Wow, you've gone to some effort with that - much appreciated. I've tried getting into the Winawer main lines with Qg4 in my internet games, but nobody seems keen on playing ball, so these alternative lines will be very useful.
This is the variation that crops up most often.
I think I'm ready to play the waiting game now. A bit off topic I know, but I find that player's development follows the same path the world over - start off with a wild gambit attitude, gradually refine it but want to always win in style (which is why there are so many complaints about 'boring' openings like the Caro kann), and finally realise that winning in a crushing manner is actually just as satisfying as sacrificing all your pieces. I think I'm somewhere between the latter two.
this line isnt restricted to the Nc3 french by the way heh, notice that black can also do this against the tarrasch.
That would make perfect sense and explain why I'm seeing it so often. From the Black point of view it has cut down the need to have to learn two seperate lines, albeit at the expense of being slightly worse off.
5. Bd3 is probably better than NxN (no reason to give him a useful queen developing move for free)
Hmm, theory seems to disagree. ...Nd7 is more often than ...Nf6 specifically BECAUSE black doesn't want to recapture with the queen, as it is exposed to Nf3 and Bg5. Nxf6+ scores outstanding against 4...Nf6 for white.
Can anybody who plays the French give me an idea of any common mistakes white makes so I can avoid them please? I know about not trading off his light squared bishop if I can help it, but is there anything else that makes a french player's life easy in the 3 Nc3 line?