The Anti-French

Interesting game - your opponent certainly did mess up with the middle-game and you made him pay. I've tried 2.f4 against the French myself a few times - but my opponents have always continued with 2...c5, so I transposed into the Grand Prix. The Kenilworth Chess Club website has a few example games on their site if you're interested in looking further into it.

The real anti-French:

Arctor has it. there is nothing a french player hates more than 3. exd5 ... *rageface*

I have played the French for a long time and these anti-French ideas are not bad. And, because they are not very usual, they can catch the French player off guard. 2. b3, 2. f4, 2. c4 and 2. Qe2 are not to be taken lightly.

And, from experience, I can tell you that the Exchange variation is nothing to be feared. White blows out the central tension on move 3 and usually drifts into the middlegame, because he thinks he's entitled to an easy draw. I seldom see these end in draws.

Most good french players love when white plays the exchange. Why not? they are gifted a good game on move 3, and even if it's not the sort of position they wanted, nobody can really find difficult to play such a simple simmetrical position. As far as i know a common topic for conversation among french defense players is to boast about how huge their plus score is against the exchange.

so symmetry = equality? then why isnt the petroff the most common defense? because its BORING x) although i agree that yes the exchange likely still favours black as the french player probably has way more experience in this particular symmetrical position than white, however i'd rather lose a game than play a boring game. honestly. *and my rating suffers but so what?* 

edit: thought i'd comment on the actual topic of this thread- 2. f4, doesnt this typically just transpose into a steinitz french? doesnt seem too troublesome.

No, simmetrycal positions can range from dead equal to much better for one side. In the exchange french not much is going on and so the extra move is pretty worthless. In the petroff there are 2 pawns en prise and the prospects of an early clasch between the two forces, so it's natural to expect that the side with the move might have some prospects of an advantage. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c5?! instead the position is symmetrical but quite sharp and it's natural to expect quite some advantage for white. To sum it up the only certainty in a symmetrical position is that black is not better :)

@melvin well yes, but sometimes thats unavoidable yes?

@bresando i was making an absurd statement to question hammerschlag's claim the exchange french equals instant equality.

Another intriguing anti-French is the Chigorin variation: 2. Qe2

http://www.chessvibes.com/columns/chigorins-queen-move

I have written a few articles on this opening, beginning with this one:

http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/games/java/2009/french-f4.htm

If you like positions that come out of the Advance Variation of the French but you are looking for something off-beat, it makes for a fun occasional try.  As a repertoire choice, it helps if you also play the Grand Prix Attack, especially with 1.e4 c5 2.f4, as then you have a very coherent repertoire where you can transpose back and forth between the two openings, after for instance 1.e4 e6 2.f4 c5!? 3.Nf3 Nc6 (the Grand Prix) or 1.e4 c5 2.f4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.e5 (the McDonnell French).  The main problem with this is you have to have a way to deal with 1.e4 c5 2.f4 d5! -- which I discussed recently:

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2011/12/bryntse-faj-gambit.html

i usally play french as black and thanks to you i need to watch out for this gambit,   it looks good for white

thanks

Usually if I feel that my opponent is going to play the French, I pull out a few knights then lock my pawns in the Advance Variation, using the knights to defend them.

Based on intuition alone, f4 seems dubious to me. If I annotated a game with 1.e4 e6 2.f4, I would mark f4 with a ?!. If you had a knight developed or a bishop at Bc4, I would perhaps mark it with a !? because then it wouldn't be so weak and might even lead to interesting complications.

The one good thing about f4 is the psychology factor; I doubt any French Defence player would bother researching or analysing f4.

ere

Melvin - if you're looking for a strong gambit line coming out of the Tarrasch, I recommend the Korchnoi Gambit...