best variations to play against french defence

hey guys 

need some help on what you should play against french thanks

If you want to hurt Frenchers, the exhange is right. But.. don't.

I found 2.d3 annoying when I played the French Defense.

I used to play Qe2 against it but after a number of Otb defeats i have stopped and am thinking of playing the advance

I'm curious about what this comment means. I know French players hate the Exchange Variation because it's so drawish, but what do you mean by "hurt"? Do you mean "annoy", or rather "beat"? And why do you say not to play it? Because it's so drawish?

The Qe2 Variation has an interesting idea but black has a bunch of ways to give white no advantage. He can even play 2...d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qd8 with the idea of playing 5...c5 where the queen on e2 is misplaced because it does not support the d-pawn and therefore white cannot play 5. d4.

I think the best place to start learning about the French defence is with the Advance variation. Once, you have got the hang of Black's ideas about attacking pawn chains at the base and the head of the pawn chain then try something else. You will also find a number of  the themes present in the Advance variation also occur in other variations.

Alternatively, try the Tarrasch, it is a lot less theory heavy than Nc3 and thus may be viewed as more suitable to your rating. Nc3 may lead to the Classical, Winawer, and Rubenstein. It White then does not fancy the Classical but would rather the more tactical Alekhine-Chatard attack then White will need to consider the McCutcheon , the Burn variation as well as the Alekhine-Chatard accepted and declined.

I usually play 2. d3 and then 3. Qe2.

Qe2 is just not a very good move IMO. 

3.Nc3 is White's Strongest.

3.e5 is a close second.  (Originally thought to be as benign as the Exchange, but many new ideas for White that are very strong came about around 2006/2007)

3.exd5 and 3.Nd2 are utter crap and give White nothing.  Easy Equality for Black in both cases.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2?! c5!! and now:

A) 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 and White is stuck playing the Korchnoi Gambit instead of main line closed Tarrasch, which White has nothing with correct play by black.

B) 4.exd5 exd5! and now:

B1) 5.Bb5+ Bd7! 6.Qe2+ Be7! 7.dxc5 temporarily wins a pawn, but again, with correct play, Black will eventually get the pawn back and White has no advantage.

B2) 5.Nf3 Nf6! (FAR SUPERIOR to the old 5.Nc6?! 6.Bb5 Bd6 7.dxc5 Bxc5+/=) 6.Bb5+ Bd7 and again White has Nada!

1.d4

@ThrillerFan You are a very strong player and I recall that you used to play the French. What do you believe is white's strongest line against the Winawer if white wants to play 3. Nc3? I am looking at maybe switching from 3. Nd2 to 3. Nc3, and I have some good lines against 3...Nf6, but I am not sure what to play against black's more dynamic option.

"Stuck playing the korchnoi gambit," almost the soundest gambit in chess.

Maybe he just says Nd2 is horrible because he is bad against it.

You will occasionally see me bad mouthing the french defense around these forums, but this is really just because I do poorly against it.

I play the french, and nd2 gives me the most trouble.

I completely agree with ThrillerFan's list, the Tarrash and the exchange are only good enough for a draw, your best bets are the Paulsen or advanced.

What kind of position do you want or are good at? You can get fixed pawns, isolated pawns, advance centers, kingside attacks, queenside castling, and probably some other stuff. It's not going to be useful to play the "best line" and not know what to do.

I Have played both sides of the French Defence OTB, but now I stopped doing it with the black pieces. I also play the Tarrash against the French and think this is the strongest idea. Also I hated meeeting the Tarrasch with the black pieces, whereas, I loved when they played 3.e5 or 3.Nc3. After 3.e5 or 3.Nc3 the theory went on for many moves and I usually equalized comfortably. Tarrasch, on the other hand, was the reason I gave up the french.

This is where you lack an understanding in the position.  It's not all just about blocking the isolated queen's pawn.

You need to understand how to execute IQP positions.  In the line with Nc6, both the Knight and the Dark-Squared Bishop are misplaced.  Black's knight should not be fighting for control of d4 and e5 (via sitting on c6).  Black's key squares that he controls are c4 and e4, not e5 and d4.

After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 (A knight on d2 versus a pawn on d5 is not a good combination for White) c5! 4.exd5 exd5 5.Ngf3 Nf6! 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Bxd7+ Nxd7 (This is where the Knight belongs in these lines, headed for c5 and eventually e4, NOT c6) 8.O-O Be7 (Not 8...Bd6, as in the ...Nc6 lines) 9.dxc5 Nxc5 10.Nb3 Nce4

This is the main line of the 5...Nf6 variation.  Notice how far better placed Black's Knights are as opposed to c6 (which is 4 moves away from e4) and f6.  Both White Knights are 4 moves away from d5.  While they can block the pawn, they can't attack it, giving Black 2 major launching points at c4 and e4.

Also, it takes two weaknesses to overwork the Black pieces, but here, unlike in the 5...Nc6 lines, Black's idea is that you can't attack d5 very well anyway, so instead of trying to cover d5 and play for a draw, Black plays for more figuring you have no good way to attack d5 anyway, so Black takes on the typical attacking ideas in IQP play, despite the 1-move deficit compared to openings where White gets the IQP.

Black has equalized here.  This position has occurred 281 times in the database on ChessTempo.com.  The average rating for White is 2470, and the average performance by White here is 2446 (below par for White).  The average score for White in chess is 54%.  White is scoring 50.9% across the 281 games.  Again, White should not be satisfied with this at all!

3.Nc3 and 3.e5 (only factoring games 2007-onward when the new ideas for White came about) are both stronger.

Again, @ThrillerFan do you have a recommendation for white against the Winawer for someone who might be trying to learn 3. Nc3?