Gambits against the French

Iv been playing the advanced variation against the french and to be honest iv had pretty bad results. Its boring for me so i was wondering is there any gambits against the french to liven it up a bit and give my opponent a fright?

Hhaha I didnt even know they existed. nice one that gives me some stuff to think about! cheers.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nge2 is the Maroczy or Alekhine gambit which seems pretty sound.

1 e4 e6  2 d4 d5  3 Be3  is also a known gambit against the french and ...

1e4 e6  2 Nf3  d5  3 e5 c5  4 b4 .....

Nice. I think im gonna give the Alekhine-Chatard gambit a try, looks interesting.

With 4. Bg5 you have to know what to do against 3..Bb4 and 4..dxe4 (later being the theoretical and GM played move). The Alekhine variation is not an "attack", white wants to cramp black, gain space and create a blockade in the center in return for a pawn.

I have tried all the "anti-french" lines but I found the best way to crack black was to play the topical lines and be happy with your attacking chances.

This is quite a lot of fun if you're a lazy punk (like me) who likes similar "low theory" gambit systems for most vs 1.e4 openings.   The attacking ideas are similar to the BDG and you can even whip this one out (with varying success) against the Caro.

I have played the Wing Gambit ( 1 e4 e6 2 Nf3 d5 3 e5 c5 4 b4) against the French for over 30 years. It has become more popular and people like Watson have some lines that make it more difficult but it is a fun game to play as White

But this is all assuming that black will not only play the classical (3...Nf6), but also that he will play the classical line of the classical (4 Bg5 Be7, but 4...Bb4 and 4...dxe4 are both fine options).

I have never found a good gambit to play against the French, but I think that I might give the Wing's a try.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/damn-the-french-gambit

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/quotdamn-the-french-gambitquot-is-a-killer

The "Orthoschnapp" I believe is the name.  Might as well let everyone know about it and thus neutralize its effectiveness.

When I wanted to beat a friend's French, I went into his favorite line, offered him a choice of two pawns on move 13, let him get into time pressure making difficult decisions, and grabbed the free stuff when he started dropping pieces.

To be honest I don't think white gets very much for the pawn in the wing gambit. It's not like he gets a ton of open lines and his center can still be attacked by a well timed ...f6. Things seem a little more awkward for black, but that's all it seems. I have not faced it many times, but done well against it.

If you want to beat the French, learn it. Black must accept accept some passivity, and it is hard to get his/her pieces active. Then, there's the French cleric, whic is often forced to sit alone and pray for its army. Play active and principled lines and let Black suffer in the bed he/she has made.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5

Principled moves include:

3.Nc3

3.e5

3.Nd2

Other moves are not as good and present Black fewer problems. 3.exd5 is a coward's choice.

The french is one of those openings where for the most part you need to understand it to beat it. None of the gambits even give white the same direct, open attacks that could come out of many double king pawn openings. And the reti gambit has a number of responses, and black should have no trouble being equal and although white has avoided french structures, it comes at the cost of giving black an extremely comfortable position, like in the exchange, so I'd be happy with that.

At the top levels the french is a little less effective because people know how to exploit their space and can to some extent limit the counterplay black normally gets at lower levels. But when I play people, I always have good counterplay and a solid structure, and probably know it much better than they do because of my experience with it.

Personally, I think that gambits are not very good against the French.  You should play positionally to squeeze black. 

My favorite line that has worked wonders for me is

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.b3

I've been playing 3.Nd2 for a while, which is trappy and highly tactical. You won't need a gambit, it's a live-and-die-by-the-sword opening. If Black doesn't like facing 3.Nd2, he won't be playing the French to begin with :).

Elubas, what do you think about the Alekhine Gambit against the Winawer?

You mean 3...Bb4 4 Ne2? I used to decline it with 4...Nc6 (I'm leaning towards playing the classical now after playing the winawer a lot), which gives me a lot of counterplay, but it's interesting to play for both sides. Another problem for 4 Ne2 players is that black can also play ...dxe4 and give the pawn back, making it like a kind of rubinstein variation where Ne2 doesn't make much sense.

For classic game (long time control), the Winawer is not a problem because it is theoretically weak (could be the reason you switch to the more "theoretically correct" classical variation in the higher level, and may switch to other defense once you reach higher level). But at 15/0 to me the Winawer is a big problem, that's why I'm planning to use the Alekhine Gambit, which is more a problem for Black in short time control. The statistics for 4...dxe4 5.a3 is also acceptable. The type of game might be different than the Winawer. French players might not feel at home playing against it. That's just my prediction.

I have had a hard time playing against the French. But I have had a good result with the KIA (with Qe2), may be because I'm a positional player. But from analysis, the KIA tends to give Black the theoretical advantage. But players as good as Alexander Morozevich have employed the KIA in top level. I just want something "strong", especially if I have to play against weak opponents.