Why Is the French so annoying?
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So, umm... I've been wondering why many chess players seem to hate playing the French defense as white. I've seen quite a few people rage while playing the French as white and I can't seem to understand why. Perhaps because I also play it as black I don't seem to understand this aspect of the French. It seems perfectly good for white and I don't know what causes people to think this way about the French. In any case it serves as a good psychological weapon against players but could someone help me understand this???
Tjay23 wrote:
So, umm... I've been wondering why many chess players seem to hate playing the French defense as white. I've seen quite a few people rage while playing the French as white and I can't seem to understand why. Perhaps because I also play it as black I don't seem to understand this aspect of the French. It seems perfectly good for white and I don't know what causes people to think this way about the French. In any case it serves as a good psychological weapon against players but could someone help me understand this???
What do they say? You must have some examples if "so many" people rage.
I think it mainly applies to the Winawer variation. This is quite hard to play as White. After 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7, playing normal developing moves like Nf3 a4 Bd2 Be2/d3 0-0 doesn't lead anywhere. White has no obvious plan to make progress and no good pawn break (sometimes White tries c4 after Qa5 but it doesn't solve the problems either), while the position optically looks great because of the huge space advantage in the center, so this is quite frustrating. White then has to play more risky or weird looking moves like 7. Qg4 or 7. h4 and this kind of play is not for everyone...
Thnx I know the winnawer leads to crazy and insane positions that are hard to evaluate but even in like mainline Nf6 or Tarrasch white has a huge space advantage and control over the center so I'm not sure why players with white feel frustrated...
No idea. I hated to deal with the Winawer but I loved the Steinitz-Boleslavsky variation as White (3... Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3). There are many options there for both sides and this vaguely looked like a Sicilian gone wrong for Black after cxd4 Nxd4 so that was encouraging.
Mar 21, 2020
0
#6
notmtwain wrote:
Tjay23 wrote:
So, umm... I've been wondering why many chess players seem to hate playing the French defense as white. I've seen quite a few people rage while playing the French as white and I can't seem to understand why. Perhaps because I also play it as black I don't seem to understand this aspect of the French. It seems perfectly good for white and I don't know what causes people to think this way about the French. In any case it serves as a good psychological weapon against players but could someone help me understand this???
What do they say? You must have some examples if "so many" people rage.
I actually hear the same thing. There are even people at the club I play at that hate facing it. One player I know there hates it so much because he always wants an open position with the possibility of cheap shot tactics. He doesn't have the patience (or knowledge if you ask me) to play blocked positions.
He actually hates playing White against me because he knows that I know what to do against his 1.Nc3 tricks that he tries occasionally (he got me once in a Caro-Kann with 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 c6 3.Qf3 in something like 20 moves, but never again after that did he win with a cheapo - he has won against me since as we have faced about 20 times over the board), and unlike the past against e4 where I'd play 1...g6 against him, I now answer 100% of the time with 1...e6, and he can't stand the boredom of 3...dxe4 (I seem to recall drawing the one time I played him in this line, but he did miss a win), can't get his Milner-Barry Gambit to ever work against me, either in its pure form, or some alternative garbage like the second game in the following article:
http://charlottechesscenter.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-french-connection-volume-9.html
He has, since finally given in and going with more mainstream lines against me, beaten my French once - a McCutcheon with 6.Be3, but it still annoys him to all ends of the earth to get White against me. He'd rather play his Alekhine or Leningrad Dutch against me with myself having White.
So yes, there are players exactly like those that the OP describes. This player is in his mid-to-late 50s, but I see it a lot more with kids that don't have the patience to play a game that is not as wild as the Max Lange Attack, and it bores them, and they slip up a lot.
Of course, I'm speaking for long time controls over the board, not the 5-minute garbage you play on the internet.