial time control is set at 10 minutes per game, (/timeControl="10") then Black will have just 5 minites to finish the game.  If you set /firstTimeOdds=3, and your initial time control is 10 minutes, White will have three times as much time, meaning Black will start off with have just 3 minutes and 20 seconds to White's 10 minutes.

Thanks for the answer, it definitely helped clear things up

One of the best books on the French Defense........it is hard to come by but if you can get a copy by all means do so.......