The Exchange French

I started playing the french defense awhile ago, and fell in love with the opening. It was my first choice opening after I got passed the beginner e4,e5 openings, and I just have so much fun with all kinds of french defense.

However, one variation that is the most irritating is the exchange french. I played an OTB tournament the other day and every time I played the french they played the exchange. The Exchange french has a HUGE draw rate. In the game explorer, the draw rates after exd,exd are 50%. I was playing this guy and he did the exchange, and then just shuffled his pieces around aimlessly until he ran his time down on his clock. The other guy played the exchange, but missed a tactic, or it was going to look like a similar situation.

I wouldn't normally mind a draw as black, but being on par with class A players, I kind of expected more fighting. Is there a line in the exchange french where black has more than just drawing chances?

Also, who are these white players that willingly go into heavy drawish openings? I'm quite the positional player, but it seems like there is almost no life in the exchange french

You don't have to develop your minors symmetrically as your opponent.  Castle queenside if white castles kingside.  Just make the game imbalanced and it won't be so drawish.

I ended up switching to the Sicilian.  The pawn structure is similar in a few variations, including the Najdorf.

If you want to stick to the French, I recently came across the line 3.exd5 Qxd5.  Unlike in the Scandinavian, you can meet Nc3 with Bb4, so white can't kick the queen so easily.  Overall, white comes out with a small advantage, but the pawn structure allows for counterplay.  It may be worth trying out.

Or you can cancel to the Queenside withthe white pieces...this is what i prefer, f.e.

You can castle long in the exchange but there is a strategy to Black's development that allows this. I think you should watch some games to learn about it. Even in the Winawer exchange with Bb4 and Bxc3 it is possible. There's a famous game Alekhine played in New York in which he castled queenside and noted that the open b-file wouldn't be decisive.

I think e5 should really take on d6

OP I suggest you study games of GM Volkov(a french defense expert) against the exchange, they are instructive.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=42782

Also I suggest you study his games(not only the exchange) to improve the way you handle french defense.

Ive done some study on this, and black can get an advantage by playing moves like c6, Bg4, Nbd7 and Qc7. 

Ive seen a lot of 14-1500's play the move Bg5, pinning the knight to the Queen and the pawn on d5, but c6 covers everything. Am I missing something important?

Isn't that the definition of the French defense?

Looks like 3. Qxd5 isn't so bad.

French Exchange throws away Black's bad bishop.

Right now,if you hate the draw rate,just try to spice things up by playing a bit of aggression via opposite side castling and start doing flank attacks to break white.

It's not a difficult variation for black,honestly and it's just matter of experience at this point since most theories are thrown out. 

The position obtained after the exchange show equality. Maybe,see a few games from Kasparov cause I recall he might have played the variation as white. See from white's point of view and counter that view.

exchange french = draw. problem solved. btw with white dont play e4 and with black dont play the french. both bad.

In the time since my previous comment, I've found that 3.exd5 Qxd5 leaves black at risk of entering an inferior Scandinavian, for example if white castles before playing Nc3.  It is interesting to note that while the standard 3.exd5 exd5 has a draw rate of 57.7% in ChessTempo's database (out of 4897 games where both players were rated 2200+), black actually scores better at 23% win for black vs. 19.2% win for white.  Probably this is psychological - white likely isn't looking for a win while black is, so naturally black is more likely to gain an inititive than white.  It is also possible that white's "extra tempo" places him in a subtle sort of zugzwang.  For example, an early Bd3 gives black a good opportunity to play ...c5 since the bishop is not well placed in the resulting IQP position (I believe that was stated by John Watson in Play the French, 4th Edition).

I usually play the Sicilian Kan now, but I still play the French on occasion and often see the Exchange by transposition when white plays c3.  In the latter case, I'll often play ...Qxd5 since Nc3 isn't possible, but otherwise I prefer the set-up with ...c6, ...Bd6, ...Qc7, ...Nd7.  I usually go with the king's knight to f6 and aim for ...Ne4 - if they trade it imbalances the pawn structure, while otherwise I have a strong knight and am well placed to attack kingside (all the better if white played f4 already, since now he can't shoo the knight away while ...f6 is still an option for me).  ...f5 is an idea to support this, but I hesitate to play it since it leaves e5 for white's knight.  I know someone who prefers ...Ne7.  I don't know much about his gameplan besides meeting Bg5 with ...f6, but I imagine following up with ...Ng6 fits well with my standard play - ...f5 can be played safely since Ne5 can be met with ...Nxe5.  Black already has a lot of stuff hitting e5, so white will have difficulty setting a knight on that square.

Bottom line, the Exchange is not an instant draw - it just leaves it to the players to decide how to imbalance the game, whereas the other French lines have obvious imbalances built-in like white's kingside space advantage.

However black gets a free tempo by playing h6, pushing back the bishop. Black can then target white's pawn on h2 later, forcing h3. Surely something is better than a dead draw?

Black loses a tempo after dxc5 though, how is this an advantage?

I have good news for u, exchange french usually leads to win for black.

Why?

1 : usually, white player using it doesnt know what to do against french, wants to simplify, without knowing what to do next... U can be sure he will not play very good...

2 : Sometimes White plays exchange for a draw, mistake again, playing for a draw is the best way to lose, because u will play passive and usually the best way is to play active...

3 : Symmetrical position ok, but here, white cannot benefit from it being the first player. Bad news for him/her, Black can react according white's move and black can chose a system who will breaks symmetry. For instance 3.Bd3 c5 is interesting, but 3...Nc6 is also nice, same thing on 3.Nf3 Bd6 or Bg4 pining.

And there must be other good reasons why u dont have to fear this variation. When i used to play french as Black, I think I almost won all my games in this variation, but thats mainly because my opp were less rated than me, so the 1st point applied but the other points also then.

The only dangerous try in my opinion is 3.c4, playing an isolani structure, so an inbalanced game, but then again, u will have good chance to win.

To sum up, when i saw my opponnents taking on d5, i didnt say "oh no, will be a draw", i'd rather said "oh yes, an easy game for me!".

Simon Williams made a good video on it some days ago on chess.com :

http://www.chess.com/video/player/why-simon-loves-the-french-the-exchange-aka-the-groan-variation

I think you misread my post.  I meant ...c5 in response to white playing Bd3.  Black would lose a tempo if he had played ...Bd6, but that isn't the case.  The likely line to look at would be 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bd3 c5

thanks am just getting familiar with the ins and outs of the French defense, and its good to bounce ideas off better players