French Winawer variations for white

Hello everyone!

Against the winawer, I have been playing the delayed exchange for a very long time. I made that choice because I disliked the mainlines of the winawer for white, and I wanted a more calm low-theory option. Now that I have an official game coming up next week against a player who mostly plays the winawer and I wanted to take the opportunity to practice my knowledge of the opening, and I was wondering if we got any winawer players with recommendations for white.

I usually like offbeat variations, but no insane piece sacrifices that may loose or win the game in 15 moves. I'm completely fine with playing objectively equal positions with white, as long as I got good winning chances.

Here is the delayed exchange variation that I have been playing until this point:

As a long time French player and one that plays 3.Nc3 (along with 3.e5 and 2.d3) against the French as White, I can tell you the precise line to study for White.  It causes me the most problems as Black (many, but not all, French players would say the same thing), and since taking it up as White, I have a perfect record over the board with it.

Do not play the overhyped 7.Qg4.  The answer is 7.h4!  (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 (or 4...Ne7) 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 [or if 4...Ne7, then 6...c5] 7.h4!)

By the way, I should add that I do play the 4...Ne7 and 6...c5 move order, which makes 5.Bd2 ineffective with ...c5 not played yet (still controlling d6).  Black will often get an improved version of the ...b6 lines after 4...Ne7 5.Bd2?!.  That is another advantage with the 5.a3 and 7.h4 line.  It doesn't matter in that case if Black plays 4...Ne7 and 6...c5 or vice versa.

It will require thorough study, but if you put the effort in, and I mean serious effort, not 5 minutes of skimming pages, you will get really good results with it.  But you have to know what you are doing because many lines often do require White to give up a pawn.

I should also add that the Jackal (6.Bg5?! in the Two Knights French) is no longer any good for White.  They have figured out that line and it's ineffective for White.  Now-a-days, pretty much the only acceptable move for White in the Two Knights is 6.dxc5.  I would still recommend the 7.h4 line instead though.  Much more of a problem for Black.

if you want something spicier but still with the relative safety of the exchange variation play, the exchange winawer with 5.qf3!?

Thank you for spending some time for this!

I was not aware of h4 lines without playing Qg4 first, will definitely check it out! As I wrote above, I disliked the "mainline"/poisoned pawn variation, but I can really see that h4-h5 to provoke h6, gives Qg4 a bigger punch.

I will do some research on this line and try it in my following games to see how it scores.

Also, an interesting move order to avoid Bd2 lines. I don't know if I think white looks bad even after your line though. But I admit that it looks much better for black than the alternative.

As for the two knights; yeah, as long as black does not try to punish white early, he looks better in my eyes. Although dxc5 looks interesting enough (not aware of that move either), I think I got better options as you mentioned above.

I was not aware that Qf3 was a move. Looks more aggressive, preparing long castle, but the d4 pawn gets weak. Deserves some attention! 

It is not like 4...Ne7 5.Bd2 is a blunder, but it is ineffective because of 5...b6!

The d6-square remains covered and 6.Nb5 lacks all punch.  After 4...c5 5 Bd2, Black has to take time to play 5...Ne7 so that he can castle.  It is an improved version of the 4...Ne7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 b6, which is better for White.  Here, without giving White the Bishop pair, there is less of an urgency to attack White's center and instead looks to trade LSB's.

Here is an example, which I annotated.  It is not perfect, but it gives you an idea of the play involved.

White's 10th and 21st and Black's 30th moves are errors.  As noted in the analysis, leave out the h6 gxh6 part and you have a line that has been played before almost 20 moves deep, and it was a game that White won (White was better to begin with in that position).

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/a-very-strange-game

This game was played over the board in late March, time control G/60, Inc/5.

Oh okay. Yeah after b6 you probably should not go Nb5 if black does not lash out an early c5. 

Interesting game! Looked really complicated with lots of different possibilities. Must have had a good time playing it!

With that being said I will do some further analysis on both Bd2 and an early h4 to see which one I like more. But yeah, your move order is probably objectively better, but having checked the database, Im not sure how many below master level players would play b6 in practice. The h4-line looks very attractive on a quick look though!

I do not know how long it will be until published, but if you go to the Thinkers Publishing website, and go to "Expected" and scroll across, there is a blue cover book coming out on beating the winawer with 7.h4.

I will definitely be getting this book, and suggest you do to.

Of course, I also have the vast majority of French books for Black as well, but you would just need the one book mentioned since I assume you only play the White side of the French Defense.